Your spcaLA has been on the front lines prosecuting crimes against animals since 1877. We have also led the campaign to prove that it is no coincidence that those who abuse animals will often commit violent acts against people. Your spcaLA also set the national example in creating programs that strive to address and reverse this progression including the launch of the only mandatory animal diversionary program for juvenile offenders convicted of animal cruelty, bullying or other qualifying crime, in the country.
That said, we partner with the National Law Enforcement Center on Animal Abuse, of National Sheriff's Association, which is coordinated by Interim Executive Director John Thompson.
John has worked tirelessly to rally the masses to convince the FBI to add animal cruelty crimes to the National Incident Based Reporting System rather than classifying these crimes as "other". This comports with the goal of the system to gather reliable crime data which can reveal patterns, trends, tendencies to commit other crimes as well as isolating behaviors that correlate to and often precede more violence. Ignoring the part animal abuse plays in this arena was allowing a huge piece of the picture to be absent and wasted opportunities to gain insight and knowledge from this data that could be used to prevent or reverse criminal behavior.
I personally, having been in law enforcement my entire professional career, am thrilled to finally see this come to pass and I thank John Thompson for his leadership and perseverance in this effort.
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