[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 141 (Thursday, October 3, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12336-S12338]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE

 Mr. Cohen. Mr. President, I am submitting for the Record a 
Washington Post article about two young boys here on Capitol Hill, who 
recently deliberately inflicted pain upon someone's pet dog just for 
the fun of it. The Post article states that the dog was a friendly 
animal toward people. Witnesses state they saw the dog wagging its tail 
and going up to the two youths, expecting to be petted. Instead, one of 
the boys slapped the dog, took it to the top of an apartment building 
and hurled it to the ground.
  Research suggests that people who abuse animals require immediate 
attention. They are involved in a cycle of violence, either as a 
victim, perpetrator, or both. These violent symptoms manifested by a 
troubled youth appear to be a particularly important and accurate early 
indicator of future violent behavior. Numerous experts cite the link 
between animal abuse and human violence as one early warning signal 
that the people involved in such acts of violence may either be a 
victim, or a perpetrator in some violent incidents. Experts state that 
those who are abusive to animals lack empathy, compassion, and respect 
for life. However, researchers agree that these personality attributes 
can be taught. A successful example of such, is the country of Israel, 
where a national humane education program to reduce violent crime in 
their country has been implemented.
  Research on this issue also compels us to take action to detect, 
treat, and prevent perpetrators of animal violence before they turn 
their violent impulses toward humans. Many experts agree that animal 
abuse is not just a personality flaw of the abuser, but may be an 
indication of a deeply disturbed family. The Federal Bureau of 
Investigation has conducted research on the correlation between people 
who are abusers of animals to their committing future violent acts. In 
numerous interviews with prison inmates convicted of violent crimes, 
the deliberate infliction of pain on animals was a common link.
  Last May, I advised Attorney General Janet Reno that cruelty to 
animals is a particularly troublesome

[[Page S12337]]

manifestation of youth violence. I encouraged the Attorney General to 
review the Justice Department's plan of action in exposing the 
correlation between animal and human violence, that prevention and 
treatment may begin. Since that time, I have been working with the 
Justice Department, law enforcement officials, and others in evaluating 
this linkage and how this knowledge can be used to decrease crime among 
juveniles.
  Mr. President, today I wrote to Donna Shalala, the Department of 
Health and Human Services Secretary, and encouraged her to begin a 
program to educate the social services communities about the 
correlation between animal and human violence. I also wrote to Richard 
Riley, the Department of Education Secretary, encouraging him to 
implement an educational program among school guidance counselors, 
teachers, and school administrators in recognizing the signs of 
violence. School officials and the social services communities are 
among the first to recognize and work with troubled youth. Many see 
first hand the early symptoms of abusive behavior toward animals. 
However, most of these officials do not realize the correlation between 
animal abusers and the cycle of violence.
  It is necessary for us to look at ways to reduce violence in this 
country. It makes good sense to evaluate further this correlation, 
which the FBI has used for almost two decades now in profiling serial 
killers and other violent offenders. Implementation of a humane 
education program in the school systems throughout the United States of 
America offers some hope for reduction of violence among our youth and 
at this point, any sensible approach should not be dismissed.
  Mr. President, I also submit for the Record an interview with an FBI 
agent and professor at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, with the Humane 
Society of the United States. I believe it is time for Americans to 
pursue seriously every avenue to address and eliminate the cycle of 
violence.
  I ask that these items be printed in the Record.
  The material follows:

                       [From the Washington Post]

            Coco the Spaniel Is Sent Plunging Three Stories

                           (By Linda Wheeler)

