Tennessee ranks near bottom in battling cruelty to animals

The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal: In the past three years, Tennessee has had 17 large-scale animal (cruelty) emergency cases.

That’s more than any other state, and it’s one of the reasons the Humane Society of the United States has labeled Tennessee one of the worst states in the nation for protecting animals.

State statutes regard first-offense animal cruelty and cockfighting as mere misdemeanors.

The state’s reputation as a place that doesn’t care enough about animals goes beyond a weak set of animal protection laws.

Among other contributing factors is the image Memphis Animal Services has acquired for problems including a high euthanasia rate — a product of irresponsible residents who fail to spay, neuter or control dogs that accumulate in numbers that the city does not devote enough resources to control.

Embarrassing

At the state level, however, the record should be embarrassing. Penalties for negligence are weak. Some counties lack animal shelters of any kind.

It’s important not to simply write off the problem as a function of the state’s rural history or its resistance to interference in private property rights.

Animal cruelty is a step in the direction of cruelty to people — a step toward acts that state statutes recognize as crimes. And how we treat animals says a lot about us as human beings.