Ron, with all due respect, we as a country cannot decide what constitutes child abuse much less animal abuse. There are those who think that spanking is child abuse. If we cannot decide on what we are trying to prevent (child abuse) then how can we decide what constitutes the supposed indicator of child abuse?

Don’t forget that some PETA members think that merely having a pet is animal abuse. Whose definition do you want to use?

Lastly, we’ve got FAR more important things to worry about than this. It’s already covered reasonably well. Kat (#15) said it all extremely well.

Our government,aided by an inept big media and some plaintiff attornies looking out for the “little guy”, more and more legislate on what “sounds good” as opposed to well conducted, factual research. I mean, who would not be for protecting animals from abuse.

I’m going to assume you are not evil so you must have a strong believe that animal suffering does not put the creatures in distress in any way that approximates human pain and suffering. But, remember, before you are so sure that if aliens come down here and they are as many times smarter than me than you are to a dog, their being so smart is not going to decrease my pain any if they allow me to suffer.

If children want rights, they should just ask?

So the answer on your question is: Yes.

And I find it much more disturbing than the other way around. As I said before, I used to have a dog that was abused by the previous owner, the dog reacted like I was the one that abused her. In fact she was afraid of all males. With a bill like this; i wouldn’t want to know what all could have gone wrong.

“We have a deal with the bank: They don’t make pizza, and we don’t take checks.”

Methinks the NY fool–er, politician–who’s trying to get this thing passed forgot that simple thought. Are animal-control officers also going to be looking for “signs” of child abuse, too?

Regardless, child-protection workers clearly have a main function – protecting children. It seems that their focus should be on that job, and if they manage to totally eradicate child abuse, then maybe they can move on to lesser tasks.

The problem is, of course, that you are asking people to discern something and form an expert opinion on it without being an expert. The consequences of being wrong could be horrific for the social worker, the animal worker, and the person being “interviewed.”

Largely, I think animal abuse is fairly easy to spot and I suspect the person who believes they see abuse will be cross examined a bit to make sure it sounds credible.

Ron, with all due respect, we as a country cannot decide what constitutes child abuse much less animal abuse. There are those who think that spanking is child abuse. If we cannot decide on what we are trying to prevent (child abuse) then how can we decide what constitutes the supposed indicator of child abuse?

I suspect the person who believes they see abuse will be cross examined a bit to make sure it sounds credible.

So the person has to answer additional questions, or answer to another party based on the observations of an untrained government employee on something that we cannot define.

This is a disaster waiting to happen.

Just a side note from the cited article:
“Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, who is sponsoring the state bill, which is stalled in committee amid resistance from social services providers, said yesterday that legal accountability is necessary to ensure that more cases of child and animal abuse are reported.”

Why is is that representatives and other governmental officials always seem to demand “accountability” from others, and never take responsibilty for their own actions?