06/24/23 Raping a Cat is Not a Child's Prank, But a Dangerous Pathology!
Animal Friends Croatia highly condemns animal torture and the judge’s statement that children are “searching”
- They seek amendments to the Criminal Law and up to five years imprisonment for sexual abuse of animals.
Animal Friends Croatia highly condemns the brutal raping and also the subsequent killing of a helpless cat, performed by minors in a Roma settlement in Meðimurje County. It is highly concerning that minors not only performed a disgusting act of sexual abuse and killing of a cat, which on its own is extremely cruel and shows psychopathic tendencies, but during that, they also laughed, were enjoying it, an adult was filming it all and afterward, they further shared the content as an entertaining piece”, Animal Friends Croatia point out.
They add they are, as if all of that is not sufficiently horrifying, appalled by the judge’s statement Lane Peto Kujund¾iæ, who seems as if relativizing a crime and a performed criminal act with a statement that such behavior amongst minors is not unusual. Even though she is neither a psychologist nor a psychiatrist, Judge Peto Kujund¾iæ states: „Children always experiment and an experiment of sexuality to some aggressiveness and bad behavior towards animals is something they are testing, exploring, are not certain what they want or do not want, especially when in a group.”
Animal Friends Croatia considers it to be extremely dangerous that judges trivialize a criminal act of killing or torturing animals for which Article 205. of Criminal Law prescribes up to one-year imprisonment, and that with a statement that minors commit most disgusting cases of torture and killing of animals because they are „searching”: „Judiciary in the Republic of Croatia should be ensuring a follow through and the implementation of the laws and other legal norms and not justifying something that cannot be justified at all.”
They point out that scientific research in psychology and criminology proved that violent acts towards animals in childhood are an indicator of dangerous psychopathology and are usually the first sign of pathological violence that leads to human victims. The FBI points out that statistics for serial rapists and murderers reveal they have in common cruelty towards animals from their earliest childhood years. Besides that, standard manuals for diagnostics and treating of psychiatric and emotional disorders note cruelty towards animals as a diagnostic criteria for processing these disorders. Furthermore, it has been proven that also children in families with exceptional domestic violence direct their violent behavior towards one entity in a family who is more vulnerable than themselves – towards the animal, thereby participating in hierarchical abuse.
„It is well known that Roma settlements in Meðimurje County are full of domestic abuse that also reflects on abuse of animals. This is confirmed on a weekly basis of wounded, fractured and most horrific ways of tortured animals that end up in Èakovec shelter and whose caretaking is creating huge expenses for the local authority units. Therefore, torturing of animals cannot be viewed as a regular child’s prank and it is important that Croatia recognizes great problems in Roma settlements and starts to systematically solve them instead of swiping them under the rug.
Help is needed for the animals and the people over there and consistent implementation of all laws will help”, Animal Friends Croatia says.
Due to insufficient and too lenient sanctioning of criminal acts against animals, Animal Friends Croatia requested amendments to the Criminal Law and also provided their suggestions. Amongst them is also a proposal that sexual abuse of animals is regarded as a criminal offense as well as recording such content for the purpose of distribution of pornographic material. Other deviant motives, serious physical injuries, severe health damage, or if the death of an animal is caused, that person should be punished with imprisonment for up to five years.