       D.C. police are searching for two boys who walked a 
     neighbor's dog up three flights of stairs to the roof of a 
     Capitol Hill apartment building and then dropped her to the 
     hard earth below.
       Coco, a liver-and-white Brittany spaniel, landed spread-
     eagled, her right front leg shattered and the left limp from 
     nerve damage.
       ``The [right] leg is blasted, what we call a high-energy 
     fracture,'' said veterinarian Peter Glassman, of Friendship 
     Hospital for Animals in Northwest Washington, ``Thank God we 
     don't see these kind of injuries very often.''
       According to Washington Humane Society officials, most 
     animal cruelty cases in the city involve pets that have been 
     starved or beaten by their owners. Rarely are they 
     deliberately hurt by strangers, said Rosemary Vozobule, the 
     society's law enforcement officer.
       ``This was a very sweet dog, and she just went up to these 
     kids,'' she said. ``We have reports that one boy yelled at 
     her and slapped her. Then he took her to the roof.''
       The dogs owners, Nancy and Harold Smalley, live a block 
     from the Kentucky Court housing complex in Southeast 
     Washington, where the incident occurred Sept. 9. Nancy 
     Smalley said that Coco, adopted two years ago from the D.C. 
     Animal Shelter, was never allowed to roam. Coco must have 
     slipped out of the house, she said, when Harold Smalley left 
     for work early that morning.
       ``He took the trash out. He was half asleep,'' she said.
       When Nancy Smalley couldn't find Coco to join their other 
     dog--a black Labrador retriever named Mr. B--and five cats 
     for breakfast, she called her husband. Had he taken Coco with 
     him? No, he said. She then called the shelter to report Coco 
     missing. The dog had a collar and name tag, she told them.
       About the same time, someone called the shelter to report 
     an injured dog. It was Coco, belly-down on the packed earth, 
     which is so hard that no grass grows there. Someone had 
     covered her with a tattered blanket. Humane officers took the 
     dog back to the shelter for evaluation and called Nancy 
     Smalley.
       When she saw Coco a few minutes later, she said, ``my mind 
     went blank. It was impossible for me to believe anyone would 
     do this to a dog. I just couldn't understand it. I can't 
     understand it. These things aren't supposed to happen.''
       Despite her trauma, Coco struggles to balance on three feet 
     and leans against a visitor's leg to have her head patted. 
     Her right leg is in a cast, and the left dangles almost 
     daintily. If she doesn't recover feeling in that leg, 
     Glassman said, it will have to be amputated, because she will 
     drag it and scrape it, leaving her vulnerable to constant 
     infection.
       ``She's a very sweet dog,'' Glassman said, adding that she 
     would be able to get along fine on three legs.
       Vozobule said she has received several calls from neighbors 
     who saw the incident or heard the boys talking about it. 
     There is a $1,500 award for information leading to the arrest 
     of the suspects, she said.
       Vozobule said although what happened to Coco is ``tragic,'' 
     she is pleased that residents were willing to call in tips. 
     ``I think people are starting to realize treating animals 
     this way just isn't right,'' she said.
                                                                    ____


                             Deadly Serious


                  an fbi perspective on animal cruelty

                  (By Randall Lockwood and Ann Church)

