Epidemic:
Kids Hurting Animals

As mental-health and law-enforcement experts well know, cruelty to animals and violence against humans are inextricably linked. Many educators are aware that serial killers and school shooters—including alleged killers Salvador Ramos, Payton Gendron, Nikolas Cruz, and Ethan Crumbley—tend to have a history of cruelty to animals, and Sandy Hook Promise has cruelty to animals on its “10 Critical Warning Signs of Violence” list.

Forty-three percent of perpetrators of schoolyard massacres commit acts of cruelty to animals first. Educators can help prevent future tragedies by including kindness to animals in the curriculum. Amid the current epidemic of youth violence, PETA urges everyone to report every act of cruelty against animals and calls on authorities to take each animal abuse claim seriously—for the sake of the animal victims and to help prevent future harm. Lives may depend on it.

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South Dakota

State Laws

13-33-6.1. Character development instruction.

“Unless the governing body elects, by resolution, effective for not less than one or more than four school terms, to do otherwise, character development instruction shall be given in all public and nonpublic elementary and secondary schools in the state to impress upon the minds of the students the importance of citizenship, patriotism, honesty, self discipline, self respect, sexual abstinence, respect for the contributions of minority and ethnic groups to the heritage of South Dakota, regard for the elderly, and respect for authority.” (Source)

Reported Animal Abuse Cases

April 2024/Watertown, South Dakota

KXLG reported that two 16-year-olds were each facing charges, including felony cruelty to animals and aiding and abetting cruelty to animals, respectively, after apparently deliberately hitting a pregnant cow with a vehicle, which ultimately resulted in her death. This violent incident was apparently documented on social media, and the disturbing footage allegedly includes audio in which one of the individuals jeers, “Hit it, hit it, hit it” before the driver swerves and strikes the animal, with laughter erupting following the collision.

April 2018/Sioux Falls, South Dakota

DakotaNewsNow.com reported that a teenage boy was charged with cruelty to animals after police and others apparently saw him kicking and punching a dog repeatedly during a prolonged attack.