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Animal Cruelty Demographics


	©iStockphoto
	Animal abuse cuts across all ages and genders.

Who commits animal cruelty? The Humane Society of the United States analyzed animal cruelty cases and issued reports in 2001, 2002 and 2003, and found that:

Males are more likely than females to subject animals to fighting contests and to commit direct, physical acts of animal cruelty;
Females have a higher percentage of involvement than males in animal hoarding cases; and
Animal neglect cases are more evenly split among the genders, although males are still more likely to be culprits than females.

Since then, studies in Massachusetts[1] and Rhode Island[2] reported 96 percent and 94 percent of defendants in animal cruelty cases, respectively, were male.

Further research[3] (of a total of 3,892 total cases) shows that, in cases where the alleged abuser was identified:

The alleged abuser was the owner of the animal(s) 65 percent of the time.
The alleged abuse was not the owner of the animal(s) 35 percent of the time.

These findings are further reinforced by the tables below, which reflect an HSUS analysis of 1,869 animal cruelty cases that occurred in 2007 (as reported by Pet-abuse.com).

Cruelty Crimes by Type and Perpetrator Gender

Gender/Year	All Cases	Intentional Cruelty	Animal Fighting	Neglect	Animal Hoarding
Male	77%	91%	93%	40%	33%
Female	23%	9%	7%	60%	67%

Percentage of Neglect Cases by Suspect Age and Gender

Year	2007	2007
Gender	M	F
Gender total	60	40
Child (0-14)	0	0
Youth (15-20)	2.6	2.1
Adult (21 and up)	58	38

Percentage of Hoarding Cases by Suspect Age and Gender

Year	2007	2007
Gender	M	F
Gender Total	33	67
Child (0-14)	0	0
Youth (15-20)	1.9	1.3
Adult (21 and up)	31	66

Percentage of Animal Fighting Cases by Suspect Age and Gender

Year	2007	2007
Gender	M	F
Gender Total	93	7
Child (0-14)	1.1	0
Youth (15-20)	12	0.2
Adult (21 and up)	79	7

Percentage of Intentional Cruelty Cases by Suspect Age and Gender

Year	2007	2007
Gender	M	F
Gender Total	91	9
Child (0-14)	5.6	0.2
Youth (15-20)	19	2.3
Adult (21 and up)	66	7

References

1. Arluke & Luke, 1997; Desnoyers, 2005. Arluke, A. & Luke, C. (1997). Physical cruelty toward animals in Massachusetts, 1975-1996. Society and Animals 5(3), 195-204.

2. Desnoyers, R.C. (2005). Animal cruelty in the State of Rhode Island: A twenty-five year perspective. Unpublished thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science in Criminal Justice, Roger Williams University School of Justice Studies.

3 . Pet-abuse.com.