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Eleven U.S. states have pending animal abuse registry legislation:
Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and the Columbine High School shooters are among the infamous criminals who had a history of hurting animals before they went on to target humans, a tendency that's part of what's behind a movement to create public online registries of known animal abusers.
New York is among 11 states with animal abuse registry bills pending in their legislatures, following Tennessee, which started its in 2016 along with a growing number of municipalities in recent years, including New York City, and the counties that include Chicago and Tampa, Florida.
"Animal abuse is a bridge crime," said the sponsor of New York's bill, Republican state Sen. Jim Tedisco, who noted that Nikolas Cruz, accused of killing 17 people in the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting on Feb. 14, reportedly also had a history of shooting small animals.
While the main goal of collecting names of convicted animal abusers is to prevent them from being able to adopt or purchase other animals, registry backers say such lists could also be a way to raise red flags about people who may commit other violent crimes ranging from domestic violence to mass shootings. But some animal welfare advocates, mostly notably the ASPCA, question how effective they can really be.
[Ed's Comment - Original link unreliable, so I have added additional links]
Additional Sources:
- http://www.vmdtoday.com/news/animal-abuser-registry-legislation-sought-stalled
- https://www.navs.org/state-animal-abuser-registries-proposed-2018/
- http://www.ladbible.com/news/animals-news-us-states-and-counties-are-registering-animal-abuse-like-sex-offences-20180218
- https://nhes.org/animal-abuser-registries/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 05 2018, @09:19PM
There's hope. At least in my state (Colorado) the most problematic cases were removed. Two that come to mind are public urination, which won't get you on the list, and indecent exposure, which now requires "sexual intent". So flashing people on the street corner can put you on the list, but streaking at a college football game or participating in a nude protest won't. And people who were on the list for such things can petition to be taken off.
I actually spent quite a bit of time looking through the registry recently (last Halloween, when the media always makes a big deal about it) and was a little surprised. First, by just how many people are on it. It seems like almost every block has a sex offender. Second by the fact that just about everyone on the registry seems to belong there. It's mostly stuff like sexual assault and a surprising amount of incest, with plenty of statutory rape and child pornography in for good measure. Legal incest isn't the same as biological incest and there might be a portion of those people who don't really belong there, but aside from that, it seemed like it was appropriate.