Do You Hate Animal Abuse? Then You’ll Love What the FBI Is Doing About It!

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.theanimalrescuesite.com/animal-cruelty-felony-fbi/?

Starting in 2016, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will reclassify animal abuse as a “Group A” felony in its National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which means that it will be a top-tier federal crime.

In the past, animal abuse crimes have been listed under “Group B,” which includes writing bad checks and trespassing, in the category of “All Other Offenses,” which is an aggregate of minor crimes. Under the new guidelines, however, abuse against animals will be comparable to more serious crimes, such as kidnapping and homicide.



The change will make it easier to track and quantify animal abuse crimes, which will hopefully result in improved enforcement and stronger accountability. With luck, the move will encourage municipal police to reform their policies to reflect the new law, and perhaps reduce or put an end to animal abuse by police and citizens alike.

The new animal cruelty category will include four offense types: simple or gross neglect, deliberate abuse or torture, organized abuse (e.g. dog fighting), and sexual abuse against an animal.

The FBI has been working with the National Sheriff’s Association and Animal Welfare Institute to implement the new category this year, and plan to collect data for such crimes beginning in January 2016. Animal cruelty statistics will be publicly available when the 2016 NIBRS is released the following year.


There is a how can I help at the bottom of the page.

OS

[tabasco]

1. Good!

I support greater efforts to prevent, stop and punish animal abuse.

[sammythecat]

2. Good.

Glad to see this and hope it helps. Thanks for the post.

[TDale313]

3. Very good news.

Animal abuse/cruelty should be treated as the incredibly serious crime it is.

[shenmue]

4. Yes! And who is the handsome pooch in the photo?

[bvf]

15. Probably a stock photo

given that it shows up on several sites. Really handsome fella, though!

And big kudos to the FBI here.

[pansypoo53219]

16. VERY. what happened to that shepherd's colors!

albiino?

[Maedhros]

5. Good news!

Although the cynic in me is worried about how this will be used against animal rights activists...

[dorkzilla]

6. yesssssssss!

bout damn time!!!!!

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

7. I like it

I really like it.

[restorefreedom]

8. long overdue....good news. nt

[damnedifIknow]

9. War on animal abuse

I can live with that.

[Glassunion]

10. It's a shame the penalties/charges to abusers are not aligning with the reclassification.

[gcomeau]

11. A good thing, but isn't it like a year old?

Here's the Huffpo story on it from 2014:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/01/fbi-animal-cruelty-felony_n_5913364.html

[Omaha Steve]

12. I didn't catch it

Their blog rotates news, events, etc: posted 5 months ago By M. M. Sullivan

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. k&r

[lunatica]

14. kick'd and rec'd

[vankuria]

17. Yay!

Finally!