According to the Kingsport Times-News: Hawkins County Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating the death of a kitten. The kitten, which belonged to Dana Campbell of Church Hill, had allegedly been tortured and killed with fireworks last Sunday.
The Times quoted Hawkins County Sheriff Roger Christian as saying:
[...]this is a heinous crime, and we want to get to the bottom of it.”
Detectives are scheduled to interview three “persons of interest,” one being a juvenile, in connection with the case.
Apprehending the murderers of a small fluffy animal might not seem high-priority, but I am pleased Sheriff Christian is taking the issue seriously.
The case isn’t exclusively about loss of pet or property – or animal cruelty. The violent connotations indicate a lack of empathy, instability and a need to exert control over smaller defenseless beings. These are all attributes, which law enforcement officials may want to note for future reference.
According to a 1997 study conducted by Northeastern University, animal abusers are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people and four times more likely to commit property crimes than are individuals without a history of animal abuse.In 2002, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) released Animal Abuse and Youth Violence, a report on the psychiatric, psychological, and criminological research linking animal abuse to juvenile- and adult perpetrated violence. It addressed the challenge of defining animal abuse and examined the difficulty of deriving accurate incidence and prevalence data for this behavior.
Additionally, it explored the relationships between animal abuse and conduct disorder, analyzed the motives of animal abusers, and considers the contexts that may lead to the emergence of animal abuse as a symptom of
psychological disorder.
In short, people abuse animals for the same reasons they abuse people. Some of them will stop with animals, but enough have been proven to continue on to commit violent crimes against people that the link is too strong to ignore.
*Update two juveniles have been charged with aggravated animal cruelty in connection with this case
