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BCIFV
home > Media Releases
> April 28, 2000
For Immediate
Release
Contact:
Penny Bain, 669-7055
April
28, 2000
Making
the Link:
Family
violence and animal abuse share much in common
- and so do efforts to prevent them
by
Penny Bain, executive director
and Lynne Melcombe, communications consultant,
BC Institute Against Family Violence
Some
of history's greatest thinkers have connected maltreatment
of animals with violence against humans. Gandhi summed up
"the link" concisely when he said, "The greatness of a nation
and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals
are treated."
In BC,
words like these are being transformed into collaborative
action between those who work for the protection of animals
and the protection of humans. Last October, the BC/Yukon Society
of Transition Houses hosted a major international conference
in Vancouver. Stephen Huddart, director of community relations
at the BC SPCA, co-presented a session that focused on a significant
correlation between animal abuse and spousal assault.
"Interviewers
in the 1980s found that 88% of women entering shelters reported
that their spouses had tortured or killed a family pet," he
says. And up to half of women entering shelters delay leaving
abusive situations, partly for fear of what their spouses
might do to the family pet, and partly out of concern regarding
the trauma to their children if this should happen.
"As a
direct result of that conference, a group comprised of various
UBC faculty and members of community organizations has adopted
that part of the animal-human violence issue," says Stephen
Huddart. It will be on the agenda of the 10th International
Nursing Conference, Ending Violence Against Women: Setting
the Agenda for the Next Millenium in Vancouver in June
1st-3rd.
Also arising
out of last fall's conference is a one-day symposium on May
5th in Vancouver called Exploring the Links
Between Family Violence and Animal Abuse. Co-sponsored
by the BC SPCA and the UBC Interdisciplinary Family Violence
Project, with logistical support from the BCIFV, the symposium
will be part of a national conference co-hosted by the BC
SPCA and the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies.
The goal
of the symposium will be to develop strategies for community-based
collaboration. Some of the best potential lies in paying close
attention to children who abuse animals, says Huddart. "Sometimes
when children hurt animals it's what we call 'innocent cruelty',"
he says. The child is exploring his or her world and needs
adult help to learn appropriate ways of interacting with animals.
But children
from violent homes often abuse animals as a way of acting
out their role in the family hierarchy, says Huddart: "Dad
hits Mom, Mom hits me, I hit the cat." Because children and
animals are often outside, children abusing animals tend to
be visible. But child abuse of animals outside is often symptomatic
of adult abuse of children inside.
"We respond
to 40,000 complaints per year, 25% of which involve neglect
or cruelty," says Huddart. "The Ministry for Children and
Families makes about 30,000 child-protection calls per year.
We think we're hitting a lot of the same families, but that
we're often there first."
This places
animal protection workers into roles "as the community's eyes
and ears", he says, making it important for them to know the
signs of family violence. A few years ago, the BC SPCA invited
experts from BC's Children's Hospital to create an abuse recognition
workshop for their staff. It's now part of a distance education
course delivered through the University College of the Cariboo.
But it's
equally important that social workers, health workers, educators,
and neighbours be able to identify signs of animal abuse.
One reason for this is that many adults are wary of social
workers, making it difficult for the latter to gather information
about child abuse. But people generally feel less threatened
by animal protection workers, enabling them to gather information
that a social worker could not. As well, children may not
talk to social workers about being abused - but they may talk
to a teacher, doctor, Brownie leader, or the guy at the corner
store about a parent abusing the family pet.
Making
the link between animal abuse and family violence is also
good long-term crime prevention, says Huddart. It's an "unhappy
but compelling" fact, he says, that most mass murderers or
serial killers on record tortured or killed animals at some
point.
"Karla
Homolka worked in a veterinary clinic and sometimes brought
home iguanas," he says. "When one of them bit Paul Bernardo,
he barbequed it alive." Albert DeSalvo, aka "The Boston Strangler",
David Berkowitz, aka "The Son of Sam", and Marc Lepine, who
killed 14 women in Montreal, are all known to have abused
animals. The phenomenon is so well understood in law enforcement
that agencies like the FBI sometimes use animal abuse reports
to track suspected killers.
Not every
animal abuser becomes a murderer, but many become violent
criminals. One survey noted that 25% of criminals classified
as aggressive admitted to perpetrating animal abuse. Psychiatric
research shows a high correlation between child abuse, cruelty
to animals, and violent crime.
The
reassuring flip side to this is that animal-assisted therapy
can and is being used to heal victims and victimizers. Canine
therapists on staff at BC's Children's Hospital successfully
use dogs on the psychiatric ward as therapeutic lifelines
for abused children and teens. And a program in which long-term
inmates at Sumas Correctional Centre are taught to care for
homeless cats "has opened up a nurturing side in [many of
them] that they didn't know they had," says Huddart. This
winter, the BC SPCA offered a 12 week course in animal-assisted
therapy at Langara College - the first time it has been taught
in Canada. There are plans to offer it again in September.
Albert
Schweizer said, "Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard
the life of any living creature as worthless, is in danger
of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives." On
the other hand, notes Huddart, "Animals have an almost magical
ability to heal our hearts and help us find resolution." Putting
these two concepts together has great potential in the struggle
to end violence against human and non-human family members
alike.
For
more information contact Stephen Huddart, director of community
relations at the BC SPCA, (604) 681-7271.
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