Animal Abuser Registries and Redemption

The Animal Legal  Defense Fund has launched a new program to help states create public registries for animal abusers. The registries would protect animals and communities by preventing repeat offenses from anyone convicted of felony animal abuse. The first-ever bill for a statewide registry was announced today in California.

As someone who is involved in animal rescue and adoption, I would love to have the security of knowing whether potential adopters have a history of abuse. If my new neighbor had previously killed his neighbor's dog, I'd want to know that, too. But do animal abuser registries mean that we've given up on rehabilitation and redemption?

There are no forms of animal abuse that can be shrugged off as a technicality. Since animals can't speak out against their abusers, convictions rely on empirical evidence like injuries or malnourishment. The evidence needs to be solid enough that there's little question that the animal's condition could have occurred for any other reason.

The maximum penalties for animal abuse tend to be so light that they're almost a mockery. Just last week, the man who threw his dog Oreo (of the famed Oreo's Law) from the roof of his six-story building was sentenced to six months probation, a job training treatment program, and is banned from owning animals, but not from being around them. ALDF provides several case studies of horrendous acts of animal abuse and the repeated cruelty that followed short sentences.

It's the frequency of repeat offenses that makes the case for registries even stronger. Hoarders are known to relapse almost without fail. Animal abuse is strongly linked to domestic violence and other sociopathic behaviors. Dog fights are known hotbeds criminal activity, with drugs and weapons almost as prevalent as the dogs.

These registries can be an important tool in preventing animal abuse. But legislators need to make sure they're established in a way that helps enforcement instead of stretching the already-thin resources dedicated to animal control and cruelty investigations. They can't take the place of strengthening animal cruelty laws.

Legislators also need to avoid the temptation of getting overzealous in what types of crimes are included. This has been the pitfall of other public registries, like those for sex offenders, which are often criticized for including too many offenses, condemning people for life, and making rehabilitation impossible by ostracizing people. If someone is charged with criminal neglect because he didn't understand what his animal needed, he shouldn't just be lumped together with people who have maimed and tortured animals; there should be an attempt at education and rehabilitation. It's too easy for people to obtain animals not to at least try to rehabilitate them.

Public registries can't exist in a bubble, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't exist. To find out more about how getting a registry in your state, visit ALDF's Expose Animal Abusers website.

Photo credit: tillwe