Ask Congress to AVERT Future Violence Against Animals and People Dear John,
Time and time again, we learn that individuals who have committed violent acts against others--whether a spouse, a parent, or the 21 schoolchildren and teachers gunned down this year in Uvalde, Texas--also have a history of abusing animals. Policymakers at all levels of society have been thinking more strategically about ways to protect both people and animals. With strong bipartisan support, the Animal Violence Exposes Real Threat of (AVERT) Future Violence Act (H.R.8659 and S.4743) has been introduced to address this relationship between animal abuse and human violence.
The AVERT Future Violence Act will do the following: - It commissions a definitive study within the US Department of Justice to assess the link between acts of animal cruelty and future acts of violence against others.
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It authorizes an annual grant program to support law enforcement, courts, and other eligible organizations (e.g., those that work directly with or on behalf of pets) in their efforts to prevent and stop animal cruelty and rehabilitate offenders.
Animal abuse occurs in communities across the country. It is a serious crime on its own, but there is also a significant link between acts of cruelty toward animals and violence against humans. In one study, 70 percent of the convicted animal abusers whose records were reviewed had committed at least one other crime, and almost 40 percent of that group had committed a violent crime.
That same study found that the animal abusers were five times more likely to commit violent crimes than were non-abusers. This link has been substantiated by study after study and is so strong that in 2016 the FBI began collecting data specifically on animal abuse as part of its National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). |