I have always known this, and I have often complained to friends and stuff, in conversation. I bet many have thought I exaggerated, and me myself have often hoped the cases I observe are isolated and few.
They aren't.
Investigative journalism confronted police with their abandonment of farm cases, where tens of animals were starved to death, and serial-cat-killer cases, where 6 cats had been cut open, their guts dragged out, and the cats posed in plain view, in ONE _SMALL_ village, terrifying all the residents, causing a hailstorm of calls to the police.
Norwegian police were confronted with - and shown - how Stockholm police finally had enough of animal-serial-killers, erected an "animal police" subgroup of the actual police force, and actually cought a cat-killer. A 16 year old boy who then admitted to dreaming about killing women. He was sent away for forced mental healthcare.
They were also confronted with footage of Norwegian cat-killer cases (footage of the dead cats) and American veterinarian (part of the Miami "animal police" group) analysis of the photos. When she concluded that yes, these cases ARE important, because people who decapitate cats, drag their guts out, we're looking at a level of sociopathy that will easily move up the species-scale, and potentially be a danger to humans as well - not to mention the horror-factor.
This horror-factor was also important to the Stockholm police, in Sweden: The fact that one person will terrorize a whole neighborhood, going after peoples pets. It's not acceptable.
Norwegian police
laughed.
Another Norwegian political section tried to urge the police to follow the Swedish example, and they were rejected with no compromise, our police insisting that they have everything in place to handle animal abuse cases (It was repeatedly confronted to them that nearly all animal abuse cases are immediately unprioritized and closed before even making a phonecall, including decapitated cats on school childrens roads, or tens of farm animals starved to death)
The giggling police man was specifically tickled by the cuh-raaaazy notion that someone who hurt animals might hurt people, cus, hehe lol rofl haha hihi hoho - animals and people aren't the same!
-.-