Bill to Treat Animal Abusers Goes to Wilson

A bill that would require people convicted of animal abuse to get psychiatric counseling as a condition of probation is awaiting action by Gov. Pete Wilson.

The legislation, which won final, unanimous passage in the state Assembly this week, aims to identify and treat animal abusers before they turn their rage on people. A Wilson spokesman said the governor has not yet taken a position on the bill.

Supported by a host of animal protection groups and some law enforcement agencies, the legislation was spawned by research illuminating an unmistakable pattern: Violent offenders often begin their criminal careers by maiming or killing animals.

Before Jeffrey Dahmer became a serial killer, he cut the heads off of neighborhood pets. Before Richard Allen Davis kidnapped and killed a 12-year-old Petaluma girl named Polly Klaas, he set cats on fire.

“Early animal abuse is a red flag,” state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo) said Thursday as he urged Wilson to sign his bill, SB 1991.

“If you enjoy setting an animal on fire, if you enjoy dismembering it, you’re not going to stop there,” said Beverlee McGrath of the Doris Day Animal League, which urged O’Connell to introduce the bill.

The FBI has been aware of the link between cruelty to animals and other violent behavior since the 1970s. An FBI study of serial murderers found that most had killed or tortured animals as children or adolescents.

All of the alleged young perpetrators in a series of recent schoolyard shootings--in Arkansas, Oregon and Mississippi--were notorious for abusing animals.

Kip Kinkel, 15, accused of killing one classmate and injuring 23 others when he opened fire this year in a high school cafeteria in Springfield, Ore., was known to cut the heads off cats and mount them on the end of sticks.

Studies have also found disturbing connections between acts of violence against animals and the abuse of children and spouses. About half of all battered women report that their male partners had also injured their pets, according to the Humane Society of the United States, which last year launched a campaign to highlight the animal-human violence connection.

Although research documenting such a nexus is unequivocal, little has been done to address it in the criminal justice system. About 20 states have felony animal cruelty statutes on the books, but convictions are rare.

Now in California, judges in animal cruelty cases have the discretion to order counseling for offenders sentenced to probation, but do not routinely do so, according to Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Connors, an expert on such cases.

Connors said some judges continue to view cruelty to animals as a property crime. Indeed, until the late 1980s, the mental health community considered animal cruelty a conduct disorder similar to destruction of property.

“That view has changed to reflect the fact that animal cruelty is a violent act against another sensitive, living creature--and should be treated as such,” said Randall Lockwood, a psychologist and expert on the issue for the Humane Society of the United States.

If Wilson signs the bill, California would have the toughest such law in the nation. Nine other states have animal cruelty statutes addressing counseling, but most make it a matter of judicial discretion, Lockwood said.

The counseling bill would mostly apply to first-time offenders, who typically are not sentenced to prison in animal cruelty cases. Those who seek probation would have to pay for the counseling, which would be similar to that provided to domestic violence offenders.

Appearing Thursday to express support for O’Connell’s bill were actor James B. Sikking, a star of “Hill Street Blues” and “Doogie Howser, M.D.” as well as Louise Sorel, an actress on “Days of Our Lives.”

Sorel urged Wilson to sign the bill and “send a strong signal to other states.”