Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's first victims were the dogs he killed, severing their heads for a macabre display behind his childhood home.
School shooter Luke Woodham, who killed two classmates and his mother in 1997, wrote in a journal about killing his dog by setting her on fire, a violent act he called "true beauty."

And "vampire cult leader" Rod Ferrell, who is serving a life sentence for the bludgeoning death of a Florida couple, first drew the attention of law enforcement in Kentucky, where he was charged with breaking into an animal shelter where two puppies were tortured, killed and mutilated.

Criminologists have long believed there's a link between animal cruelty and violence toward humans.

A recently published book by University of South Florida professor Kathleen Heide and animal activist Linda Merz-Perez provides new research into the connection.

The study of 45 violent inmates in Florida prisons and 45 prisoners serving time for drug and property offenses found more than half of the violent offenders had committed animal cruelty as children. By comparison, just 20 percent of the nonviolent offenders had a history of attacking animals.

"A lot of people who want to victimize, they want to start with something they can really control," said Merz-Perez, a former animal shelter director and public school teacher. "The easiest thing in the world to control is a puppy. It's a matter of escalation, they work their way up."


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