February 8, 2014,I watched a video of a live cat being set in fire. I viewed pictures of large men punching defenseless cats and kittens. The one that sticks with me the most is a picture of a cat, healing from its burns, with the caption that told viewers not to panic, the cat was going to be ready for next weeks' photo shoot. All these images appeared on Facebook. My reports of this horrible abuse were rejected by Facebook as not violating their community standards. 

The following quote is taken directly from a peer-reviewed journal article titled, Expanding the Ecological Lens in Child Welfare
Practice to Include Other Animals  written by Christina Risley-Curtiss of Arizona State University and published in Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare in December 2013. I included the citations because it is important to see that this article does not stand alone in its claims that animal abuse leads to child abuse and domestic violence.

"Companion animals, however, can also
be victims of human cruelty, with evidence of associations
between animal abuse, child maltreatment, domestic violence,
and/or increased criminality (Ascione, 2005; DeGue & Dillo,
2009). Children who witness animal abuse are more likely to
abuse animals, as are children who have been physically or
sexually abused (Ascione, 2005). Animal abuse by children
is often the first indicator of a diagnosis of conduct disorder
(Dadds, 2008)." 

Animal abuse leads to child abuse and domestic violence. By allowing it to be viewed by anyone and hold a sanctioned page on Facebook, Facebook is implicitly promoting it. We can't just sit back and let this violence continue. I ask you to sign my petition and ask Facebook to not only remove these pages, but to actively pursue legal action against these monsters.

My personal attempts at reporting this illegal and heinous action has resulted in Facebook responding that these pictures and videos do not "violate the Community Standards". 

Animal abuse is illegal. Permitting these illegal activities to be active pages on Facebook is the same as allowing explicit drug deals, child abuse, or any other illegal activity. Please help me stop this.