"One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with it."
~Margaret Mead, Anthropologist

Since October 1997 when Ninja's story first went online, the site generated a great deal of email. Many people had questions about animal cruelty and how they could help. These were all drawn from actual emails. Hopefully, these answers will help you.


What is animal abuse/cruelty?
The term "animal cruelty," or "animal abuse," by its very nature is broad. According to the most basic interpretation of statutes from all 50 states here in America, it is defined as: "Any act against an animal that willfully and knowingly causes harm, injury, and/or death." Most states limit this act to actual "substantial" physical injury to the animal and all exclude from punishment under the law the acts of hunting, slaughter and religious ritual sacrifice protected by the US Constitution. In most states, violence against animals is a misdemeanor.

What are the animal cruelty laws in my state?
The Animal Legal & Historical Web Center (Michigan State University College of Law) provides the complete statutes by state here: Anti-Cruelty Statutes. You can see at a glance whether your state considers animal cruelty a misdemeanor or a felony.

What should I do if I suspect or witness animal abuse?
Report the crime! This is the most important step. For complete details of who, what, where, when and how to report abuse, please visit our sister site, All Critters' How to Report Animal Abuse.

Why should I care? They're just animals.
Why should anyone care about child abuse? Rape? Mass murder? Because it is fundamentally wrong and destructive behavior that endangers society as a whole, not "just an animal." It is common knowledge that violence against animals is indicative of deep psychological problems in those who commit such acts. Not every person who abuses animals goes on to become a serial killer, but statistics show they do go on to other types of violent crime, including but not limited to: child molestation, rape, domestic abuse, robbery, arson and murder. Recent studies have even shown a connection between animal abuse and acts of violence termed "road rage." There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of case studies that prove the connection between animal cruelty and crimes against society. Do the research. Animal abuse is bad for everyone.

You're a sinner! The Bible says animals are ours to do what we want with.
While the Bible is many things, it is not a manual for animal abuse. It is only used as such by those who wish to justify their actions. It's also the defense homophobes used when they tied an innocent young man to a fence before torturing and murdering him. Just one example among millions. It is the shield behind which many a vile, evil person has hidden to protest their innocence when committing any number of barbarous acts from wife and child beating to mass murder.

Why don't you have an email address or guestbook?
While there are many who found Ninja to be both educational and inspirational, far too many have used it as an excuse to badger, harass, threaten and otherwise make life miserable. Our host, Pawprints and Purrs, Inc. keeps Ninja's story online because it is about kids hurting animals. If you can't learn from Ninja's story, we can't help you. No one can.

Where's Ninja's Ring?
See above. Ninja's Ring, instead of bringing animal welfare sites together as a unified force, seemed to bring all the kooks out of the woodwork. We no longer have the time nor inclination to deal with kooks.

Why did/didn't you __________ (fill in the blank)?
Isn't it remarkable that, despite the many assorted afflictions in every day vision suffered by the earth's population, everyone seems to have perfect 20/20 hindsight? Why is it that some people can't take this story for what it is? Why do some people have no ability whatsoever to understand context? Who knows?

My husband and I took Ninja in instead of leaving her to whatever harsh fate might have befell her on Guam. We saw that she had food and shelter when all we had to eat was bread and rice. We tried to do the best by her in a place where animals are considered of no consequence unless they are fighting dogs or cocks. Guam is not the United States.

It isn't easy being 9,000 miles from home with no phone, no car, no friends and only $637 a month to live on; especially when rent and electricity take $587, leaving only $50 for food for a month. It is even more difficult when the Navy, in its infinite wisdom, sends you off for months at a time with little or no notice. And for those who accused us of "jetting around the world on vacation," obviously you know nothing about military life. Temporary duty is no vacation. Neither is flying on a military airplane. When traveling on orders, ticket cost for military personnel and their families are paid by their service i.e. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Air Force. These flights are usually on cramped, unheated military cargo planes. We've flown, sitting backwards in a jumpseat, facing 50,000 pounds of ammunition and explosives for 21 hours more times than I care to remember.

It was also very hard when, again in its infinite wisdom, the Navy decided not to pay for our flight home when my mother had a stroke and needed to be placed in a long-term care facility and I was the only one with the power to do it. The Navy said, since she wasn't dead yet, it couldn't be counted as emergency leave, hence they wouldn't pay for the trip. We had to swallow our pride and borrow $3,000 from Navy Relief and the Red Cross in order to go back to Texas. It took 3 weeks to deal with the lawyers, the convalescent center, the doctors and the paperwork. Since my husband didn't have any more leave time, this cost us $37 per day. No, leave time is not free. It's cumulative over time at the rate of 1.5 days of leave for each month of active duty service.

48-hours after finishing the ordeal of putting my mother into a home and our return to Guam, my mother passed away. This forced us to go through the entire process again, and while the Navy did pay for our flights this time, we had to return to Navy Relief and the Red Cross for traveling expenses. By the end of it all, we owed $4,500 to both these agencies. This, like any other debt owed to the military/government, came out of my husband's paycheck first, at $130 per month - $130 we didn't have to spare to begin with. It took us many years to pay off this debt, while still incurring others as part of simply trying to live.

The military doesn't care if you don't have enough money to eat or keep a roof over your head. They simply want their money. This is yet another reason why so many young enlisted families are on food stamps.

The fact that I have to make explanations or justifications for what happened continues to mystify me. It shouldn't matter. The story is about children doing violence to animals. It is not my life story.

The bottom line to all you complainers, insulters, flamers and hate-mongers: when you've lived this exact same experience and done it better than we did, then you can talk. JL Guidry


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