Sir, - One of the new proposals by John O'Donoghue, Minister for Justice, to deal with sex offenders and their evil crimes is to establish a register of convicted sex offenders. Perhaps the Minister might consider establishing a parallel register for people convicted of animal abuse.
Many people come before our courts each year facing charges of causing vicious cruelty to animals. No study is undertaken by the court authorities to investigate the home life of these individuals. Causing cruelty to animals may be a warning sign that other forms of abuse may be taking place in the home. It is a short step for those who can enjoy and tolerate animal abuse to extend the urge for physical/sexual gratification to a human victim.
In America the FBI takes the link between animal and human abuse very seriously and uses reports of animal cruelty in analysing the potential threat from suspected and known violent criminals. Psychological research sponsored by the US Fish and Wildlife Service has shown that a set of attitudes and values known as dominionism tend to be held by animal hunters to twice the degree of non-hunters. Dominionism has also been identified as a primary motive in studies of convicted sex offenders.
As with child abuse, there is no acceptable level of animal abuse. The animal members of our society have been living with their own "states of fear" for years. The pain and suffering must and will end. - Yours, etc., John Tierney, Wildlife Research Officer, Irish Council Against Blood Sports,Mullingar, Co Westmeath.