“I wouldn’t touch cats for a month or more for 200 subscriptions”
In April, Telegram launched at least 10 channels dedicated to the abuse and torture of animals: dogs, cats and more. Sergey Pershikov, an independent information security researcher and author of the OSINT/Forensic Telegram channel, told socialbites.ca about this. According to him, there may be more – so far they have not been noticed.
Such channels post photos, videos and audio messages that show and hear the process and consequences of pet torture.
Swimmers beat, drown and poison animals. Not necessarily their own – often homeless people also fall under the hot hand. It takes cats, dogs, hamsters, mice and even pigeons. Sometimes admins hold interactive sessions: They want to like or “end” the subscriber count up to a certain number in order to continue or stop the torture.
“There are channels and conversations where people share recipes for various poisons, tell animals where to look and how to catch them, and of course publish reports on the results of the “hunt,” Pershikov said.
According to him, there have always been such channels and conversations, but for some reason there were relatively many of them in the spring, especially in April. As a rule, they are quickly abandoned by their authors, often without even gaining a few dozen subscribers. However, in some cases, the audience of swimmers reaches hundreds or even thousands of people.
The author of one of these channels writes that he poisoned cats with salt and sugar. He promises to brag about the result later, and already wishes everyone a “pleasant viewing”. A certain Alexander, in a zhivodersky chat, posts a photo with some kind of pills, rat poison and pharmacy scales, calling it all his “modest arsenal.” However, in the video, the crazy teenager shows off with an airgun and shows how he targets pigeons.
“There are a lot of angry comments in the comments from people who accidentally stumbled upon the channels. But there are also followers, individuals who have a positive attitude towards such content,” Pershikov shared.
cat today, human tomorrow
Sometimes the “abuses” of swimmers make headlines in journalistic stories. For example, on April 27, a shocking story appeared on several Telegram news channels about a ninth grader from Mednogorsk beheading a neighbor’s cat on video. According to Pershikov, it is the rule rather than the exception that the main character of this story is a teenager. According to the expert, almost all of the massacre channels he discovered in April are run by schoolchildren.
“We have anonymized the managers of several channels. In any case, the young people were behind them. I think the vast majority of the rest are schoolchildren, too,” Pershikov said.
The expert also added that in most cases these channels and chats are open, meaning that any messenger user can recognize their content. Based on this, Pershikov suggests that the main motivation for underage swimmers is fast and cheap hype.
In contrast, candidate of psychological sciences Ivan Khvatov, head of the Biopsychological Research Center of the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, believes that the root cause is different. According to him, cases of zoosadism among children and adolescents are often associated with the so-called manifestation of displaced aggression.
“Most likely, a child who bullies animals will be bullied and bullied at school or at home by peers or adults. The child realizes that he cannot respond to the offender, they resent and rein in anger, and then spreads everything to another creature. Like the child himself, who cannot resist the torturer, ”said Khvatov.
According to him, it is fundamentally important for the child to be alive and to give feedback in such situations. The torturer must observe the suffering of his victim. Venting aggression with a notorious pillow or soft toy will not work in this situation.
Why do young people post evidence of their violent behavior online? This is how zoosadists most likely meet their attention needs, the psychologist says. Children are also likely to seek out like-minded people by drawing attention to themselves—the same hunted and offended.
Khvatov also added that parents who realize that a child is systematically torturing animals should contact a specialist: a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.
“Educational conversation should not be limited here. The specialist believes that if a person needs help, if it is not provided, there is a significant possibility of future transition from animals to creatures of his own kind.
Khvatov discusses his estimate with the MacDonald trio, a phenomenon that shows that about half of serial killers have episodes of zoosadism, pyromania or enuresis in their biographies.
no innocent
Adolescents who commit crimes are often consoled by the fact that they are not threatened with great responsibility because they are a minority. But Ekaterina Abashina, a lawyer at the DRC law firm, argues that when it comes to animal life, justice can be found for a minor and his parents, if not himself.
Criminal punishment is provided for in part 2 of Art. 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to article 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, young people older than 16 years are punished, ”Abashina said.
The above article provides for varying degrees of punishment: fines of between 100 and 300 thousand rubles, as well as correctional or forced labor of up to 5 years and imprisonment for up to five years. At the same time, says Abashina, the display of animal abuse on the Internet always increases the penalty.
“The fact that scenes of animal torture and killing are broadcast can be highly linked to and call for propaganda for cruelty to animals. Part 2 of Art. 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for criminal liability for cruelty to animals with a public display of bullying, so the distribution of such content can be stopped through the court at the request of the prosecutor, which prohibits the dissemination of information about the animal. torture. There is no need to look for the characters in the video for this,” the lawyer added.
According to Abashina, it is possible to influence the child’s parents when the perpetrator is younger than 16 years old. A complaint to the police about animal cruelty by children may be a reason for the implementation of compulsory education measures. These are the prevention, restriction of free time and the formation of special requirements for the behavior of the child, as well as the placement of a minor in a special educational and training institution of a closed type.