Cat Massacre at Iowa Shelter Splits a Town

Sydney Morning Herald - Daily News

UNITED STATES

Saturday, September 13, 1997

A national campaign against animal abuse has followed the slaughter of cats in an Iowa animal shelter by four local teenagers, reports David Hay in Los Angeles.

When three Iowa high school students bludgeoned 16 cats to death with baseball bats last March, the attack sparked national outrage.

With the trial set for November, the cat massacre has brought a campaign to stiffen the law to combat a spreading epidemic of animal abuse.

Only 18 States have laws banning animal torture, and Iowa is not one of them.

"We've seen a huge increase in attacks against animals, especially by male juveniles," said a senior spokeswoman for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Ms. Pamela Frasch.

"We receive reports from all over the country, whether it be cats doused with lighter fluid and set on fire, or other animals - [but] cats in particular - being tortured with electric rods and then having their heads sawn off."

The Iowa killings has galvanised public opinion. "This has become the signature case which people point to when they argue we have to start paying attention to this epidemic," Ms. Frasch said.

One night last winter, Chad Lamansky, Dan Myers and Justin Toben, all 18 and from the rural town of Fairfield, took baseball bats and drove to the local Noah's Ark Animal Foundation, a shelter set up by a California couple who had come to Fairfield to attend the Maharishi University there.

Before the attack, in the parking lot of the local shopping centre, Lamansky boasted how he had killed and skinned his family's cat.

When the teenagers arrived at the animal shelter, they entered and beat the trapped cats to death with their baseball bats. The entire scene was recorded on the centre's security videotape.

One of the boys, Toben, sickened, ran from the slaughter.

The next morning, one of the shelter's founders, David Sykes, arrived to find blood splattered over the walls and dozens of cats lying on the floor dead or badly injured. Many of the 75 cats housed at the centre fled to the basement and did not emerge for weeks.

Lamansky and Myers have been charged with breaking and entering, and the county prosecutor has announced he will seek 10-year prison terms.

Toben, in return for giving evidence against the others, has been sentenced to 200 hours of community service and three years on probation.

The county court has been inundated with letters and e-mail from animal activists, many demanding that Lamansky and Myers be required to serve their full sentences if they are convicted.

Many of the locals see the teenagers' action as more misguided than vicious, and adhere to the traditional "boys will be boys" philosophy.

But criminologists dispute claims that wanton violence against animals is part of growing up or due to an adolescent excess of testosterone.

"There's a definite link between violence against animals and violence against humans," Ms. Frasch said.

"Whether it's a direct correlation has yet to be proved, but one recent study shows that in 88 per cent of homes where child abuse is going on, animal abuse is also going on"

FBI experts say animal abuse is mainly carried out by males, and a majority of their victims are cats.

"A lot of these perpetrators view cats as being female and very feminine," Ms. Frasch said. "These young men are thus acting out their feelings against women in general."

A leading Boston researcher, Professor Arnold Arluke, has shown a clear correlation between animal abuse and other anti-social behaviour.

Comparing 153 animal abusers to neighbours of similar age and gender, Dr Arluke found animal abusers were five times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, three times more likely to commit drug-related crimes, "even three times more likely to get traffic tickets."

"What we found was that abusing animals proved to be a red flag for all sorts of violent behaviour," he said.

Animal activists plan to attend the Iowa trial.

"We are working closely with the county attorney's office, providing experts and research into this type of abuse," Ms. Frasch said.

"The prosecution has a very strong case, especially when you see the videotape of what happened there. That will be very tough for any jury to watch."

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