In the aftermath of devastating massacres in New York and Texas, officials have scrambled to determine what warning signs were overlooked. While multiple factors may drive individuals to become mass shooters, one common denominator has emerged from both cases: a history of animal cruelty. Alleged Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron boasted he had decapitated a cat with a hatchet, after stabbing it and smashing its head. Similarly, suspected Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos tortured cats and displayed videos of the torture on social media. The link between animal cruelty and human violence is common knowledge.
Opinion: Baltimore’s ticking time bomb: uninvestigated animal cruelty cases
July 13, 2022