       The HSUS has a long history of working closely with local, 
     state, and federal law enforcement agencies to combat cruelty 
     to animals. Many of these agencies have become acutely 
     interested in the connection between animal cruelty and other 
     forms of violent, antisocial behavior. They have found that 
     the investigation and prosecution of crimes against animals 
     is an important tool for identifying people who are, or may 
     become, perpetrators of violent crimes against people.
       Earlier this year Sen. William Cohen of Maine formally 
     asked U.S. attorney general Janet Reno to accelerate the U.S. 
     Department of Justice's research in this area. On June 6 The 
     HSUS met with the staff of Senator Cohen and Sen. Robert 
     Smith of New Hampshire and with representatives of the FBI 
     and the Justice Department. One participant was Supervisory 
     Special Agent Alan Brantley of the FBI's Investigative 
     Support Unit (ISU), also known as the Behavioral Science 
     Unit. The ISU is responsible for providing information on the 
     behavior of violent criminals to FBI field offices and law 
     enforcement agencies worldwide. Special Agent Brantley served 
     as a psychologist at a maximum-security prison in North 
     Carolina before joining the FBI. He has interviewed and 
     profiled numerous violent criminals and has direct knowledge 
     of their animal-abuse histories. In his role as an ISU 
     special agent, he shares that information with agents at the 
     FBI Academy and law enforcement officers selected to attend 
     the FBI's National Academy Program. When we asked Special 
     Agent Brantley how many serial killers had a history of 
     abusing animals, his response was, ``The real question should 
     be, how many have not?''
       As law enforcement officials become more aware of the 
     connection between animal abuse and human-directed violence, 
     they become more supportive of strong anticruelty laws and 
     their enforcement. We are encouraged by this development. We 
     were granted permission to visit the FBI Academy, in 
     Quantico, Virginia, to continue our discussion with Special 
     Agent Brantley.
       HSUS: What is the history of the Behavioral Science Unit/
     ISU?
       Brantley: The Behavioral Science Unit originated in the 
     1970s and is located at the FBI Academy. Its purpose is to 
     teach behavioral sciences to FBI trainees and National 
     Academy students. The instructors were often asked questions 
     about violent criminals, such as, ``What do you think causes 
     a person to do something like this?'' The instructors offered 
     some ideas, and as the students went out and applied some of 
     these ideas, it was seen that there might be some merit to 
     using this knowledge in field operations. In the mid-1980s, 
     the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime was 
     founded with the primary mission of identifying and tracking 
     serial killers, but it also was given the task of looking at 
     any violent crime that was particularly vicious, unusual, or 
     repetitive, including serial rape and child molestation. We 
     now look at and provide operational assistance to law 
     enforcement agencies and prosecutors worldwide who are 
     confronted with any type of violent crime.
       HSUS: You have said that the FBI takes the connection 
     between animal cruelty and violent crime very seriously. How 
     is this awareness applied on a daily basis?
       Brantley: A lot of what we do is called threat assessment. 
     If we have a known subject, we want as much information as we 
     can obtain from family members, co-workers, local police, and 
     others, before we offer an opinion about this person's threat 
     level and dangerousness. Something we believe is prominently 
     displayed in the histories of people who are habitually 
     violent is animal abuse. We look not only for a history of 
     animal abuse, torment, or torture, but also for childhood or 
     adolescent acts of violence toward other children and 
     possibly adults and for a history of destructiveness to 
     property.
       Sometimes this violence against animals is symbolic. We 
     have had cases where individuals had an early history of 
     taking stuffed animals or even pictures of animals and 
     carving them up. That is a risk indicator.
       You can look at cruelty to animals and cruelty to humans as 
     a continuum. We first see people begin to fantasize about 
     these violent actions. If there is escalation along this 
     continuum, we may see acting out against inanimate objects. 
     This may also be manifest in the writings or drawings of the 
     individual affected. The next phase is usually acting out 
     against animals.
       HSUS: When did the FBI first begin to see this connection?

[[Page S12338]]

