FBI on animal cruelty

[Pajarita]

It seems they finally made the connection between animal cruelty and sociopathy! It only took them umpteenth years...

http://www.care2.com/causes/the-fbi-is- ... ously.html

[Wolf]

I really don't understand this as the link between animal cruelty and violent crime has been documented way before anything listed in this article. Hell I remember studying about it back in 1974 and knew about it long before then.

[Pajarita]

I KNOW!!! One would think that they would have been keeping track since then, right? But, I think the main problem is that animal cruelty was not really punished or even looked down upon until recently -not that they do that much better now as it's usually nothing but a slap on the wrist! But, until relatively recently, people did not even call the authorities on animal cruelty cases... it wasn't so long ago that people still said: "It's just a dog -cat, rabbit, horse, whatever!" They still say it about birds, don't they? Sheesh, I remember taking my blind cat to the vet after her surgery (we were trying to save one eye, at least) only 20 years ago because she was in such pain that she did not eat and been told they had no pain killers for cats! I had to argue with them so they would give a small dose of anesthesia so she could sleep for a few hours without pain (which, by the way, did the trick). And this is something that everybody should keep in mind for animals that are physically run-down and in pain, it gives the body time to rally without having to fight the constant pain. I learned it from a story by James Herriot, a real life country vet in Yorkshire who wrote wonderful, wonderful stories about his practice and life there.