The Facts on abuse of domestic pets

There is a large variety of situations in which  the abuse of our domestic pets occurring.  Each scenario of abuse displays certain patterns and signs of behavior. Education, support and awareness are the best ways to help stop the violence.  The two categories of abuse are known as Active and Passive.
 
Active abuse is purposeful and the abuse is often brought about in situations of Domestic Violence or a criminal atmosphere.

Domestic violence as well as serial and mass criminal violence often involves animals. For families suffering with domestic violence or abuse, the use or threat of abuse against companion animals is often used for leverage by the controlling member of the family to keep others in line or silent. The violence may be in the form of spousal abuse, child abuse (both physical and sexual), or elder abuse. The statistics are frightening. It is estimated that 88 percent of pets living in households with domestic abuse are either abused or killed. Of all the women who enter shelters to escape abuse, 57 percent have had a pet killed by their abuser. Investigation of animal abuse is often the first point of social services intervention for a family in trouble.

 68% of battered women reported violence towards their animals. 87% of these incidents occurred in the presence of the women, and 75% in the presence of the children, to psychologically control and coerce them.

13% of intentional animal abuse cases involve domestic violence.

Another form of active animal abuse is animal fighting as a sport or entertainment. This is an extremely violent and brutal form of abuse. Additionally it is quite common for children to be used as runners who are often not prosecuted which is why they are used. This also exposes the children to the abuse and desensitizes them to the problem.

In 1997 Boston's Northeastern University and the MSPCA did a study that found 70% of all animal abusers have committed at least 1 other crime and that 40% had committed violent crimes against humans. They also reported that animal abusers are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people and four times more likely to commit property crimes than are individuals without a history of animal abuse.

Studies also found that a history of animal abuse was found in 25% of male criminals, 30% of convicted child molesters, 36% of domestic violence cases and 46% of homicide cases.

30% of convicted child molesters and 48% of convicted rapists admitted animal cruelty in their childhood.

In 2000, 7% of animal cruelty cases involved child abuse.  The perpetrators either abused the children or force them to witness the cruelty to animals.  13% of the animal cruelty cases involved domestic abuse.  And 1% of animal cruelty cases involved elder abuse.

Passive Cruelty is often a case of neglect or abandonment. Instead of purposeful violence it is often a lack of care or support. But even unintentional abuse can result in the extreme pain and suffering of an animal.

Common types of neglect are failure to provide adequate food, water, shelter and health care of the animal. Sometimes the pet owner may simply not care about the animal and many times the owner may not have the means to provide properly for the pet.

Most of the time animal control officers, regular law enforcement and animal healthcare providers  often  will attack the issues by education and assistance rather than prosecution in these types of cases.

What you can do to facilitate change on these issues.
One female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 dogs in 6 years time. One female cat and her offspring can produce 20,736 in 4 years time.  Feral female cats can potentially have 5 litters of kittens in a year.  Having those statistics just further support the need to spay and neuter our pets.  Maybe we can reduce the number of unwanted animals and help a large number of them from being harmed. Veterinarians are starting to play a larger role in the reporting of abuses of all kinds. They are learning to look for warning signs in pets. For example, if there is a household where many animals live but none ever reach the age of two, then something bad is going on. The other more obvious signs are injuries to pets that don't match up to the story being told by the pet owner.

Lobby your state and local government for changes to animal cruelty laws to make the consequences and penalty harsher. Some of the changes being made by the U.S and individual states involve the support of bills to include animals in protective orders, helping the ban of unfair targeting of certain dog breeds by insurance companies, conditions of age, health and vaccination on importation of dogs into the U.S., mandates to stop some of the worst abuses in factory farming, mandatory Spay/Neuter of shelter animals to prevent overpopulation, and establishing that spectators of dog fighting events will be prosecuted the same as those who participate.

What Advocates Can Do For Battered Women With Pets
Add questions about the presence of pets and their welfare to shelter intake questionnaires and risk assessments.

Work with animal shelters, veterinarians, and rescue groups to establish “safe haven” foster care programs for the animal victims of domestic violence; some women’s shelters are building kennels at their facilities.

Include animals in abuse prevention orders.

Help victims find pet-friendly transitional and permanent housing.

When victims can no longer care for their pets, make referrals to animal adoption agencies.