Animal cruelty cases increase

By Gregg Wendorf
Advance News Journal

SAN JUAN — It’s pretty disturbing to have to write a story that’s so disturbing you hate to write it, but it is what it is.

In this story, which really came to light April 19, a 21-year-old San Juan resident, Jacob Luna, went into a neighbor’s yard, grabbed the family’s 11-year-old rescue pug, Max, took it back home and strangled it to death for no good reason, other than the thrill of the kill, according to San Juan police.

Luna told San Juan PD investigators that he “felt alive” during the killing process after which he tossed the dog’s body into a trash can, according to Police Chief Leandro Sifuentes.

Define “sick, warped, unhinged” some people will say.

The fact that Luna is smiling in his booking photo as if he’s just won the booby prize at the county fair will also prove disturbing to some people.

Animal lovers are fit to be tied.

According to Chief Sifuentes, Max the loveable pug had been missing since April 13. Thankfully, the owner had surveillance video and showed it to police who subsequently sent a press release to news outlets, and, too, the vid started to circulate on social media.

“The video shows an individual unlawfully entering (the owner’s) property, aggressively handling the dog in a manner that suggested harm, and then removing the animal from the premises,” read the SJ PD press release.

Initially, a San Juan municipal judge set Luna’s bond at $104,000, four counts, but his attorney (court appointed) asked the same SJ judge for a bond reduction, was granted it, and this week, Luna is out on a bail package worth only $9,000.

Actually, two bonds are worth $5,000 (both cash sureties) and two bonds are worth $4,000 (personal recognizance), according to jail house records.

Luna was booked April 19. He was released the following day.

Money for Mental Health

On social media, some people are steaming mad over the bond reduction, with one even making a video on YouTube with the DA’s photo front and center, as if “Terry” Palacios had something to do with the bond reduction. But like the district attorney told The Advance this week, because this case of animal cruelty isn’t labeled a 3g offense in Texas (aggravated assault, murder, etc.), his office wasn’t automatically notified about either the criminal charge, bond, or bond reduction, so his staff had no chance to review the case.

The Valley, of course, isn’t alone when it comes to cases of animal cruelty, of which we’re seeing more, which is why the Hidalgo County DA’s Office recently created a separate division focused solely on cases of cruelty to animals.

Here, though, is an odd paradox — the number of mentally disturbed people seems to be on the increase, as evidenced by many metrics including animal cruelty, child molestations and porn, while conversely, the money to treat problems dealing with mental health remains stagnant.

In 2022, Texas ranked dead last when it comes to access to mental health services, according to Mental Health America, a nonprofit advocacy group. (Source: TexasTribune.org.)

Also, from the same source: Today, 98 percent of Texas’s 254 counties were wholly or partially designated by the federal government as “mental health professional shortage areas,” which includes Hidalgo County.

So even if your area may be crawling with people like Jacob Luna, who clearly has mental issues if indeed he stands by his confession and doesn’t plead not guilty once in court, asking that his confession be tossed, you may not have the medical professionals and/or money to treat them.

For people who are relatively young, animal cruelty is one of the early warning signs psychiatrists point to as red flags with regard to the possibility of future serious crimes. Starting fires is another.

A Worrisome Number

Based on state rankings, courtesy of Veterinarians.org, Texas ranks number one when it comes to cases of animal cruelty.

Between 2012 and 2021, Texas led the country with nearly 7,000 offenses, which is six times higher than the national average.

Put another way, Texas’s offenses accounted for 15 percent of all animal cruelty cases in the U.S. during that time frame.

Not the sort of claim to fame that the local chambers desire.

According to Humane Society International, roughly 85 percent of people arrested for animal abuse or cruelty have had multiple past arrests, with 70 percent having prior felonies. Further research, detailed by the National Library of Medicine, has discovered that 70 percent of people who committed domestic violence were also found to be animal abusers. (Source: RedRiverRadio. org.) In the case of Jacob Luna, no previous crimes are registered with Hidalgo County, so strangling Max is either his first foray into committing a criminal act, or the first one for which he’s been caught.

To address the problem of animal cruelty, and the few ways to combat it or treat its perpetrators, the state legislature did pass a new law last session (2023), signed by the governor, which imposes a five-year ban on people from owning any type of animal if they’ve been convicted of animal cruelty charges.

Granted, it’s not a lot, but it’s something?