Cruelty in the Corona Age: The number of cases opened for killing animals with poison jumped by 55% in 2020 • 60% of cases opened - shelved • Experts: "Low deterrence result"
Increased animal abuse - a result of minimal enforcement and low deterrence
Photography:
Photo: Let the animals live
An alarming increase in cases of violence against animals in 2020 is evident from the police data revealed here for the first time.
Last year, it turns out, there was a 15% increase in complaints filed for offenses under the Animal Cruelty Act, compared to 2019.
While in 2019 the police opened 306 cases centered on a complaint of violence against animals, last year their number jumped to 353.
The most common offense in this context involves killing an animal with poison, and the number of cases in the garden has risen by 55%.
The data also reveal that in 2020 there was an increase of about 26% in cases involving animal abuse compared to 2019, and a 7% increase in cases centered on killing or causing physical damage to an animal.
What is more serious is that close to 60% of the cases opened due to a complaint of an offense under the Animal Cruelty Law were shelved.
Half of them are due to inability to locate the offender, about a third of them due to lack of evidence, and about a fifth due to the police decision that the circumstances of the case are not suitable for opening an investigation or prosecution.
Disturbing conclusions
Other disturbing conclusions provided by the official data of the Israel Police show that only in one percent of all cases opened, a judicial decision was made, 13% of them are still under police investigation, and 19% of cases are being examined by the State Attorney's Office.
The data also reveal that most cases of violence against animals were opened in the second half of 2020, a period full of school holidays (the big holiday and the Tishrei holidays).
Advocate Idit Reichert, a criminal law expert and former senior prosecutor in the State Attorney's Office: "The data collected are disturbing and are the result of minimal enforcement and low deterrence.
Thus, for example, many cases are closed due to difficulty in locating the perpetrators, a place where sophisticated investigative measures could and should have been used, whether on street cameras or in monitoring acts on the networks, and bringing the perpetrators to justice.
In addition, the lenient punishments imposed on animal abusers do not deter potential offenders. "
