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Gayle Shomer Brezicki

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For The HSUS

Gayle Shomer Brezicki / For The HSUS

Together, we can reduce needless cruelty to animals.

Animal cruelty includes intentional, malicious acts of animal abuse and less clear-cut situations where the needs of an animal are neglected. Violence against animals has been linked to a higher likelihood of criminal violence and domestic abuse.

Continuously chaining or tethering a dog outside can lead to painful sores on the neck, increased anxiety and other negative effects on the animal's physical and psychological well-being.

Kendra Stanley-Mills / AP Images for The HSUS

Combatting pet overpopulation

One way you can help reduce the number of animals without a comfortable home is to have your pets spayed or neutered. This will help reduce number of homeless pets and animals in shelters, which will lead to less animals euthanized each year. Spaying or neutering also has health and behavioral benefits for your pet.

Facts and stats

50

STATES

Have enacted animal cruelty laws that also include felony provisions since 2014.

71-83%

OF ABUSE CASES

Also affect animals; women entering domestic violence shelters report that their partners hurt or killed the family pet.

23%

LONGER LIFESPAN

Can be expected of a female dog who has been spayed. Male dogs who have been neutered can live 18% longer than those not.

For every animal saved, countless others are still suffering. By stepping up for them, you can create a future where animals no longer have to suffer in puppy mills, factory farms, testing labs or other heartbreaking situations. Start saving lives today!

We're fighting against animal cruelty and neglect.

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Animal cruelty and abuse includes intentional harm or ignoring an animal's needs.

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People who hurt animals don't stop with animals. There is an established link between cruelty to animals and violence toward humans - regularly referred to as "The Link."

This link makes it critically important that cruelty toward animals be taken seriously by law enforcement, and by society at large. This is for the sake of the animals themselves, and for people who are also at risk.

Ample research backs up the finding that there is a direct link between acts of cruelty to animals and violence toward humans. This includes child abuse, domestic violence, elder abuse and other violent behavior.

Here are just a handful of examples of the research supporting that conclusion:

A landmark 1997 study by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Northeastern University found that animal abusers are in fact five times as likely to also harm other humans.

Another study, published in 2013, found that 43% of those who commit school massacres also committed acts of cruelty to animals - generally against cats and dogs.

Phil Arkow, coordinator of the National Link Coalition - a group focusing on the intersection between violence toward animals and humans - has written often about animal abuse being an indication of domestic violence, or what's called a "predictor crime."

Indeed, a 1983 study notes that animal abuse was found in 88% of homes in which physical child abuse was being investigated.

If a child is cruel to animals, research shows it may be a sign that serious abuse or neglect has been inflicted on the child. Children who witness animal abuse are at greater risk of becoming abusers themselves.

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

This finding is in line with other research showing that domestic violence toward pets both correlates with domestic violence toward humans, and is also a tool of domestic abuse - violent members of the household will threaten to hurt or actually hurt a companion animal as a method of control and a form of emotional violence. Indeed, more than half of women in domestic violence shelters report that they delayed their escape out of fear for their animals.

The Law Must Protect Animals and Punish Animal Abusers

Both because animals themselves need protection, and because of the link between cruelty to animals and cruelty to humans, violence against animals must be taken seriously under the law.

There are some ways in which the law is reflecting this seriousness. For example, all 50 states now have felony animal cruelty laws on the books. Nearly two thirds of states allow pets to be included in domestic violence protective orders. These are just among the advances we've seen at the state level in this area.

There are felony provisions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for intentionally killing a dog or cat.

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Animal Cruelty and Domestic Violence - The Link Between Cruelty to Animals and Violence Toward Humans

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People who hurt animals don't stop with animals. There is an established link between cruelty to animals and violence toward humans - regularly referred to as "The Link." This link makes it critically important that cruelty toward animals be taken seriously by law enforcement, and by society at large.

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Hundreds of thousands of puppies that are raised in puppy mill conditions are advertised online each day, according to a report released by the nonprofit the International Fund for Animal Welfare Tuesday.

Nine investigators from the animal rights group and 16 volunteers spent a full day in July tracking ads on six high-volume puppy sale websites -- Animaroo, DogsNow, NextDayPets, PuppyFind, PuppyTrader, and TerrificPets -- and three sites that sell puppies in addition to other goods -- Craigslist, eBay Classifieds, and Oodle. Investigators then spent two months analyzing the collected ads.

In one day, more than 733,000 puppies were advertised for sale, with prices ranging from $1 to thousands of dollars each, according to the report. The investigators estimated that 62 percent of the nearly 10,000 ads from the six puppy sale websites were likely from puppy mills, commercial breeders that prioritize profit above the animals' welfare.

"The Internet is the Wild West of puppy mills. It's a 24-7 unmonitored, anonymous marketplace, the world's largest marketplace. It's very difficult to monitor and therefore easy for sellers to circumvent laws," Jeff Flocken, director of the IFAW office in Washington, told The Huffington Post.

