Working to amend Utah's animal cruelty laws

Testimonial

I am writing this to share my personal experience of working with perpetrators of violence (against humans, ultimately) who were remanded to therapy by the courts. I worked with clients both in prison half way houses and in community programs. Part of the work involves understanding the abuse cycle. This is the repeating cycle which leads to violent acting out on a regular basis. And here is the part that applies to animal torture and cruelty: time after time, as clients were working to understand their behavior, they shared that their violence had begun with cruelty to animals. Sometimes a trusting family pet, sometimes a helpless stray, but always a creature that could not defend itself. Domestic animals are at the mercy of humans. They do not belong to us, but are in our care. By making animal torture and abuse a felony, we not only have the power to protect helpless nonhuman animals, we also may intervene in a person's life in a way that will proactively address the problem of violence against defenseless humans---primarily women and children. I find myself puzzled at the defensive response of our legislators. I know from my work that a lack of compassion and empathy for animals also generalizes to humans. It is that I find most disturbing when I see the resistance to Henry's law.

Kristy Bartley, Ph.D.
 

 

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