Mississippi State University (MSU) student Heather Daw and her mother have been rescuers and local humane society volunteers for years. Heather, now a student at MSU, has created Students Against Animal Cruelty to educate and empower students to make a difference in the lives of Mississippi animals.

In Defense of Animals’ Justice for Animals Campaign learned of Heather’s progressive efforts and devotion to protecting animals on the steps of the Brookhaven Municipal Courthouse when our Justice for Animals Campaign organized and partnered with the Brookhaven Animal Shelter for a vigil. The vigil was held August 16^th, 2016, during the evening on the same day of the trial of Jody Cothron, convicted killer of Tilly, the cat he brutally beat while posing as a potential future guardian at the Brookhaven Animal Shelter.

The courthouse vigil focused on the fact that Mississippi’s felony cruelty law is only applied when there has just been an arrest for aggravated cruelty after having already previously in a separate instance been convicted of a prior offense of aggravated cruelty.

MSSS: 97-41-16, the statute further limits the offense to one charge even if multiple animals are tortured or killed.  Louisiana and Arkansas, neighboring states of familiar culture and citizenship both have 1^st offense felony aggravated cruelty statutes.

Heather met with our IDA-JAC director on September 28^th to ask for assistance with gathering information and to learn from the experience of our group’s efforts.  Heather stated, “My intention behind starting Students Against Animal Cruelty was to inform the general student population that animal cruelty is prevalent in our state. I feel that most people, especially those my age, honestly do not realize that this is even a problem. My goal is to be able to show these students why animal cruelty is a problem and what they can do as young adults to stop it.”