       Brantley: We first quantified it when we did research in 
     the late 1970s, interviewing thirty-six multiple murderers in 
     prison. This kind of theme had already emerged in our work 
     with violent criminals. We all believed this was an important 
     factor, so we said, ``Let's go and ask the offenders 
     themselves and see what they have to say about it.'' By self 
     report, 36 percent described killing and torturing animals as 
     children and 46 percent said they did this as adolescents. We 
     believe that the real figure was much higher, but that people 
     might not have been willing to admit to it.
       HSUS: You mean that people who commit multiple, brutal 
     murders might be reluctant to admit to killing animals?
       Brantley: I believe that to be true in some cases. In the 
     inmate population, it's one thing to be a big-time criminal 
     and kill people--many inmates have no empathy or concern for 
     human victims--but they might identify with animals. I've 
     worked with prisoners who kept pets even though they weren't 
     supposed to. They would consider someone else hurting their 
     pet as reason enough to commit homicide. Also, within 
     prisons, criminals usually don't want to talk about what they 
     have done to animals or children for fear that other inmates 
     may retaliate against them or that they may lose status among 
     their peers.
       HSUS: Where is violence against animals coming from? Are 
     criminals witnessing it in others? Convicted serial killer 
     Ted Bundy recounted being forced to watch his grandfather's 
     animal abuse.
       Brantley: For the most part, in my experience, offenders 
     who harm animals as children pretty much come up with this on 
     their own. Quite often they will do this in the presence of 
     others and teach it to others, but the ones with a rich 
     history of violence are usually the instigators. Some 
     children might follow along to be accepted, but the ones we 
     need to worry about are the one or two dominant, influential 
     children who initiate the cruelty.
       HSUS: What components need to be present for you to think a 
     child or adolescent is really in trouble?
       Brantley: You have to look at the quality of the act and at 
     the frequency and severity. If a child kicks the dog when 
     somebody's been aggressive toward him, that's one issue, but 
     if it's a daily thing or if he has a pattern of tormenting 
     and physically torturing the family dog or cat, that's 
     another. I would look to see if the pattern is escalating. I 
     look at any type of abuse of an animal as serious to begin 
     with, unless I have other information that might explain it. 
     It should not be dismissed. I've seen it too often develop 
     into something more severe.
       Some types of abuse, for example, against insects, seem to 
     be fundamentally different. Our society doesn't consider 
     insects attractive or worthy of affection. But our pets are 
     friendly and affectionate and they often symbolically 
     represent the qualities and characteristics of human beings. 
     Violence against them indicates violence that may well 
     escalate into violence against humans.
       You also need to look at the bigger picture. What's going 
     on at home? What other supports, if any, are in place? How is 
     the child doing in school? Is he drinking or doing drugs?
       HSUS: We are familiar with the ``classic'' cases of serial 
     killers, like Jeffrey Dahmer, who had early histories of 
     animal abuse (see the Summer 1986 HSUS News). Are there any 
     recent cases you have worked on?
       Brantley: The Jason Massey case jumps out as being a 
     prominent one. This was a case from 1993 in Texas. This 
     individual, from an early age, started his career killing 
     many dogs and cats. He finally graduated, at the age of 20, 
     to beheading a thirteen-year-old girl and shooting her 
     fourteen-year-old stepbrother to death.
       He was convicted of murder. I was brought in for the 
     sentencing phase to testify as to his dangerousness and 
     future threat to the community. The prosecutors knew that he 
     was a prolific killer of animals, and that he was saving the 
     body parts of these animals. The prosecutor discovered a 
     cooler full of animal remains that belonged to Massey and 
     brought it to the courtroom for the sentencing hearing. It 
     caused the jurors to react strongly, and ultimately the 
     sentence was death.
       HSUS: Mr. Massey had been institutionalized at his mother's 
     request two years before the murders since she was aware of 
     his diaries, which recorded his violent fantasies, and his 
     animal killings, yet he was released. Do you think that 
     mental health officials have been slower than law enforcement 
     agencies in taking animal abuse seriously?
       Brantley: We've made this a part of a lot of our training 
     for local police, and I think most police recognize that when 
     they see animal mutilation or torture that they need to check 
     it out; but police have to triage and prioritize their cases. 
     We try to tell people that investigating animal cruelty and 
     investigating homicides may not be mutually exclusive.
       We are trying to do the same for mental health 
     professionals. We offer training to forensic psychiatrists 
