Council formed to fight animal abuse

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is co-chair of newly formed National Law Enforcement Council (NLEC).

The group is dedicated to enforcing federal, state, and local laws against animal cruelty.

Edmonson says animal cruelty cases are a good indicator of possible future crimes on people.

“One measure of a civil society is how it treats its most vulnerable members, and few are as vulnerable as the animals,” said Edmondson.

There is a documented link between animal cruelty and other forms of human-on-human violence and criminal conduct.

The FBI’s homicidal triad includes early-age acts of animal cruelty. Animal fights are often staging grounds for a range of other illegal behavior.

In homes where a man harms a spouse or a girlfriend, he will often turn his violent instincts toward a child or an animal.

The NLEC is urging increased funding for anti-cruelty enforcement at the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The council will also advocate for the passage of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, which would create a national anti-cruelty statute to crack down on perpetrators of acts of malicious cruelty with a federal nexus.