Investigators used a variety of factors to determine if a facility was likely a puppy mill, including if the seller screens potential owners, if puppies under eight weeks old are offered, and if the same puppy is advertised as a different puppy elsewhere. Other criteria the investigators searched for included if sites have a no refund or return policy, if 20 or more puppies are advertised at a time, if registration papers for the puppy are offered, if sale slogans such as "Christmas Pets" or "Easter Pets" are used, and if puppies appear photoshopped into artificial settings.

A telltale sign, Flocken said, is if the seller will only ship the puppy or meet some place other than the kennel. "Never buy an animal unless you can see the facility in which it was raised," he said.

The online advertiser with the largest percentage of puppy mill animals, according to study, was Animaroo, where 85 percent of the ads appeared to from puppy mills. Next was PuppyTrader, with 64 percent "likely puppy mill" ads, DogsNow with 62 percent, NextDayPets with 61 percent, PuppyFind with 55 percent and TerrificPets with 44 percent.

The site with the highest quantity of puppies being advertised was Oodle.com, which was advertising more than 440,000 puppies, with over 212,000 ads, on July 18. Oodle was followed by eBayclassifieds.com, which was advertising more than 79,000 puppies, with more than 38,000 ads, that same day.

Dean Hamill, president of PuppyTrader.com, told HuffPost that if he gets a complaint with merit from a buyer, he removes the breeder from the site and forbids any advertising from the breeder. "Breeders of bad reputation are usually found out quickly with this type of feedback," he said.

Hamill said that he thinks the report is "deceptive and highly biased." "The writers even admit to the report's likely inaccuracy by using their criteria to come to a conclusion that the advertisers were to be classified as only 'likely a puppy mill,'" he said.

He also said that pet stores and brokers -- not individual buyers -- keep problematic breeders in business.

The other websites in the report did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment.

According to the nonprofit, this is the first investigation of this magnitude. Flocken said investigators were shocked to find out how many ads there were in one day.

And the problem is getting worse as the demand for dogs increases, according to IFAW. The number of dogs living in U.S. homes is at an all-time high at more than 78 million, according to the American Pet Products Association's 2011-2012 National Pet Owners Survey.

The most effective solution, the report says, is consumer awareness. IFAW held a press conference with actor Ben Stein in Los Angeles Tuesday to announce the report.

"Consumers opting to purchase puppies over the Internet are duped into believing they are buying from reputable breeders," Stein said in a press release. "The cute puppy images shown on many seller websites hide the heartbreaking reality of the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in which the dogs are housed."

Puppies from puppy mills often have serious health conditions that either result in costly veterinarian expenses or premature death, according to the group. "Sometimes a puppy dies within days of joining a family," Tracy Coppola, campaigns officer of IFAW, told HuffPost. "Even if they do live, they're shell-shocked, permanently emotionally disturbed."

In addition to using the report to inform consumers, the nonprofit hopes to urge websites to refrain from posting puppy mill ads and to persuade the U.S. Department of Agriculture to put into action the online puppy mill sales regulation it proposed in May.

"The USDA recently recognized that online sales were a loophole in the outdated 1966 Animal Welfare Act. We hope they use this report to put an end to this abuse," Coppola said.

The nonprofit plans to take the report to Capitol Hill in the spring to lobby Congress to provide increased funding to hire more inspectors for the USDA Animal Care Program.

Since 2004, IFAW has performed numerous investigations on Internet wildlife trade, including a report that convinced eBay to institute a global ban on the sale of ivory products on its site.

In October, Los Angeles became the largest city in the U.S. to ban the sale of commercially-bred pets, requiring pet stores to sell rescues only. LA Councilman Paul Koretz introduced the ban after his own Bichon Frise died due to an illness he said he believes was caused by conditions at the puppy mill that sold him the dog.

"Dogs have become members of our family in the U.S.," Coppola said to HuffPost. "We're really talking about profit-making entities that are treating family members as crops, as agricultural commodities. This hurts dogs, and it hurts families."

UPDATE: Animaroo sent the following statement to HuffPost:

Animaroo is, and has been for over five years, the only online site that takes the time and performs the personal contact needed with each and every breeder that advertises on its website. Be looking to Animaroo.com in the coming weeks for more stringent programs, a guaranteed puppy mill-free environment, and a respectable place for breeders and dog lovers to interact.

PuppyFind sent the following statement:

PuppyFind was launched in 2003 to help the public connect "directly" with dog breeders, instead of relying on pet stores -- which have been known to sell puppies from puppy mills.

We screen all new accounts and do not allow pet stores or known puppy mills to advertise. We limit the number of listings posted to each account, developed a breeder rating and review system, and added a "Buyer Tips" page to arm buyers with the information they need to find great breeders and the perfect puppy.

animal abuse Pets Animals puppy mills International Fund for Animal Welfare

Before You Go

Executive Editor, The WorldPost

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Massive Online Puppy Mill Industry Exposed

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Hundreds of thousands of puppies that are raised in puppy mill conditions are advertised online each day, according to a report released by the nonprofit the International Fund for Animal Welfare Tuesday.

