Suffolk County in New York has created the nation’s first animal abuse registry in a county, and they require people convicted of animal abuse to register, or otherwise go to jail and pay hefty fines.

This is an online list that will be accessible by the public, so everyone can find out if an offender lives in their area. Kudos to Suffolk County for being the first county in the US to enact this very important listing, which will serve as a great tool to local animal law enforcers and concerned citizens who want to make sure animal abusers don’t get another chance to get away with harming an animal!

A very good online resource to report and track animal abusers is the independently run http://www.pet-abuse.com/, which was created by Alison Gianotto in 2001. Alison witnessed the death of her friend’s cat Bert, who succumbed to 3^rd degree burns and kidney failure after an abuser stole her and set her on fire. This prompted Alison to create the presently most accurate and complete animal abuser database in the USA, which now lists 16,034 abuse cases around the country.

The database for pet-abuse.com, which gets millions of hits each month, comes from everywhere – from public witnesses, law enforcement, animal control, and media reports. Each case is approved by pet-abuse.com members before going online, and this vast animal abuse case database now serves as vital tool for the public, researchers, law enforcement, lawyers on animal abuse cases, and many others. The lists also include interactive maps that allow to check a certain area, and to find out if abuse cases are a one-off or serious problem in that neighborhood.

Legislation for an animal abuse registry was also introduced in California as SB 1277 for votes, but the bill is stuck since May 2010. While it is a step in the right direction, the currently presented California bill would burden pet owners with the cost of the database maintenance, which many people are opposed to.

An official federal database on animal abusers should exist, similar to those of sex offenders and child abusers. It would overrule weak state legislation on animal abuse that some states have, and would officially establish some animal cruelty cases as heinous, violent crimes against helpless sentient beings, which are punishable by federal law.

While such a federal bill is currently only wishful thinking – and would probably have vague loopholes and industry-interest exemptions that are longer than the bill itself – we can only hope that one day, the US will finally catch up with the EU and recognize the status of animals (including fish) as sentient beings. This will be a big step into the direction of better protecting non-human animals from violence and cruelty.

In the meantime we should salute the tireless team of pet-abuse.com and contribute as much as we can to their growing database; so that animal abusers in our areas can face the penalties they deserve and are kept away from domestic and wild animals for good!

Sources:

• http://www.animalsheltering.org/resource_library/magazine_articles/jul_aug_2006/cataloging_cruelty.html
• http://www.pet-abuse.com/

About the author: Ina Mohan is founder of Belsandia

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Sections: Vegan Activism, Vegan News
Topics: animal abuse, animal abuse registry, crime, law, pet abuse, politics, suffolk county, websites