Roni McCall, Executive Director of Inhumane.Org

Subject: Animal Rights
Contact: NoAbuse@inhumane.org

Roni McCall is the executive director of www.inhumane.org. She lives in Merrimack, New Hampshire. The website is used as a reference source for potential adopters. According to McCall, "Others use the statistics for strengthening legislation in their states as or statistcs show the weaknesses in the animal statutes, laws or courts."

Information on inhumane.org

• Non profit organization (501c3)


• Documents cases of animal cruelty from the United States as well as international cases.


• Helps move cases into the courtroom


• Helps pay for veterinary fees of abused animals that are part of their program.


• Work with legislators to get laws strengthened.

Interview

WG: What are some of the most common crimes you see committed against animals?
RM: "Neglect is the biggest thing we see, sometimes it is just a matter ofsomeone not knowing how to properly care for an animal so we will helpeducate them. Other times it is someone who is hoarding animals - theythink they are the only ones who can help those animals but in fact they areharming them more because they are not getting the medical attention, theyneed."

WG: Why do you think people don't realize they are doing more harm than good sometimes?
RM: "Those people have a psycological problem of not being able tolet go of the animals. Almost all of the animals are sickly, have mange,worms or other parasites and are not being fed and sheltered properly."

WG: What are types of abuse cases are typical?
RM: "Other cases are of domestic and elder abuse where the animal is the firstone in the family to be harmed, sometimes long before the kids or parentsare harmed. The person who is harming the family is ususally someone whohas anger issues and takes it out on the family pet first, or they havecontrol issues in a world that is out of control for them."

WG: How are these crimes reported and who often does the reporting?
RM: "Neighbors often report the hoarder cases because the stench coming from thehome is terrible. Domestic and elder abuse is rarely reported until someone is hurt badly orthe family enters a shelter for protection."

WG: Are a lot of abusers punished for their crimes?
RM: "Some do but most don't get punished as often as they should. "

WG: When these abusers are reported, what happens?
RM: "Every state has different animal cruelty statutes which decide if the crime is a misdemeanor or felonycrime. Felony crimes can go to jail but in first offenses most are plea bargained out. If the offender is a teenager, these plea cases don't help because in most instances within 2 years the offender has gone on to commit a more heinous crime."

WG: Any words of wisdom?
RM: Education is the key to stopping animal cruelty. People need to learn theearly warning signs, police departments need to get more aggressive at getting cases into courts and judges need to be stricter on the punishments."

WG: Thank you, Roni!
RM: "You're welcome!"