Did they abuse animals?

Did Dylan and Eric abuse animals?

You know, many killers did this in their childhood and teenager time. For example Jeffrey Dahmer. And I read it somewhere in the internet, but there was not an accurate origin.

No, there is no evidence from friends or family that they did so.

On the contrary, Eric loved animals far more than people. He went on (on one of his usual Eric Fan-Fuckin-tastic soapbox tirades) about how he'd physical torture someone if they harmed animals. He was especially close with his Yorkshire Terrier, Sparky. When Sparky got sick, Dylan worked his shift as well as his own at Blackjack while Eric cared for his dog.

Dylan had two cats and a bird. Er, I don't know exactly if they were Dylan's specifically but they were the family pets. He was afraid of Devon's husky dogs and kept a respectful, safe distance from them. He was fearful of the wild animals that roamed around his house and that they might harm his family pets. He did not dislike or harm animals.

There is a forum topic that discusses the question here if you are interested.

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InFiNiNcEX5 wrote:

No, there is no evidence from friends or family that they did so.

On the contrary, Eric loved animals far more than people.  He went on (on one of his usual Eric Fan-Fuckin-tastic soapbox tirades) about how he'd physical torture someone if they harmed animals.  He was especially close with his Yorkshire Terrier, Sparky.  When Sparky got sick, Dylan worked his shift as well as his own at Blackjack while Eric cared for his dog.

Dylan had two cats and a bird.  Er, I don't know exactly if they were Dylan's specifically but they were the family pets.  He was afraid of Devon's husky dogs and kept a respectful, safe distance from them.  He was fearful of the wild animals that roamed around his house and that they might harm his family pets.  He did not dislike or harm animals.

Wasn't Dylan afraid to let the house cats outside because he thought that mountain lions or whatever kind of big ass wild cats that lived around there would eat his cats?

I don't believe this rumor that they abused animals at all.

Jenn wrote:

InFiNiNcEX5 wrote:

No, there is no evidence from friends or family that they did so.

On the contrary, Eric loved animals far more than people.  He went on (on one of his usual Eric Fan-Fuckin-tastic soapbox tirades) about how he'd physical torture someone if they harmed animals.  He was especially close with his Yorkshire Terrier, Sparky.  When Sparky got sick, Dylan worked his shift as well as his own at Blackjack while Eric cared for his dog.

Dylan had two cats and a bird.  Er, I don't know exactly if they were Dylan's specifically but they were the family pets.  He was afraid of Devon's husky dogs and kept a respectful, safe distance from them.  He was fearful of the wild animals that roamed around his house and that they might harm his family pets.  He did not dislike or harm animals.

Wasn't Dylan afraid to let the house cats outside because he thought that mountain lions or whatever kind of big ass wild cats that lived around there would eat his cats?

I don't believe this rumor that they abused animals at all.

Yep. That's right.  He was was terrified having fallen asleep in his wilderness backyard once for fear of mountain lions.  He also preferred to swim in other friends' pools because his own often had dead frogs and birds floating around.  

He seemed sensitive and intimidated by certain animals and concerned about his own pets being harmed.  I would imagine that the family cats slept in Dylan's bedroom occasionally as there is this one drawing where he is concocting some uniform with a 'Zero' t-shirt and it says something to the effect "newly worn. no cat hairs."   Cracks me up.

I can't even consider the rumor at all in this particular case.  Mass murders, yes, in the last 45 minutes of their lives but that does not mean the ole animal cruelty trait is automatically a part of that package.   And Eric does not fit the true ~psychopath~ criteria since his love and respect for animals is the antithesis of a classic psychopath.

Exactly. What applies to serial killers does not necessarily apply to E & D. They simply do not have the same profile. By all accounts, they were not violent kids before they got to junior year and they did not exhibit the whole of the psychopath triad predictive of serial offenses (cruelty to animals, obsession with setting things on fire and bedwetting). Not all studies agree that cruelty to animals is a prediction of violent behaviour. Sometimes, it is, not always.

Firesetting, all right, they did that with their bombs and fireworks. They both had a fascination with making things explode, that we cannot deny. Could have something to do with antisocial traits, not necessarily indicative of psychopathy.

And also, didn't Eric say that humans didn't deserve the Earth? That is should be given back to the animals? Doesn't sound like an animal abuser to me.

Abusing animals is often seen in Serial Killers, not Mass Shooters. In most cases, the Mass Shooting is the first and the last violent act, that the Shooter commits in his whole life.

I found only two cases, where a Mass Shooter committed cruelty to animals before the Shooting: Luke Woodham killed his own beloved dog in an absolutely horrifying way and wrote a detailed description in his diary. Really, it is no fun to read this.
Additional, Andrew Golden had the habit of killing cats in his neighborhood.
I read, that Kip Kinkel bragged to his classmates about hurting animals, but I don't think he ever did it. The Kinkels had a cat and there is no evidence, that Kip did ever any harm to that little angel.

I still "lol" at the thought of Eric snuggling up to a Yorkie. I see him as a black lab or golden retriever kind of guy.

Check this out, an academic article I had recently seen and which I had emailed the corresponding author as a fellow academician to ask where he had gotten this information. I received no reply! This just goes to show how misleading even so-called "authorities" on the subject of psychology can be.

From the journal Homicide Studies, "Animal Abuse as a Warning Sign of School Massacres A Critique and Refinement," published this year:

"For example, the Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold boasted about mutilating animals for fun..." Now, I don't recall ANYONE every mentioning this in any of evidence, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's a link to the article abstract [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

jettfyre80 wrote:

I still "lol" at the thought of Eric snuggling up to a Yorkie. I see him as a black lab or golden retriever kind of guy.

I think Sparky was prone to seizures, and Eric would stay home to take care of him when his poor dog was having fits.

ThoughtBox wrote:

Check this out, an academic article I had recently seen and which I had emailed the corresponding author as a fellow academician to ask where he had gotten this information. I received no reply! This just goes to show how misleading even so-called "authorities" on the subject of psychology can be.

From the journal Homicide Studies, "Animal Abuse as a Warning Sign of School Massacres A Critique and Refinement," published this year:

"For example, the Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold boasted about mutilating animals for fun..."  Now, I don't recall ANYONE every mentioning this in any of evidence, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's a link to the article abstract [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Wow, I wouldn't have thought an article in an academic journal would have such mistakes! Not only they MUTILATED (for fun!) animals, they also BOASTED about it...
With his sample being 23 shooters 2 people are kinda important lol. Also, I'm not getting this - 43% of 23 commit cruelty? So that's 9.89 shooters?

ThoughtBox wrote:

jettfyre80 wrote:

I still "lol" at the thought of Eric snuggling up to a Yorkie. I see him as a black lab or golden retriever kind of guy.

I think Sparky was prone to seizures, and Eric would stay home to take care of him when his poor dog was having fits.

Yes, that's correct. Dylan would work his shift and Eric's at Blackjack so he could have more time with his dog. According to Sue this happened right before Columbine.

i think that eric and dylan could have but i dont know if they did or not nobody knows that if they did

From everything I've read, Dylan and Eric did not abuse animals. Animals never did anything to them, so they didn't want to hurt them - only people.

The whole "animal abuse" accusation is often linked to someone being labelled a pscychopath, as Eric was. If Eric was a psychopath then why did he love his dog? Or worry about his parents? I think the answer is that he was NOT a psychopath. He and Dylan were driven mad by the circumstances at their high school.


Inara