We Protect Kids and Pets

The link between animal cruelty and violent social behavior quickly gained recognition with the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School. The young perpetrators had bragged to their classmates about maiming animals well before they went on to kill 13 of their classmates and wounded 24. 

In 2014, a young man was arrested in Colorado for abusing a dog and let go with virtually a slap on the wrist. Three years later he showed up at a Baptist Church in Texas where he killed 26 people, half of which were children, and wounded 20. No one took his violence towards animals seriously.

In 2022, a young man killed 19 students and 2 faculty at a school in Uvalde, Texas. Previously, the gunman had openly abused animals including putting cats in plastic bags, suspending them, and throwing them against walls or at people's windows. He posted such violence online. Again, these heinous acts were overlooked.

In that same year, a 19-year-old man killed 10 people in a supermarket in Buffalo. He also posted live and recorded videos of himself abusing animals. Still, no one took this animal cruelty seriously.

In over 50% of school shootings, the perpetrators had a history of abusing animals.

In 88% of homes in which physical child abuse was being investigated in one study, animal abuse also occurred in the home.

A 2017 study showed 89% of women who had companion animals during an abusive relationship, reported that their animals were threatened, harmed, or killed by their abusive partner.