Children’s cruelty to animals is a signal of lack of education and this turns into cruelty to humans in adulthood, psychologist Zinaida Gribincea said in a news conference organized by third-year students of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the State University of Moldova, IPN reports.
Zinaida Gribincea said the use of violence against animals derives from psychological factors. Their identification only cannot help eliminate the phenomenon. Education is more important. When a person accidentally hurts an animal on the road, this should not leave the animal there to die or to be crushed by other cars. The children, when seeing the indifference of adults, become less empathic and consider that this is right. The parents should not hit animals as the children repeat such behavior and become violent towards the own parents when they grow older. The violent behavior towards animals can be combated by education and the authorities should introduce this theme in the school course “Civic Education”.
Valentina Dudnic, head of the Animal Protection Association “Alga”, said the activity of civil society is not sufficient for fighting cruelty to animals. Even if 100 public associations work in this regard, it won’t be enough to eradicate this phenomenon. Work should be done at the level of society. “Alga” stages different events to present animals to children and to show them how they should behave, to cultivate the feeling of respect for all living creatures. The associations also collets funds for neutering animals without masters.
Ana Batan, a student of the Faulty of Journalism and one of the conference organizers, said the event was staged following reports about acts of cruelty towards animals. A video showing how a group of teens kill a kitten by hitting this with stones was recently disseminated through the Internet. In another case, a dog was burned alive and then crushed by a motorcycle for several times.
According to the conference organizers, even if the legislation of Moldova stipulates punishment for acts of cruelty to animals, the law enforcement bodies do not act to punish those to blame. The punishments should be made harsher. In other countries, those who use violence against animals are fined US$5,000 to US$ 8,000 and can be even jailed.