     through a fellowship program and provide other training to 
     the mental health community. I think psychiatrists are 
     receptive to our message when we can give them examples and 
     case studies demonstrating this connection. The word is 
     getting out.
       HSUS: Do you think more aggressive prosecution of animal-
     cruelty cases can help get some people into the legal system 
     who might otherwise slip through?
       Brantley: I think that it is a legitimate way to deal with 
     someone who poses a threat. Remember, Al Capone was finally 
     imprisoned for income-tax evasion rather than for murder or 
     racketeering-charges which could never be proven.
       HSUS: Have you ever encountered a situation where extreme 
     or repeated animal cruelty is the only warning sign you see 
     in an individual, where there is no other violent behavior? 
     Or does such abuse not occur in a vacuum?
       Brantley: I would agree with that last concept. But let's 
     say that you do have a case of an individual who seems not to 
     have had any other adjustment problems but is harming 
     animals. What that says is that while, up to that point, 
     there is no documented history of adjustment problems, there 
     are adjustment problems now and there could be greater 
     problems down the road. We have some kids who start early and 
     move toward greater and greater levels of violence, some who 
     get into it starting in adolescence, and some who are adults 
     before they start to blossom into violent offenders.
       HSUS: Do you find animal cruelty developing in those who 
     have already begun killing people?
       Brantley: We know that certain types of offenders who have 
     escalated to human victims will, at times, regress back to 
     earlier offenses such as making obscene phone calls, stalking 
     people, or killing animals. Rarely, if ever, do we see humans 
     being killed as a precursor to the killing of animals.
       HSUS: How would you respond to the argument that animal 
     cruelty provides an outlet that prevents violent individuals 
     from acting against people?
       Brantley: I would disagree with that. Animal cruelty is not 
     as serious as killing human beings, we have to agree to that, 
     but certainly it's moving in a very ominous direction. This 
     is not a harmless venting of emotion in a healthy individual; 
     this is a warning sign that this individual is not mentally 
     healthy and needs some sort of intervention. Abusing animals 
     does not dissipate those violent emotions; instead, it may 
     fuel them.
       HSUS: What problems do you have in trying to assess the 
     dangerousness of suspect or a known offender?
       Brantley: Getting background information is the main 
     problem. People know this person has done these things, but 
     there may be no record or we haven't found the right people 
     to interview.
       HSUS: That's one of the reasons why we have put an emphasis 
     on stronger anticruelty laws and more aggressive 
     encorcement--to get such information in the record.
       Brantley: A lot of time people who encounter this kind of 
     behavior are looking for the best in people. We also see 
     cases where people are quite frankly afraid to get involved, 
     because it they are dealing with a child or adult who seems 
     to be bizarre or threatening, they are afraid that he or she 
     may no longer kill animals but instead come after them. I've 
     seen a lot of mental health professionals, law enforcement 
     officers, and private citizens who don't want to get involved 
     because they are afraid . . . and for good reason. There are 
     very scary people out there doing scary things. That's 
     largely why they are doing it and talking about it: they want 
     to intimidate and shock and offend, sometimes regardless of 
     the consequences.
       HSUS: Is there hope for such an individual?
       Brantley: The earlier you can intervene, the better off 
     you'll be. I like to be optimistic. I think in the vast 
     majority of cases, especially if you get to them as children, 
     you can intervene. People shouldn't discount animal abuse as 
     a childish prank or childish experimentation.
       HSUS: Have you ever seen any serial killers who have been 
     rehabilitated?
       Brantley: I've seen no examples of it and no real efforts 
     to even attempt it! Even if you had a program that might 
     work, the potential consequences of being wrong and releasing 
     someone like that greatly outweigh the benefits of attempting 
     it, in my opinion.
       HSUS: There is also a problem in trying to understand which 
     acts against animals and others are associated with the 
     escalation of violence, since police records, if they exist, 
     are often unavailable or juvenile offenses are expunged. 
     Sometimes only local humane societies or animal-control 
     agencies have any record. The HSUS hopes to facilitate 
     consolidating some of these records.
       Brantley: That would be great. If animal-cruelty 
     investigators are aware of a case such as a sexual homicide 
     in their community and they are also aware of any animal 
     mutilation going on in the same area, I would encourage them 
     to reach out to us.

                          ____________________