Animal Cruelty Surge - Post-Pandemic Violence

The numbers confirm what animal welfare organizations have been seeing: a dramatic surge in severe animal cruelty cases following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Massachusetts, animal cruelty reports skyrocketed from 896 in 2022 to 1,310 in 2023—a 46% increase in just one year. Massachusetts courts show animal cruelty cases increased by more than 70% from 2019 to 2022.

This isn't just a problem in Massachusetts. In New York, SPCA agencies saw severe cruelty cases nearly double from 2020 to 2021. Singapore's SPCA documented a 79% surge from 2022 to 2023 - the highest in 11 years. In Michigan, animal cruelty incidents leapt from 123 in 2016 to 607 in 2021. The UK's RSPCA reported a 22% increase in beatings in 2022.

The types of abuse are horrific: dogs beaten, stabbed, burned with water, run over deliberately, buried alive, starved nearly to death, and shot. In August 2023, Massachusetts MSPCA charged the owners of a five-year-old dog found with broken legs, beaten, and nearly starved to death. His injuries were so severe that rescuers cried.

Juniper Fleming from Rebel Dogs Detroit describes what they saw, "We just got two dogs that were burned with scalding water. What we see are clearly the marks on their skin that tell a certain story."

Multiple factors drive this increase. The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented stress - financial insecurity, isolation, mental health crises, domestic tensions. When people are under extreme stress, vulnerable populations including pets often bear the brunt.

About 75% of women who experienced domestic violence reported that their abuser also threatened or hurt their pets. As domestic violence incidents increased during pandemic lockdowns, so did the abuse of animals. Pandemic isolation meant fewer people around to witness and report abuse. Mental illness and substance abuse problems worsened further during the pandemic.

This surge should concern everyone, even people who aren't particularly focused on animal welfare, because animal cruelty is a proven predictor of violence against humans. Naturally, humans who abuse other humans usually start with something that doesn’t have any power or voice, such as animals. The FBI has been able to track animal cruelty since 2016 because of its connection to other violent offenses. Roughly 85% of people arrested for animal abuse have had multiple past arrests, with 70% having prior felonies.

Some of the world’s most famous serial killers, such as Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz, and Ted Bundy, were all known to abuse animals before they began to kill people. Despite what some may say, this isn't a coincidence - it's a pattern.

A particularly insidious form is animal hoarding. Around 250,000 animals are victims of hoarding situations annually. The recidivism rate among hoarders is nearly 100%, which means that they almost always do it again if they aren’t stopped. Hoarders claim they're "rescuing" animals, but the reality is severe neglect.

One major problem is that despite the increase in abuse, prosecution rates remain relatively low. Many cases never result in charges, and when they do, penalties are often minimal and don’t do much to actually punish the criminals.

What needs to happen: we need to create better laws with strong felony-level penalties in every state; abuser registries similar to sex offender registries; mandatory reporting by veterinarians and animal shelter workers; cross-system coordination since animal abuse correlates with domestic violence and child abuse; mental health intervention; public education; and resources for struggling pet owners.

If you see signs of abuse, report it, and document what you see. Support animal welfare organizations, and begin advocating for stronger laws. Animal abuse is increasing, and it matters beyond animal welfare - it's a public safety issue and a predictor of violence against humans. Right now, we're failing them.