Letters needed! Harmful Trend Of Fraternity Animal Abuse

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Harmful Trend Of Fraternity Animal Abuse"Group Notes Harmful Trend in Animal Abuse"By The Associated PressExcerpts reprinted for educational purposes only. Fraternity brothers have dropped a puppy off a Mississippi River bridge, beaten a goose to death with a golf club and abandoned an unconscious, intoxicated pig in a park. More recently, Phi Kappa Psi members killed, skinned, burned and ate a raccoon at the University of Georgia.``Animal cruelty is a crime and certainly can't be accepted. Years ago it had to be made clear that rape is a crime,'' said Ann Chynoweth, The Humane Society of the United States' counsel to investigative services. She recently wrote to the North-American Interfraternity Conference, asking it to educate its 350,000 undergraduate members about animal cruelty and its connection to human violence.But Pete Smithhisler, spokesman for the Indianapolis-based conference,

dismissed the idea that animals are in any more danger at fraternity houses than anywhere else. ``No, we don't believe it's a trend,'' he said. ``I'm sure it came to light because it was a fraternity. Do we think that incidents like these happen everywhere? Yeah.''The Humane Society has asked the North-American Interfraternity Conference to add to its expectations for fraternity members some recognition that the humane treatment of animals is part of living with respect for others. Academic integrity, drug and alcohol use, and abuse of human beings and property are already addressed. The fraternity group doesn't plan to add anything about animal cruelty, Smithhisler said. CONTACT:Please send polite comments to the North American Fraternity Conference asking that they take animal abuse seriously by educating its undergraduate members about animal cruelty and its connection to human violence.North American Fraternity

Conference NIC3901 W. 86th St., Suite 390Indianapolis, Indiana 46268-1791Telephone: 317-872-1112 Fax 317-872-1134Email: nic @ nicindy.org (remove 2 spaces)E-Mail Mr. Smithhisler at:

pete @ nicindy.org (remove 2 spaces)

 

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Animal cruelty: warning sign for other violence

 

Thursday, May 3, 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animal cruelty is a warning sign that an individual, particularly a child, could be involved in other violent crimes, says the Humane Society of the United States. Such individuals could pose a risk to family members as well as to the community, the society warns. The Humane Society has released the findings of a year-long study on animal cruelty in the United States as part of its "First Strike Campaign." This educational initiative was launched by the society in 1997 to increase public and professional awareness of the connection between animal cruelty and human violence. Nearly a third of the intentional cruelty cases studied involved actions committed by male teens younger than 18. Many of these cases of cruelty to animals also involved some form of family violence whether domestic violence, child abuse or elder abuse, the researchers found. The Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal protection organization with more than 7 million members, is the first organization to conduct a national study examining the prevalence of human violence as it relates to animal cruelty. Cases studied were drawn from well-documented sources such as media reports and local humane societies. The HSUS compiled information from more than 1,600 cases nationwide that occurred between in the year 2000. Girls and women are rarely responsible for animal cruelty. In the cases studied, 94 percent of intentionally cruel acts to animals were committed by males. Thirty-one percent of the incidents involved perpetrators age 18 and younger. Four percent of those were younger than 12. Family violence was part of 21 percent of the animal cruelty incidents. "The high percentage of male teen-agers perpetrating intentional acts of cruelty against animals, and the large number of cruelty cases in which animal cruelty and family violence coexisted, should be a red flag to anyone concerned about reducing violence in our society," said Claire Ponder, HSUS First Strike campaign manager.

 

 

 

"You don't have to be an animal lover to see that animal cruelty is a warning sign that an individual could be involved in other violent crimes and could pose a risk to family members as well as the larger community," she said. Many criminals, from youngsters responsible for shootings at schools to the most notorious serial killers, have had a history of cruelty to animals before acting violently against people. Brenda Spencer, who opened fire at a San Diego school in 1979, killing two children and injuring nine others, had repeatedly abused cats and dogs, setting their tails on fire. Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler" who killed 13 women, trapped dogs and cats in orange crates and shot arrows through the boxes in his youth. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer impaled the heads of dogs, frogs and cats on sticks. More recently, investigators found that Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, the two teens responsible for the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, mutilated animals. The Federal Bureau of Investigation began to see a connection between cruelty to animals and other violent behavior in the late 1970s, according to agent Alan Brantley, who works in the bureau's behavioral science unit. Agents conducted a study of serial killers and found that most had killed or tortured an animal as children or adolescents. The FBI now uses animal abuse as one of the indicators of possible violent behavior against humans. Special Agent Brantley said: "Animal cruelty is not a harmless venting of emotion in a healthy individual. This is a warning sign that this individual is not mentally healthy and needs some sort of intervention. Abusing animals does not dissipate those violent emotions, it may fuel them."

 

 

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