Why Dog Fighters And Animal Abusers Are Rarely Arrested

Violent crimes can happen any time, any place. Only public law enforcement is available 24 hours a day most everywhere to respond. No one else is as capable of responding to crimes in progress.

Crimes in progress, especially violent crimes, must receive an appropriate, timely response.

If domestic violence, for example, is not responded to by public law enforcement, and if responding to domestic violence is left in the hands of special teams and private nonprofit organizations, there will be an explosion of domestic violence. If police do not respond appropriately to in progress domestic violence calls and if the public relies upon private organizations and special teams to do investigations, practically every domestic violence offender will never get arrested and the crime will grow exponentially.

This is how it is when it comes to dog fighting and animal cruelty. When these crimes are in progress, the public law enforcement response is poor, with few exceptions. The acceptance that animal cruelty and dog fighting can be investigated after the fact while accepting a poor response when the crimes are in progress means almost all animal cruelty and dog fighting offenders never get arrested.

Victims of violent crimes, including animal cruelty and dog fighting, cannot wait for special police teams or animal organization humane investigators to respond.

Dog fighting and animal cruelty are poorly responded to when in progress, and rarely responded to appropriately when on viewed by public law enforcement. If violent crimes are not responded to properly when in progress, and if they are ignored when police on view these crimes, then the crimes grow unchecked.

Some make the argument that police have more important things to worry about than animal cruelty and dog fighting. Police are supposed to respond to crime. Ignoring an entire category of crime, and a violent one at that such as dog fighting and animal cruelty, is harmful in a multiplicity of ways. Poor enforcement of crimes against animals is harmful for the animals that are made to suffer, for the children that become immune to cruelty by watching or committing animal cruelty, and for society at large by allowing cruelty and criminal violence to go unchecked.

Responding to animal cruelty does not mean other crimes get ignored. How in progress calls are responded to depends on the nature and severity of the crimes that are occurring. When no priority is given to dog fighting and animal cruelty, violent offenders fight, abuse, beat, burn, mutilate, starve and torture animals. It is that much easier for them to take the next step and do the same to people.

The broken window theory of crime is very much in play, but too often is dismissed when the crimes that should be enforced are considered inconvenient.

It is often ineffective, even harmful, when animal abuse and dog fighting are investigated by special police teams or by humane investigators fielded by non profit animal organizations. Many are the times where animal abusers and dog fighters move their animals to another location after getting paid a visit by a humane investigator or another investigator.

What is needed is for public law enforcement at large to respond appropriately to 911 calls for animal cruelty and dog fighting, and to respond appropriately when on viewing animal cruelty and dog fighting. Every effort that diverts from this being achieved benefits animal abusers and dog fighters.

Most humane investigators do not have law enforcement powers, which makes their investigations toothless at best. Those that do have law enforcement powers - whether they are employed by private sector nonprofit organizations or are assigned by police departments to investigate animal cruelty -  do little more than give larger public law enforcement an excuse to continue doing little to nothing about animal cruelty and dog fighting. Token police teams assigned by a police department or by an animal organization to investigate animal cruelty are little more than public relations ploys that enable police departments and other public law enforcement to poorly respond to animal cruelty related crimes.

Humane investigators can play a role in helping animals. They can assist people that have animals that are not properly cared for in the many instances where animal care needs to be improved but does not rise to the level of actual animal cruelty or abuse. They must stop conducting criminal investigations they have no business conducting.

No animal organization has any business investigating animal cruelty. They have created a false impression that something meaningful is being done about animal cruelty and dog fighting. The more the public thinks they are the answer to animal cruelty, the more money pours their way in donations.

If animal organizations want to help, they must become advocates for police to respond appropriately and in a widespread manner to animal cruelty and dog fighting. They can also assist police departments in removing animals from crime scenes if needed and by providing shelter if needed for the animals until a judge decides if the seizure is justified. Because this does not keep the illusion going that certain animal organizations are the answer to animal cruelty, this does not happen.

The advocacy needed to ensure a proper police response to animal cruelty and dog fighting is virtually nonexistent. Victims of drunk driving and domestic violence are fortunate that the advocates that fight for proper police responses to those crimes are not the same as the advocates that claim to speak for abused animals.

Dog fighters continue to have little to fear. They know there are few in law enforcement that will do anything to stop them.

Dog fighters have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning than ever getting arrested for dog fighting. Few animals abusers are arrested despite animal cruelty being a common occurring widespread crime. Animal cruelty is an easy crime for police to enforce, if things ever change for the better, in that the physical evidence of the crime is most often visible and easy to document.

The 911 record of the police response to animal cruelty and dog fighting is public record. A number of so called animal advocates and animal organizations and so called investigative reporters refused to look at that record and see for themselves how often animals are abused, fought, mutilated, starved, beaten, tortured and so forth, with hardly ever receiving a timely or appropriate police response.

Children, teenagers and sadistic adults continue burning, starving, torturing, fighting, beating, and mutilating animals with rarely anything being done to stop them.

For decades animal organizations and animal advocates were begged to be advocates for animals by fighting for a proper police response to animal cruelty. Certain animal organizations were begged to stop conducting investigations. No anti domestic violence or anti drunk driving organization conducts their own criminal investigations. Instead, they advocate for police to respond broadly and appropriately to those crimes.

What is needed is for public law enforcement at large to respond appropriately to 911 calls for animal cruelty and dog fighting, and to respond appropriately when on viewing animal cruelty and dog fighting. Everything else, token anti animal abuse police teams, humane investigators, nonprofit animal organizations' anti cruelty investigations, and so forth, are only ineffective window dressing that maintains a dysfunctional status quo.

The priority for all crimes, animal cruelty, dog fighting, domestic violence, battery and so forth, is for a timely and appropriate police response when these crimes are in progress. Failing to respond appropriately to in progress crimes and crimes that are on viewed by law enforcement, including animal cruelty and dog fighting, means missing the most critically important opportunities for stopping these crimes.