Aggression towards an animal is a reflection of your emotional state.

Aggression is an emotional state that consists of feelings of hatred and desires to harm another person, animal or object, thus, intending to hurt someone physically and/or psychologically.

Similarly, we can consider aggression as aggressive or violent behavior, which is any conduct by an individual that threatens or actually harms or injures the individual, or that destroys objects.

Characteristics of aggressive behavior:

Verbal threats, but over time it increases and reaches physical harm.
Tries to impose his point of view, definition of the problem, his rights or the satisfaction of his needs.
Uses strategies that generate fear, guilt or shame, through physical violence or verbal violence.

On the other hand, cruelty is also defined as an attitude that involves a lack of mercy, that is, enjoyment or indifference to the pain and suffering of others. It is generally considered an “inhuman” attitude, that is, closer to the behavior of animals, since the latter lack moral codes.

Cruelty towards animals can be a worrying indicator of people’s mental health. Although not all cases of this problem necessarily indicate mental health disorders.

As a consequence of this behavior, it can be a risk factor or a behavior that indicates the need for intervention and care.

Animal abuse as unjustified cruelty, which causes harm and suffering to animals, is related to some mental pathologies such as Dissocial Disorder, which usually begins before the age of 16 and whose development usually leads to Antisocial Personality Disorder.

There is abuse by humans towards animals when, for example:

Brutally hitting or injuring them, threatening their life.
Neglecting their hygiene and health or abandoning them.
Not providing them with adequate food for their development and maintenance of their health.
Keeping them in captivity, especially if their conditions are not adequate.

The acts of cruelty against an animal are the following, although there are many others:

Abandoning animals used in experiments.
Killing pregnant animals.
Intentionally hurting and running over animals,
Causing them unnecessary torture or suffering or killing them out of perversity.
Performing public or private acts of animal fights.
Poisoning.

For this reason, animal abuse can have serious consequences for animals, causing suffering, injury and even death. Animal abuse also has implications for society, as it is linked to violent and antisocial behaviour in humans.

This is why numerous studies have shown that people capable of committing acts of cruelty towards animals are also capable of directing violence against human beings, particularly towards the most vulnerable, those incapable of defending themselves and those who are more submissive.

Therefore, we can affirm that a person who mistreats an animal with unjustified cruelty suffers from a mental illness, which is why it is necessary to resort to medical assistance.