The First Strike® campaign was created in 1997 to raise public and professional awareness about the connection between animal cruelty and other violent crime violence and to help communities identify some of the origins of violence, predict its patterns, and prevent its escalation.

Each year, the campaign works with local animal protection agencies around the United States to bring together animal shelter workers, animal control officers, social service workers, law enforcement officials, veterinarians, educators, and others to learn about the violence connection and to promote inter-agency collaborations to reduce animal cruelty, family and community violence.

First Strike also provides investigative support, rewards, expert testimony and information on the animal-human cruelty connection to law enforcement and prosecutors in high-profile animal cruelty cases. We also work jointly with legislators and activists throughout the United States to press for the passage of well-enforced, felony-level anti-cruelty laws.

Find out more about the animal cruelty/human violence connection and what you can do to break the cycle.