FBI to Report Animal Cruelty Statistics

The FBI has announced that its Uniform Crimes Report will add animal cruelty statistics to its National Incident Based Reporting System.
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The FBI has announced that its Uniform Crimes Report (UCR) will add animal cruelty statistics to its National Incident Based Reporting System, which is often used by law enforcement jurisdictions to track changes in crime statistics and assign officers accordingly.

In a written statement, Stephen G. Fischer, Jr., chief of multimedia productions for the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services division, said that proposals from the National Sheriff’s Association and the Animal Welfare Institute petitioned the UCR program to include animal cruelty statistics. Animal cruelty will be added as a Group A offense and a crime against society, Fischer’s statement said.

The type of criminal activity/gang information will be expanded to include data on simple or gross neglect, intentional abuse and torture, organized abuse (including dog and cock fighting), and animal sexual abuse, Fischer’s statement said.

The statement said animal cruelty will be defined as “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly taking an action that mistreats or kills any animal without just cause, such as torturing, mutilation, maiming, poisoning, or abandonment. Included are instances of duty to provide care (e.g. shelter, food, and water), care if sick or injured, (or) transporting or confining an animal in a manner likely to cause unnecessary pain or suffering.”

“This definition does not include proper maintenance of animals for show or sport, use of animals for food, (or) unlawful hunting fishing or trapping,” the statement said.

Roy Gross, chief executive director of the Suffolk County, New York, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, backs the FBI’s decision “100%.”

“I think it says that you have to take animal abuse seriously,” Gross said. “It has been proven many times that if you abuse and animal, you’ll abuse a child or other person.”

Fischer’s statement did not include jurisdictions’ procedure for reporting animal cruelty crimes. Gross, who was instrumental in establishing New York’s statewide animal abuse database, believes law enforcement agencies will probably have to provide conviction reports: “I expect (the FBI) will gather information from convictions just as they would a sex offender,” he said. “They have to find a way to flag them.”

In his statement Fisher said that the UCR program will implement changes to the National Incident Based Reporting System during the 2015 calendar year and the system will begin accepting data from law enforcement jurisdictions in 2016.

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Pat Raia is a veteran journalist who enjoys covering equine welfare, industry, and news. In her spare time, she enjoys riding her Tennessee Walking Horse, Sonny.

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