PAGE 3

Page 3

Humane law enforcement officers train at police academies, are licensed to carry guns, and have the authority to make arrests. Despite advances in animal protection, tremendous barriers remain to the success of animal cruelty prosecutions. Animal cruelty cases often lack sufficient evidence to pursue prosecution, resulting in extremely few cases taken to trial and even fewer resulting in conviction. Additionally, unclear definitions of key terms such as animal, cruel, abuse, and suffering in animal cruelty statutes create a challenge to the prosecution of crimes against animals. Some states provide no definition of what an animal is, leaving the definition open to the interpretation of the courts, whereas others include and exclude specific animals from their definition. For instance, Missouri denies legal protection to many species by applying its cruelty statute only to mammals. Similarly, each state defines cruelty differently or leaves the term undefined and open to interpretation. Although veterinarians have the ability to play a key role in clarifying the vague language in animal cruelty laws, many veterinarians do not feel comfortable assuming a role in animal abuse reporting and prosecution. Interestingly, the current debate over the role of veterinarians in animal abuse cases shares many parallels with the 50-year-old debate over the role of physicians in child abuse cases. Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse In 1962, a new symptom complex known as the battered child syndrome was established in an article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. The battered child syndrome provides a framework for identifying child abuse by describing clinical findings commonly associated with abuse, including skeletal fractures in various stages of healing, multiple soft tissue injuries, poor hygiene, malnourishment, and trauma inconsistent with accidental injury. The article explained that abusive parents often provide inadequate or inconsistent explanations for these unusual injuries, which indicates that the trauma may not have been accidental. The authors also discussed the reluctance of physicians to report suspected child abuse, noting that cases of child abuse were often “inadequately handled by the physicians because of hesitation to bring the case to the proper authorities.” Although the authors acknowledged that physicians at the time were not eager to take on the role of child abuse investigator, they argued that physicians are more likely to be exposed to certain telling features of child abuse than anyone else and therefore should be aware of the symptoms of and protocols for reporting abuse.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7