27.05.02
Lawyer
Seeks Action on Cruel Children as Kickers-to-Killers Evidence Mounts
Children
who torment animals may be more likely to grow up to commit child
abuse, violent assaults and even murder, according to a barrister
who is calling for changes to the law.
Writing
in the latest issue of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wildlife Magazine (28 May 2002), barrister
Noel Sweeney says new studies are expanding on research which proved
a link between early cruelty to animals and serial killing on the
scale of Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and Boston strangler, Albert
De Salvo.
The
evidence is that, while it is extremely rare for the child who kicks
a dog to become a mass murderer, such behaviour signals an alert
to a self-perpetuating vicious circle, where childhood cruelty to
animals, first, mirrors abuse witnessed within the family and, later,
becomes a rehearsal for adult violence. Sweeney says: "We have
begun to realise that cruelty to animals and to humans is a continuum
based on the abuse of the powerless.
In
the United States the connections are taken so seriously they are
now part of FBI procedures, and Congress has just provided funding
to prevent animal cruelty by juveniles, and to counsel young people
who commit it.
Sweeney
uses his Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wildlife Magazine column to argue for similar action
in Britain, to avoid a further escalation in the already-high violence
levels.
As
a starting point, he wants vets to become legally required to report
suspicious injuries to animals. He also says: "There must be
more communication between the police, probation workers, doctors
and social workers to identify children who abuse animals, because
within such troubled minds, there lurks the capacity to kill.
Sweeney
adds: "We now have the knowledge that the abuse of animals
and children causes and creates a cycle of cruelty that feeds off
itself. We need the will to change this, so that today's badger-baiter
does not become tomorrow's baby-batterer or wife-beater, or worse.
The blueprint for our future must be to protect animals, and guide
children towards a chain of compassion. Both the problem and the
solution are wholly within human hands."
Notes
to Editors:
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
Wildlife Magazine is Britain's best-selling nature monthly. Noel
Sweeney's opinion piece is published in the June issue, on sale
from 28 May, price Β£2.80p.
Noel
Sweeney is a practising barrister specialising in criminal law,
human rights and animal law. He is happy to give interviews.
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