Animal Abuse Alert initially began over a very simple emotion –
anger. When my 17-year-old daughter turned in some fellow students
for senselessly torturing and killing a cat for fun, she herself was
treated as the outcast. Kids she had deemed as “friends” suddenly
turned their backs on her, criticizing her for having turned the boys
in. With a mother’s heart, I watched as my daughter dealt with the
animosity of her peers, and I became angry in defense. In attempt to
reach out and garner support for her actions, our web site, Animal
Abuse Alert was born.

Since its inception, the site has grown in its depth and content.
There is the original message along with a detailed account of my
daughter’s story, including her fight to heighten public awareness of
animal abuse and encourage other teens to stand up and do the right
thing. There are beautiful, inspirational stories, informational
pages that explain the link between animal violence and human
violence. Of course, as the site truly is in my opinion, a tribute to
all that my daughter is, there are links to her own personal pages
that tell of a young girl who truly believes in the values of
yesterday.

Additionally, in January of this year (2000), my daughter was
assaulted in our home. As a result, there is also a link to her
story, “Sense of Survival” that details the horrors we have
encountered and the difficulties involved in an assault case as well
as a personal safety tips page that have come from a variety of
sources – local law enforcement, friends from the original animal
abuse site, even an email from a police officer who works in the
parole department of sex offenders, and of course, our own personal
experience.

I would like to mention that although I do not believe our web site
qualifies under the “Artistic Expression” disclosure statement, I do
want to warn visitors about some of content. My daughter’s story of
the cat abuse incident is very detailed, and not a pretty story. Yet,
we felt its message was important enough that it needed to be heard.
However, it is an upsetting story, heartbreaking. Please know this
before you read.