FBI profiler sheds light on animal abuse

The pathology of an animal abuser is difficult to profile. A child who abuses animals may go on to commit crimes against people, but that’s not always the case.

Likewise, there is no absolute proof that all spouse abusers and serial killers start out by abusing animals, says Dr. Mary Ellen O’Toole, a retired FBI profiler who worked in the organization’s prestigious Behavioral Analysis Unit.

O’Toole, now a private forensic behavioral consultant, is the FBI’s leading expert on psychopathy, a disorder in which people feel no empathy toward animals or people. She said research exists that points to a genetic component in psychopathy, as well as environmental factors.

"A psychopath is somebody that has 20 specific traits, and whether you live in Brownsville, Texas, or San Francisco, or Seoul, South Korea, this disorder has been empirically studied for years. And one of the 20 traits is that you lack empathy for other people, not just for people, but you lack empathy for animals, too," she said.

"So, if you don’t have empathy for people, or animals, you can treat them however you want – and walk away. And you don’t think about them. You don’t care."

For some people, genetics may play a bigger role than upbringing; for others, upbringing and environment may be a more determining influence on behavior.

O’Toole said if a person is the child of a serial killer with a parent’s genetic makeup, and on top of that, the serial killer was raised in a violent home, the combination is going to create a serious problem. However, a person with a genetic link for psychopathy who is raised in a healthy home environment could avoid some of the pitfalls of the disorder.

Psychopaths escalating to the level of serial killer are very rare, she said. More often, people who have psychopathy disorder may abuse their spouses and children.

Children manifesting this behavior may kick around dogs and cats without engaging in torture. But O’Toole said that’s just splitting hairs, cruelty is cruelty and there don’t necessarily have to be any stressors to provoke someone to abuse a person or an animal.

"It could be just for the pleasure of hurting another person, and in some instances, it could be for sexual pleasure, as warped as that may sound," O’Toole said. "It could be simply very intentional, very deliberate thinking that, ‘I like to do this. I like to hear the pain in the victim’s cries or whatever.’ Which is really hideous, but it’s true."

O’Toole said she has asked numerous serial killers if they were ever cruel to animals, and they always responded, "Oh, no, I loved animals."

"Who do you go to, to verify if that’s a lie or if that’s truthful?" she said. "So sometimes I go about it the other way, and I’ll say, ‘What was your relationship like with animals?’ And I’ve had them tell me, like in one case, they gave me an example of what they did to a family rabbit.

"They didn’t see it as being cruel because their perception was, ‘I wasn’t being cruel. I own that rabbit. It’s an object. I can do whatever I want with it.’"

O’Toole said that when children are observed abusing animals, professional intervention is critical, but that situation is complicated. She used a hypothetical example in which two boys, Johnny and Bobby, both abuse animals. Whether they engage in increasingly abusive behavior depends on their motivation.

"If Bobby is motivated by the power and control and the feeling of omnipotence that he gets from hurting and being cruel to an animal, then he may decide that, ‘You know what? This is exciting, this is fun.’ And it gets worse and worse," she said.

"Johnny, on the other hand, doesn’t get any worse, but he doesn’t get the same kind of satisfaction out of it that Bobby did."

Children as young as 5 or 6 years of age have been known to abuse animals. O’Toole said that if an adult feels a child is experiencing a power trip, or worse, a sexual thrill from abusing an animal, professional help is needed and indicates more than "just a phase."

"That’s extreme behavior," she said. "It’s not good, on any level. Cruelty to animals is not good.

"You have to realize that when these behaviors are allowed to continue without any intervention, once you get into the teen years, you’re really asking for problems later on in life. And I think that a lot of times, we don’t want to think this requires professional help."