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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Nebraska

State Laws

79-725.
Character education; principles of instruction; duty of teachers.

“Each teacher employed to give instruction in any public, private, parochial, or denominational school in the State of Nebraska shall arrange and present his or her instruction to give special emphasis to common honesty, morality, courtesy, obedience to law, respect for the national flag, the United States Constitution, and the Constitution of Nebraska, respect for parents and the home, the dignity and necessity of honest labor, and other lessons of a steadying influence which tend to promote and develop an upright and desirable citizenry.” (Source)

Reported Animal Abuse Cases

May 2021/Lincoln, Nebraska

KLKN-TV reported that a 15-year-old boy was arrested and faces multiple charges, including cruelty to animals, for allegedly shooting and killing his family’s 1-year-old cat inside their home. Reportedly, authorities discovered that the gun used in the shooting had apparently been stolen from a friend’s house in the weeks prior and that the serial numbers on the firearm had been removed.

April 2021/Lincoln, Nebraska

Journalstar.com reported that two teenagers had been accused of killing a nesting female goose.

March 2016/Stanton, Nebraska

Norfolk Daily News reported that four teens, ranging from 13 to 14 years old, all admitted to their involvement in separate instances of torturing and killing a cat and an opossum. Reportedly, the teens’ violent attack on the cat was captured on video, which allegedly depicts the feline being shot with some type of arrow while trapped in a cage before the juveniles shot and killed the cat with a firearm.

May 2014/Jefferson County, Nebraska

KETV reported that a 12-year-old boy was sentenced to serve probation and receive counseling after allegedly admitting to torturing his Grandfather’s 3-pound Chihuahua while the dog was tied to a tree. Reportedly, the boy repeatedly kicked the tiny animal and hacked them with an ax, apparently shattering the dog’s jaw and dislocating one of their eyeballs from its socket during the violent onslaught.

November 2013/Lincoln, Nebraska

JournalStar.com reported that police cited a 17-year-old boy for allegedly trapping a cat and killing the animal with a hatchet.