When abuse of any type occurs (whether it be toward children, or adults) usually animal abuse can be found linked somewhere in the abusers past.
If you look at the research this applies to sociopaths and not to abusers in general. The histories of sociopaths is very often riddled with the abuse of animals.
What we can say about abusers in general is that they have a history of having been or having witnessed abuse in their pasts.
That does not mean that all victims will become abusers because most choose to protect rather than abuse others.