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International
Women's Day - March 8, 2004
Getting Behind Abuse
The links between animal and
human abuse are not surprising to anyone who understands the power and
control dynamics of violence against women and children.
Those (usually men) who abuse others less powerful than themselves
(usually women and children) do so to gain control, and to make themselves
feel more powerful. The abuse of animals too, reflects the desire to gain
control - a pet is one more member of the "family" to can be controlled,
hurt, made subservient, or treated as "property." Harming or threatening
to harm a beloved pet is also a powerful way to 'punish' or control a
spouse or child.
Research indicates that persons with a history of prosecuted animal abuse
are three to five times more likely to have been arrested for violent
offences against humans, drug offences, and property crimes. Several
offenders in recent school shootings in the US had previously abused
animals. Research by US psychologist Randall Lockwood indicates that up to
half of known serial killers and mass murderers were cruel to animals as
children, including Marc Lepine who killed 14 women in Montreal in 1989.
Research also indicates that those who have been abused as children are
more likely (than those who have not been abused), to mistreat animals. In
a recently completed research study by US researchers Ascione and
Friedrich*, 26 per cent of children who were physically abused were cruel
to animals, and 13 per cent of sexually abused children were cruel to
animals. The study also showed that 34 per cent of children who were both
physically and sexually abused were cruel, compared to 4.5 per cent of
children who had not been abused.
Children's persistent cruelty to animals is not just a 'normal' part of
childhood or something that a child will 'grow out of'. In fact,
persistent cruelty to animals is often an indicator of something seriously
wrong; it is behavior that must be questioned. At times, it could be a cry
for help from a child who has suffered abuse, and who is turning on the
only family member more vulnerable than him or her. It is, at the very
least, an opportunity to teach a child about empathy and the need to be
kind to all living creatures.
Animal abuse is also linked with violence against women in intimate
relationships. Jacobson and Gottman, in their 1998 book 'When men batter
women: New insights into ending abusive relationships', point out that
"...the most violent
batterers in our sample also tended to behave sadistically toward pets..."
While only a few studies
have looked specifically at this connection, research undertaken in 2000
by Ascione and colleagues found that 72 per cent of a sample of women who
had been battered and who used a crisis shelter reported that their
abusive partners had harmed, killed or threatened to harm their pets. This
compared to 14.5 per cent of the group of women who had not experienced
domestic violence. While 62 per cent of the abused women with children
said that their children had witnessed the abuse of their pets, only 3 per
cent of the non-abused women said that their children had witnessed such
animal abuse.
In this study, more than half of the children (of the abused mothers) had
tried to intervene to protect their pets. This raises concerns not only
about the negative effects of children witnessing the violence towards
both their mothers and their pets, but about the dangers to children who
try to keep their pets safe from harm.
Penny Bain, Executive
Director of the British Columbia (BC) Institute Against Family Violence
says, "Family violence does not occur in a vacuum. It is strongly
interconnected with a network of factors, ranging from causal to
correlative to consequential. It flourishes when people in positions to
intervene don't do so, more often than not because they don't recognize
the signs or simply don't know how to respond."
It is to address these
issues - the linkages between family violence and animal abuse,
recognizing the signs, and knowing how to respond - that a public and
professional education program has been launched in British
Columbia.
A collaborative partnership between several organizations including the BC
Institute Against Family Violence, the BC Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals and the Federal Department of Justice, has developed a
series of pamphlets. These focus on the linkages between animal and human
abuse: One kind for the victim-serving community, another for the animal
welfare community and a third kind for the general public.
In addition, a multi-disciplinary training course has been developed by
the Justice Institute of BC to help professionals on both the animal and
human side to learn to recognize the signs of abuse and to know how to
respond effectively. As in all criminal and anti-social activity, early
intervention and prevention are the most effective ways of dealing with
the problem.
The pamphlets and course material educate animal welfare workers to be on
the lookout for signs of abuse of women and children in homes where animal
abuse is identified. And also to know what questions to ask and how to
respond if their suspicions are supported. Similarly, child protection
workers, victim service workers, and women's shelter workers need to ask
women about the abuser's behavior towards any pets in the home and try to
ensure safety for those pets by finding safe shelter for the animals
and/or alerting animal welfare workers.
Shelter workers and victim service workers say that it is not uncommon for
women to refuse to stay in a particular home because of concern for their
pets. For this reason, and also because of the healing power of pets, some
women's shelters are now accommodating pets as well as women and children.
Others who are unable to do so, are developing relationships with their
local animal welfare organization to provide shelter for the animals or
find temporary homes until a particular woman is in a position to take
them back.
That the relationship between animals and humans can be a powerful source
of comfort and healing is well known. The victim-serving community's
decision to include pets in their safety plans for women and their
children, is a crucial element that will benefit them as well as protect
the animals.
– Linda Light
March 8, 2004
International Women's Day -
March 8, 2004
Articles
Females: Superior by Choice, Design and Default
by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Getting Behind Abuse by Linda Light
It's All About Women by Elayne Clift
New Enemy Threatens Baby Girls by Manipadma
Jena
No Turning Back by Kalyani Menon-Sen
Single Moms by Choice by V. Radhika
Towards Freedom From Fear by Malvika Kaul
Poetry
Beacon of Hope by Neria
Harish Hebbar, MD
Mothers Never Die by Michael Levy
Woman by Pavalamani Pragasam
Women Empowerment: Today's Vision for
Tomorrow's Mission by Hillol Ray
International Women's
Day - March 2001
Ah! Women by Roberta Lee Wilcox
Ahilya - A poem by Manisha Bansal
And the International Women's Day was Born by Meera
Chowdhry
Being A Woman by Manisha Kulshreshtha
How to be a Woman, though a Human by Sangeeta Goel
March 8th - International Women's Day by Pavalamani
Pragasam
Most Beautiful Things
about Women by Smitha V
Mother Teresa: Woman of
the Century by Bijal Dwivedi
Musings of a Lady - A poem by Maria Reed-Shore
Nari 2001 by Lavanya Shah
Nevertheless - A poem by Manisha Bansal
Thoughts on Women's Day by Gargi Chaudhuri
What you can Never
Understand about Women by Smitha V
Women: Symbols of Sacrifice or Sacrificial Lambs? by
Meenakshi Madhur
By arrangement with
Womens Feature Service
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