By LACHLAN CARTWRIGHT
Sun Online Oct. 13/05
THE Sun has today launched a campaign to stamp out animal cruelty with the disturbing statistic that 200 pets are killed or maimed every day.
Now we want you to tell us if you know anyone who has been convicted of animal cruelty offences but got off with a light punishment.
Email us at yourviews@the-sun.co.uk with details of what the sick yob did and the lenient penalty he or she was given
The Campaign Continues - please spread the word about this most important issue !
WHY - Join the Stamp It Out Campaign ?
Heartbreak over dog Spot
SUN REPORTS - Fiends start on animals
By HEATHER BROWNE
MANY notorious serial murderers got their first taste for killing by torturing and slaughtering pets.
Monsters including Ian Brady, Dunblane gunman Thomas Hamilton and schoolboy killer Robert Thompson reportedly "practised" on animals.
And expert Kate Fowler-Reeves, who wrote a report for police in links between animal and human abuse, said: "To protect animals and people, we must stop violence at its roots."
Kate, from animal rights charity PETA, praised The Sun campaign.
She said "Taking animal abuse seriously is the first step and it's wonderful that The Sun has taken on this issue at a national level.
"It's important to recognise the signs in children. You don't know what you are stopping, but they could be the next Robert Thompson."
Thompson just ten when he and Jon Venables killed toddler James Bulger on Merseyside in 1993 had earlier vented his rage by pulling the heads of baby pigeons.
Moors murderer Ian Brady tortured cats before throwing them off the roofs of Glasgow tenement buildings. He went on to murder five children with twisted Myra Hindley.
Gun nut Thomas Hamilton squashed rabbits' heads under the wheels of a car and encouraged boys to shoot animals at random before killing 16 tots and their teacher in a school gym in 1996.
Cromwell Street killer Fred West who murdered at least 12 victims before burying them at his Gloucester home, was said to have battered rabbits as a boy.
Mary Bell throttled pigeons as a cry for help during a harsh childhood of abuse. Then, aged just ten, she strangled two toddlers.
Other related links .........
First Strike: The Connection Between Animal Cruelty and Human Violence
More Notorious Killers
Again - As a child, serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy ultimately convicted of two killings but suspected of murdering more than 40 womenwitnessed his father's violence toward animals, and he himself subsequently tortured animals.
Earl Kenneth Shriner, who raped and stabbed a 7-year-old boy, was known in his neighborhood for hanging cats and torturing dogs.
David Berkowitz (a.k.a. "Son of Sam"), who pleaded guilty to 13 murder and attempted murder charges, shot a neighbor's Labrador retriever.
Brenda Spencer, who opened fire at a California school, killing two children and injuring nine others, had repeatedly abused cats and dogs, often setting their tails on fire.
Serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer impaled the heads of dogs and cats on sticks.
HOW MUCH MORE PROOF DO WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN VIOLENT CRIMES AGAINST ANIMALS - LEADS TO CRIMES AGAINST PEOPLE ????
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS MUST BE STOPPED AT THE GRASS ROOTS !
