Our candidates and animal cruelty...

[one_voice]

So with all the issues out there this one gets little to no attention because people don't think it's important. It's important to me. Recently animal cruelty has been upgraded to a class A felony & while this is good I don't think it goes far enough. I don't think prison sentences are stiff enough.

This is a subject I've never heard discussed. It would be interesting to hear what the candidates had to say.

FBI Makes Animal Cruelty A Top-Tier Felony To Help Track Abuse

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Young people who torture and kill animals are prone to violence against people later in life if it goes unchecked, studies have shown. A new federal category for animal cruelty crimes will help root out those pet abusers before their behavior worsens and give a boost to prosecutions, an animal welfare group says.

For years, the FBI has filed animal abuse under the label "other" along with a variety of lesser crimes, making cruelty hard to find, hard to count and hard to track. The bureau announced this month that it would make animal cruelty a Group A felony with its own category — the same way crimes like homicide, arson and assault are listed.

"It will help get better sentences, sway juries and make for better plea bargains," said Madeline Bernstein, president and CEO of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles and a former New York prosecutor.

The category also will help identify young offenders, and a defendant might realize "if he gets help now, he won't turn into Jeffrey Dahmer," she said

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

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

4 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	I'm a Bernie person and this issue is important to me.
	3 (75%)
	I'm a Hillary person and this issue is important to me
	1 (25%)
	I'm an O'Malley person and this issue is important to me
	0 (0%)
	I support more than one candidate and this issue is important to me
	0 (0%)
	I'm undecided and this issue is important to me
	0 (0%)
	I'm a Bernie person and it's not that important to me.
	0 (0%)
	I'm an O'Malley person and it's not that important to me
	0 (0%)
	I'm a Hillary person and it's not that important to me
	0 (0%)
	I'm undecided and it's not that important to me
	0 (0%)
	other
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[JonLeibowitz]

1. "prone to violence against people later in life if it goes unchecked" -- What's next, pre-crime?

I am unconvinced this should be a felony at all.

Somebody call Tom Cruise...

[saltpoint]

2. Always a timely subject, IMO.

Reading your post, one_voice, I recalled that once on a family vacation, Mitt Romney strapped his Irish setter Seamus to the top of the car, terrifying the dog.

There were dozens of strong reasons to reject Romney's candidacy. IMO that was one of the main ones.

[one_voice]

4. I had a family move in next door to me...

they would tie their dogs up outside all day, didn't matter how cold, hot, rain. There was no shade in their backyard. Our yard get the sun all day. So in the summer in the blazing heat those dogs would be tied outside all day with no shade. They wouldn't put water out for them either.

They didn't mind me taking the dogs water on the hot days. One day I was in my yard putzing around and I heard choking sounds. One of the dogs had wrapped themselves up in their leash and was hanging. I'm so glad I was out there when I was.

Long story short. The husband was an abuser of both the wife and the animals. I helped her move when he wasn't home and helped re-home the dogs. Matter of fact a DU'er was helping to place one of the dogs. We fostered one until I found him a home.

I can't take it when animals are abused. They won't fight back. Matter of fact, they'll love you after. We need tougher laws. Ease the laws on marijuana and toughen the laws on animal abuse.

[saltpoint]

8. Thanks are owed to

you for rescuing the dog who was choking and for bringing the dogs water on hot days.

We can all be good neighbors to other people, but we need to be good neighbors to quadropeds, too.

[Vattel]

3. and Bernie is the best candidate on issues of animal well-being.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/128040591

[artislife]

6. Thanks for that link, Vattel

I pet sit for fun and side money...easiest thing I get to do, mostly. The animals all have their unique energies and they show us a part of the universe we wouldn't see without them.

[one_voice]

9. I will go and read. Thanks for the link.

[ms liberty]

5. How people treat animals is indicative

Of how they treat other people, IMO.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. Folks should treat animals how they would like to be treated./nt