Abuse can appear unexpectedly in anyone’s life. One of many reasons people detect abuse or signs of abuse in time is because they don’t know what exactly abuse is. Animal abuse is cruelty to animals or intentional infliction by humans upon any non-human animal. Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior, used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control. It can be physical, sexual, or emotional. Another way to know if abuse is present in your relationship is if one partner uses physiological actions or threats of actions that influence another person.
If you detect any of these “signs” there is a probability you are in an abusive relationship. There’s a connection between these two different types of abuses, and that is key to stopping both. “Of 36 convicted murderers questioned… 46 percent admitted to committing acts of animal torture as adolescent”(m. humanesociety. org). The reflection of your teen years are somewhat accurate to predicting how you are going to be as an adult. Your brain is maturing as you grow up, and you’re slowly getting closer to being an independant adult.
This is important because many abusers start acting recklessly during their teen years, but most of the time no one pays attention and can’t stop them in time. “Abusers may manipulate and control their human victims through threats or actual violence against family pets”(m. humanesociety. org). Humans and pets have a close connection to each other, so one being threatened can cause the other to feel like they are in danger as well. Since abusing pets is one sign of upcoming abusers, it’s better to stay away from that type of person. If a person views abusing animals as o problem, then there is a big chance that the are okay with hurting humans. “Nearly half of the victims who stay in violent households do so because they are afraid for their animals”(aldf. org). People in this certain situation feel like if they can’t defend their animals, they can’t defend themselves. This leads them into staying longer in that violent environment. This is important because this is a good example of how animal abuse and domestic violence connects to each other and how these two different types of abuses are hard to stop.
In St. Joseph county Phil Arkow spoke with police officers, animal control officers, and child protective services about the connection between Animal abuse and Domestic violence. He says “What we find is that if you go in on the animal cruelty case, you often find illegal weapons, gambling, drugs, and gang activity. You might find animal fighting and any of the other crimes that go along with it. “(www. wndu. com”). This shows that criminals that are typically involved with any forms of violence don’t care about the people they are hurting.
This indicates that a minor offence and crime leads to bigger ones. Similar to a case in Colorado a man was arrested after he killed three baby rabbits following a fight with his wife. Then David Adams, a psychologist and co-founder of an abuser education program, states” animal cruelty is used as a terror tactic to deter the victim from taking certain actions, such as ending the relationship or for simply arguing” This indicates that animal abuse and domestic violence support each other in crimes and both are used for “punishing” their victims into submitting to the abuser.
Also in this case, when the the abuser kills his partner’s pets, he does this as a way to take out his anger. Now that we know how these two crimes are connected it’s imported to know the affect it’s had over the years. “71 percent of pet owning women entering women’s shelter report that their batterer had injured, maimed, killed, or threatened family pets for revenge or to psychologically control victims” (redrover. org).
Statistics in general are extremely important to know because its gives people a general idea of how many people are going through certain situations, in this case abuse, and in this statistic it’s important to understand how more than half of women have seen violence in their household and have had violence being shown towards them. “16,800 homicides and 2. 2 million injuries due to intimate partner violence” (clarkprosecutor. org). This shows how not everyone is lucky enough to escape their partner and escape the violence.
This is important because enough women have died from not standing up for themselves and them being treated as an or to their partner. This number just shows homicides, but if you calculate how many women are living through domestic violence in this moment, the number would be greater. “Domestic abusers who have up to an 80 percent rate of recidivism will almost certainly repeat their crimes”(aldf. org). This shows that people who abuse humans and non- animals usually have this mindset develop in them as a child; therefore, it’s extremely difficult for these people to change.
This is important because it is another obstacle that makes ending animal abuse and Domestic violence even more hard. “In 2015-16.. 3,324. 9 domestic violence related assaults per 100,000 people.. In Alice springs” (theguardian. com). This shows that the security of women is not guaranteed because their is still men that have no problem in abusing women. The situation is also getting worse and another reason domestic violence is getting worse is because people don’t pay enough attention to this issue and don’t address it, and this leads to even more abuse.
A 26 year old man called Spencer Pedersen.. Was discovered with at least eight dead and abused kittens in his dog pen” (fox13now. com). This shows that people who find pleasure in torturing animals still exist and just because the news doesn’t cover these stories, it doesn’t mean it’s insignificant and it should go unnoticed. This is important because it shows that people who abuse animals are not punished accordingly, and this is because the country hasn’t raised enough awareness to the problem, and that has caused people to use that as a way to justify their actions.
In every situation there’s a problem and a solution, and now that we have identified the problem it’s time to find out the solution. “At least thirteen states have laws allowing courts to include pets in temporary restraining orders” (m. humanesociety. org). This shows that states have taken a step forward in defending animal lives. This is important because it is a small step to people viewing animals lives equally as important and humans. This law will help prevent kids and adults from neglecting and treating their pet poorly. “32 percent reported their children had hurt or killed animals”(redrover. rg). This shows that how kids act when their young is a pretty accurate image of how they are going to act in their adult lives, so a kid abusing an animal should not be taken lightly. On the contrary, when you see a kid hurting animals it’s important to educate them to prevent them from becoming violent people in the future toward humans.
This is important because this behavior as a child is not healthy and it does not benefit they child and the people around him/her. “Oregon is one such state; makes animal abuse a felony if committed in the presence of a minor child”( aldf. rg). This shows how our government is improving, but it still has so much more room to be even better. This will minimize the amount of people abusing animals because they’ll know they are at committing a felony. Although this will help immensely, the government should improve their law to include the act of animal abuse to be a felony even if a child is not present. Tiffany Williams has had to suffer ten years of physical and emotional abuse, “she has been living in an urban resource institute domestic violence shelter in New york.. But despite her escape, she remains trapped..
By the economic havoc unleashed on her life”(marketwatch. com). This shows that there is much more obstacles in a woman’s life even after the abuse. This is another problem women have to face and it’s important for the government to support women who are barely getting back up by themselves and are trying to be better, especially those who are trying to support their family while trying to help themselves. “The bill, approved by the senate on October 19, aims to prevent animal abuse and neglect and increase penalties for those convicted of animal abuse”(publicopiniononline. com).
In Pennsylvania the legislature approved the House bill 869 that changes how that state views animal abuse. This supports big corporations like PETA fighting for animal rights, and this is one step closer to achieving that. This is important because in other states animal abuse is treated as a misdemeanor, but now people are actually being punished for hurting defenceless beings that can’t do anything to defend themselves back. Therefore, animal abuse and domestic violence is an important issue that people are finally starting to acknowledge and it’s important to solve both because one leads to another.
