 |
Nineteen
nighty-eight had also been a year for notorious
crimes committed by young people with prior histories
of animal abuse, and 2001 had its own atrocities
of violence. The body counts for the seven months
from October of 1997 to May of 1998 were twelve
dead and forty-four wounded in four schools in
Springfield, Oregon; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Pearl,
Mississippi, and West Paducah, Kentucky.
Prior to these school shootings:
- Kip Kinkel decapitated
cats, dissected live squirrels and blew up cows
- Andrew Golden shot dogs
before he turned his guns on his classmates
- Luke Woodham beat and
burned his own dog, Sparkle, describing his dog's
painful and tortured death as a "thing of
true beauty"
- Michael Carneal threw
a cat into a bonfire
It
isn't just youthful offenders who move from animal
abuse to violence toward humans. Russell Weston
Jr., the man who is awaiting trial for shooting
two Capitol Hill police officers, shot his father's
cats before his assault on the Capitol.
Animal
abuse doesn't occur in isolation; rather, it takes
place in a complex net of disturbed family relations.
For example, animal abuse is frequently found in
families where there also is child abuse and domestic
violence. Children in these disturbed families who
witness the abuse of family companion animals are
more likely to abuse animals; in addition, children
who commit animal cruelty are more likely to engage
in criminal behavior as adults.
We also see
a close link between domestic violence and animal
abuse. In one national survey of women seeking shelter
from domestic violence in safe houses, 83% of women
with companion animals reported that their batterers
had also hurt or threatened the family pet. |
The
Video and Discussion Guide |
 |
With
"Beyond Violence" we hope to stimulate
discussions among mental health professionals,
parents, teachers, law enforcement officials,
and religious leaders about the human-animal
relationship, and the importance of that relationship
in advancing beyond violence. The video
does more than examine the link between animal
abuse and human violence. It also depicts
the many ways in which animals foster and
support human development--a relationship
with an animal can help an individual heal
from emotional injury, promote emotional development,
teach us about compassion and caring, and
engender a sense of ethics and responsibility.
The
Spanish language version of the video is available!
|
|
| Society
& Animal Forum's "Beyond Violence" Project
is more than a video. |
Partnered
with the Doris Day Animal Foundation, Society &
Animals Forum has produced several products that
are now available:
"Beyond Violence:
The Human-Animal Connection" Video
and Discussion Guide (in both English and Spanish
language versions.)
The AniCare Model of Treatment
for Animal Abuse, the
first psychological treatment approach specifically
for the treatment of animal abusers.
AniCare
Child: an Assessment and Treatment Approach for
Childhood Animal Abuse - the
first published treatment approach to focus exclusively
on juvenile cruelty to animals.
"The Violence Connection: An Examination of
the Link Between Animal Abuse and other Violent
Crimes,"a
booklet for judges, prosecutors, and other legal
and human service professionals.
A Collection of our Journal
Articles on the Link. |
