Animal Abuse and Family Violence: The Link

Author and Speaker

Cathy Kern

Organisation

The Royal New Zealand Plunket Society (Inc)
Wellington, New Zealand

This topic clearly relates to the theme of child abuse in the context of family violence. Animal abuse is seen as the indicator to lead to early intervention. Implications are explored.

Objective:

To increase awareness of 'The Link' and to stimulate thought/discussion around implications for practice in a variety of care and protection settings.

Compelling international evidence of the link between family violence and animal abuse will be presented. It will be argued that it's clearly time for action to follow awareness of the issue in New Zealand as it has in the US and the UK. 2004 Australian research and recommendations (Monash University), the Scottish First Strike initiative, related NZ initiatives, and upcoming research will also be covered in the presentation.

The question will be asked of conference participants - What can each group do to address this issue within the scope of their work and their networks?

Overseas and Australian research has found that:
women delay leaving abusive relationships because shelters and refuge facilities are not also able to somehow provide shelter for the pets they love. Prior to doing the Monash University study, one of the authors interviewed women escaping a violent relationship in refuges in Victoria and found:

nearly half the women said concern for their pets' welfare was a major factor in their delay in seeking safety in a refuge.
Two other studies found the same:
18% (US study) of the women delayed coming to a shelter sooner because of concern for their pet , 43% (Canadian study)delayed coming to a shelter sooner because of concern for the pet
More than a 1/3 of women had delayed seeking shelter; the majority had delayed by 8 weeks.

Effect on children:

93% of the women in the Australian Family Violence sample had children.
29% of these women answered 'yes':

their children had witnessed the threats of abuse to their pet
their children had witnessed the actual abuse or killing of the pets.

We know children witnessing abuse is in itself abusive[1].*
In the Monash research, 19% of the children had themselves engaged in animal abuse.

In New Zealand:

In 2002 First Strike New Zealand was formed:
comprised of a working party meeting 4 times a year.
UNITEC is the unifying force behind First Strike in New Zealand; the campaign is currently chaired by Arnja Dale at UNITEC [2].
a very recent and significant achievement of First Strike New Zealand is the completion of one part in a 2 part research project designed to explore the New Zealand context in terms of animal abuse and its relation to family violence

With the:

tens of thousands of domestic violence police attend annually - at which children are frequently present…
twenty confirmed cases of child abuse or neglect every day.[3]…
Thousands of children going through Women's Refuge along with their mothers…
Vast majority of NZ vets surveyed in May 2005 reporting animal abuse cases appearing in their practices…

It's clear it's time for action to follow awareness in New Zealand as it has in the US and the UK.

Presentation

paper

Biography

Cathy Kern holds a Bachelor of Science in Communications and a Masters in Applied Social Science Research. Her thesis explored parents' understanding of self-esteem in their children aged 3 and under. She has facilitated a support group for at-risk and abused children in an inner city Chicago hospital, volunteered in Mother Teresa's orphanage in Calcutta, and worked as a researcher in the 'sensitive claims' unit (sexual abuse and medical misadventure claims) of NZ's national insurance scheme. In her capacity as policy analyst with Plunket - NZ's leading well-child services provider - Ms Kern's varied role ranges from submitting comment on proposed family/child-oriented government legislation and initiatives, to providing advice on privacy issues, and submitting press releases promoting child/maternal/familial health - amongst other things (eg research and evaluation/policy review).

Plunket's holistic view of health is reflected in the organisation's commitment to addressing issues of family violence, poverty and other determinants of health. Animal abuse is recognised as one of many indicators of family violence and as an indicator of sub-optimal child mental health. This topic has gained much media attention following a presentation of a similar paper to the July Child and Family Policy Conference.