Acts of animal cruelty are now being counted alongside felon crimes such as arson, assault and homicide. In a press release today the FBI stated crimes against animals will be entered into it’s NIBRS (National Incident Base Reporting System) therefore collecting data for law enforcement agencies. Statistics from these crimes will be available next year.
The move to include this into the NIBRS was supported by animal rights groups and heavily pushed y the National Sheriff’s Association. Animal cruelty is considered a precursor to more serious crimes, now law enforcement can see more than just convictions when it comes to animal cruelty, once investigated the officer will have access to the history of abuse regardless of criminal convictions. Currently in Lawrence County, animal abuse can be both a felony or misdemeanor charge depending on the incident and severity.
This NIBRS reporting system links some 18,000 law enforcement agencies with the same information. The majority of animal abuse receiving media coverage in our area would be the “puppy mill†activity, many of these breeders simply move their operations across county lines or state lines leaving their records or lack of behind, now incident reports go into data bases and if investigated in another area or state the record will be available.
The National Sheriff’s Association’s position on the data base is it provides a link for investigators to be proactive toward other more serious crimes saying that animal abusers have been linked to murderers, rapist, child abusers and ever serial killers.