The telling connection between animal cruelty and other heinous crimes - Hindustan Times
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The telling connection between animal cruelty and other heinous crimes

ByBharati Ramachandran
Oct 14, 2021 06:45 PM IST

Research has repeatedly shown that exposure to animal cruelty has the effect of normalising cruelty, leading to not just reduced empathy, but also greater tolerance to aggression

The Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC), formed by Asia for Animals coalition, recently released a report documenting horrific cases of animal abuse online.

What drives a young person to commit such acts of cruelty, and in full public view on social media? (Shutterstock) PREMIUM
What drives a young person to commit such acts of cruelty, and in full public view on social media? (Shutterstock)

Over 13 months, SMACC recorded 5,840 videos on three main platforms — YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook — showing extreme acts of violence against birds, companion animals such as dogs and cats, wild boar and pigs, snakes and primates. The forms of abuse included fake rescues, prolonged death, mutilation, hunting, eating of live animals, animals abused for entertainment, and mental and physical torture.

What drives a young person to commit such acts of cruelty, and in full public view on social media? The videos documented by SMACC were aimed at gaining viewership, likes, and engagement on social media.

Collectively, the videos had — at the time of publication of the report — been viewed 5,347,809,262 times. SMACC’s member organisation, World Animal Protection (WAP), has an ongoing investigation analysing the sentiments behind such cruelty content and its supporters.

The socio-psychological link

The instant gratification that social media provides to creators of such content in terms of likes and engagement, and the easy accessibility of such cruel acts online, is further encouraged by the refusal of prominent social media platforms to take a stand against such content.

But what of the psychological ramifications of cruelty against animals — both on perpetrators and viewers? According to the report, Dr Mary Lou Randour, psychologist and senior adviser for animal cruelty programmes at the Animal Welfare Institute, stated, “Witnessing violence of any type, particularly animal abuse, is a traumatic event for a child, as it changes how the brain develops. Exposure to violence at a young age can alter neurons, the building blocks of the brain, negatively affecting capacity for emotional regulation, physical health, cognitive capacity, and behavior control.”

Research has repeatedly shown that exposure to animal cruelty has the effect of normalising cruelty, leading to not just reduced empathy, but also greater tolerance to aggression. Malcolm Plant, founder of the Making the Link Project at Teesside University, has conducted some of the seminal research on the subject in his study, “It’s a Dog’s Life.”

The study found that such abuse is cyclical.

For example, it found that individuals who had been exposed to domestic abuse were also found to have committed cruelty against animals. The study identified cases of “adolescent males who had experienced domestic abuse, and who either showed displaced aggression against stray animals or progressed to commit violence against family members, leading to concerns that it creates a ‘societal cycle of abuse’ especially when the individual has their own family.”

A gateway crime

The researcher noted, “it’s highly likely that an animal abuser will also be abusing humans. We found not only have most animal abusers been exposed to violence and abuse, but that this has resulted in reduced empathy and a normalisation of aggression.”

In the United Kingdom (UK), ministry of justice figures indicate that hundreds of sex offenders and people convicted of violently attacking others were also found to be guilty of animal abuse.

All these findings point to the serious attention that any case of animal abuse must receive.

In India, the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO)’s study, In Their Own Right: Calling for Parity in Law for Animal Victims of Crimes, documented more than 500,000 cases of cruelty against animals between 2010 and 2020. These were reported figures, and the real estimate is likely to be much higher.

The way forward

Findings like these must be a wake-up call for the law and order administration. All schools and colleges must mandate “compassion education” aimed at building empathy towards animals from childhood. This will reduce much of the othering of animals that often leads to cruelty, and also encourage critical thinking in children, allowing them to perceive animals as sentient beings that feel, learn, and hurt.

Social media platforms need to be held accountable for allowing content that shows the abuse of animals. The SMACC report makes specific recommendations for social media platforms to define animal cruelty, implement robust monitoring systems to detect and remove such content, and stop incentives such as payments to people who upload such content. There needs to be a strong anti-cyber-cruelty cell that cracks down not just on such abuse but also on any illegal use or abuse of animals.

Animal cruelty needs to be stopped, for its own sake. However, the link that is emerging between animal cruelty and acts of greater aggression such as rape, assault, or murder might finally be the motivation that the authorities need to take animal abuse seriously.

Bharati Ramachandran is the CEO, the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO), India’s apex animal rights body

The views expressed are personal

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