Animal Abuse Registry

[Luddly Neddite]

Animal Abuse Registry Created To Track Convicted Offenders

An animal rights group is creating a nationwide database of animal abusers after a decade of asking states governments to do so. But not all animal welfare societies are on board.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund of Cotati, Calif. plans to create a “Do Not Adopt” registry in hopes of alerting adoption centers of convicted animal abusers. The group is asking for that public data from states, many of which told the ALDF that creating a registry was too expensive for them. Now, states will merely have to opt in to the database.

Reservations About the Animal Abuse Registry - Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation

Cause and Effect - Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation

Those of us immersed in animal protection know of these connections. And these ideas were elegantly knitted together in Barbara Cook Spencer's essay in last Friday’s edition of The Christian Science Monitor. Spencer writes:

Much as bullies demoralize themselves when they dominate or ride roughshod over those who are meek, vulnerable, or defenseless, it should be obvious that human beings are the ones demoralized by the commission of inhumane acts.

I've touched on this argument before. But it bears repeating. Cruelty is indivisible, and when we do harm to animals, that's just one manifestation of how this behavior erodes the fabric of a civil society.

As much as I would like to see abusers identified, I think this could be a slippery slope.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Punishing animal abusers is never a slippery slope.

 

[longknife]

I think it's awesome. People who abuse animals should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.