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When a dog or cat comes into the clinic with injuries caused by blunt-force trauma, it probably was hit by a car. Or was it?

Veterinarians generally rely on their instincts to tell the difference between an accident and abuse. But eliminating some of the guesswork in suspected cases of cruelty or neglect could help get animals out of violent households and produce evidence to prosecute their abusers.

Nida Intarapanich, a third-year veterinary student at Cummings School, took up that cause, one at the forefront of the emerging field of veterinary forensic science. She has developed a statistical modeling tool that looks at injury patterns to help veterinarians distinguish between accident and intent. And because an abused animal often signals more widespread violence in a household, her work could help human victims, too.

"Violence doesn't exist in a vacuum," says Intarapanich, who volunteered at animal shelters and crisis centers for human victims of domestic violence while she was an undergraduate at Dartmouth College.

"Often an animal is a much more effective way for an abuser to control the people in their household than threatening them directly," she says. "Victims of domestic violence have said they'd rather be hurt than have their animals be hurt. An abuser can use a puppy or kitten to force the woman to stay, keep their kids quiet or make them otherwise do as they're told."

The Humane Society of the United States estimates that nearly 1 million animals a year are abused or killed in episodes of domestic violence. In 2013, the Animal Rescue League of Boston helped investigate 420 criminal cases of animal cruelty or neglect. The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigated 2,089 suspected cases of animal maltreatment in 2012, according to its most recent data.

Injuries from car accidents and abuse manifest in very different patterns, says Intarapanich, who examined the medical records of 400 dogs and cats hit by cars and treated at Cummings School's Foster Hospital for Small Animals. She also looked at 50 confirmed cases of abused dogs and cats from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Her work, done with faculty mentors Elizabeth Rozanski, an emergency and critical care vet, and Emily McCobb, V00, VG03, director of the Shelter Medicine Program, was funded by the school's student research program.

Abused animals, Intarapanich discovered, tend to have a much higher rate of head injuries and rib fractures. They also sustain tooth fractures and claw damage. "Many veterinarians associate claw damage with a pet skidding across the pavement after being struck by a car," Intarapanich says. "But our research showed it's far more significantly associated with physical abuse." The researchers suspect an animal injures its claws "in a frantic attempt to escape the actions of the abuser," she says.

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When a dog or cat comes into the clinic with injuries caused by blunt-force trauma, it probably was hit by a car. Or was it? Veterinarians generally rely on their instincts to tell the difference between an accident and abuse.

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The Criminal, Underground World of Dogfighting

Dogfighting is a type of blood sport in which dogs are forced to fight one another for the entertainment and/or profit of spectators.

Dogfighting is one of the most heinous forms of animal cruelty. Dogs used for fighting are typically raised in isolation, so they spend most of their lives on short, heavy chains. They are regularly conditioned for fighting through the use of drugs, including anabolic steroids to enhance muscle mass and encourage aggressiveness.

Although dogfighting is a felony in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, it continues to occur in every part of the country and in every type of community. In the past decade, the ASPCA has assisted with approximately 200 dogfighting cases in at least 24 states, and has impacted through rescue, consultations and investigations nearly 5,000 victims of dogfighting.

Fights can happen in a variety of locations ranging from back alleys to carefully-staged enterprises. Fights typically take place in a 14-20 square-foot pit designed to contain the animals. Fights can last just a few minutes or several hours, and both animals may suffer injuries including puncture wounds, lacerations, blood loss, crushing injuries and broken bones. Although fights are not usually to the death, many dogs succumb to their injuries later, and losing dogs are often discarded, killed or brutally executed as part of the "sport."

Dogfighting is often associated with other forms of criminal activity including illegal gambling and possession of drugs and firearms. By our estimate, there are tens of thousands of dogfighters in the U.S., forcing hundreds of thousands of dogs to train, fight, and suffer every year.

To learn more, visit A Closer Look at Dogfighting.
Help Us End Dogfighting Today
If you suspect dogfighting or other animal abuse is happening in your community, please speak up. Find out how to report animal cruelty.

How to Spot Signs of Dogfighting

It is important to be able to recognize the signs identified with dogfighting so that you can report any suspected dogfighting activity to your local authorities.

If you witness the following signs in your community and suspect dogfighting activity, you should consider contacting your local authorities immediately:

1. Dogs with multiple scars, possibly with lips or ears ripped off

2. Pit bull-mix-type dogs weighing approximately 40-50 lb.

3. Dogs on heavy chains, tethered to a tire axle or dog house/barrel

4. Dirt ring around the dog

5. Dogs chained inches apart from one another

6. Dogs chained or penned in a secluded area intentionally kept out of the public's view

Keep in mind that in urban communities like New York City, dogs used for fighting are often found living in secluded, indoor areas such as basements, where they are hidden from public view.

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Dogfighting is a type of blood sport in which dogs are forced to fight one another for the entertainment and/or profit of spectators. Dogfighting is one of the most heinous forms of animal cruelty. Dogs used for fighting are typically raised in isolation, so they spend most of their lives on short, heavy chains.