By Kiera Dunk 

Kiera Dunk received a Champion for Children award at the 2024 Rally for Kentucky Kids during Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol

Child abuse, it’s not something a lot of people think about. It’s not a fun flashy headline that makes the news, unless it’s an atrocious case where the headline alone can incite tears or thoughts of violence. It is however my passion, my mission and inspired my advocacy work. 

At the age of eight my mom took me along to Frankfort with her to advocate for professional midwives in the state. Being able to watch and participate in lobby day and later that session a ceremonial signing was very inspiring. I knew it was something I wanted to do more of, and my mom pushed me to find my own passion to advocate for. Seeing that at the time Kentucky was one of the worst states in the United States for child abuse made my decision an easy one.  

I wanted to help innocent children all over the Commonwealth! 

In 2021 I passed my first bill known as Kami’s Law and made criminal abuse of a child 12 and under have a steeper punishment. This bill was in honor of a family friend whose abuser got off with little more than a slap on the wrist. In my mind I was only fixing what was wrong.
Although we’d like to think harsher punishments would detour people from committing the crime in the first place, statistically it usually doesn’t truly help.  

This session I wanted to help kids by creating a law that would be more preventative and hopefully remove kids from harmful situations before it was too late. I started researching abusers and statistics and patterns. This research led me to the National Link Coalition. 

What’s the link, I’m glad you asked. The link is the correlation between people who abuse\neglect their animals and are also abusing their children. The National Link Coalition is a group that has compiled FOUR DECADES worth of research on this correlation. The data is overwhelming, irrefutable evidence that there is a link between the two. In one study, called the Dickering study, showed that animal abuse was found in 88% of homes in which substantiated physical child abuse was occurring!!! 

It was that research that inspired my latest bill idea. House Bill 253 (and its companion Senate Bill 106) would require that animal control officers across the state to be trained in spotting signs of abuse and neglect. This training would greatly help these officers in helping children in horrible situations to get help sooner.  

Personally, I don’t understand the why behind it but for some reason people are more likely to call and report animal abuse\neglect than they are child abuse. We need to use every resource possible to help keep Kentucky kids stay safe. HB 253 will also add animal control officers to the list of professions that can also submit a written report to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Ironically, peace officers are already listed in statute and in some rural areas of Kentucky that is what animal control officers are called. For those areas now these officers will have the training needed to help spot what they should have already been looking for. 

After writing this bill, I heard the story of Kyan Higgins Jr, who I later named the bill after. Kyan was a happy, loving 10-year-old boy living with his mom in West Louisville. Tragically in 2021 his own mother tried to cut out his tongue before shooting him and stuffing him in the trunk of her car. A life cut short way too soon in the worst way possible. I found out from retired LMPD lieutenant Joye Keeley, that according to an Open Records Request she submitted, animal control had been to the house of Kyan TWENTY-FOUR times in the 18 months leading up to his death.  

Maybe if they had received this training, they would have made a report to Child Protective Services and Kyan would still be alive today! A little side note that really hit my heart that this was meant to be is that Kyan’s nickname was KJ, which is my nickname as well! 

While I am happy to report that the most recent Child Maltreatment report shows Kentucky is improving, our abuse rates are still 60% higher than the national average. It also shows that the majority of victims are under the age of 4. These children aren’t in school yet where there are more trained adult eyes on them to spot signs of abuse\neglect. Having our animal control officers trained to spot signs of abuse\neglect could really help our youngest victims get help they need sooner. These children under age 4 continue to be the most vulnerable in our state and this legislation could really help them as well as any child living in unsafe, abusive situations. 

I humbly ask for your help and support to get Kyan’s Law passed into law. You can help by calling the LRC line at 1-800-372-7181 and leaving a message to all House members to support HB 253. You can also email your state Representative and Senator asking for their support. I truly feel this legislation will help Kentucky kids and would love your help in advocating for it! 

As always thank you to Kentucky Youth Advocates for all their hard work across the Commonwealth. Thank you all for supporting me and my legislation as well, I couldn’t do it without you! 

Kiera Dunk is a 9th grade student from Oldham County.