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How is harm to animals an aspect of domestic violence?

Paws for Kids was the first service of its kind in the UK, but in the USA they are much further advanced. There the connection between human violence and animal abuse has been researched in detail.

More information can be found on the following web sites:

The Humane Society of the United States

The Doris Day Animal League: www.ddal.org

The Latham Foundation: www.latham.org

At Paws for Kids we have identified a significant link between human abuse & animal abuse. This "Link" is illustrated in the results form the questionnaires returned to Paws for Kids by women who use the pet fostering service.

Each woman who uses the service is sent a monitoring questionnaire: the following is a breakdown of the information gained from the questionnaires returned.

Below are two questions we ask which all too often give disturbing answers:

  • Before coming to the refuge did your abuser threaten to or actually harm your pets?
  • If you had children at home did they see or hear this?

46% of women indicated that their partners had THREATENED TO HARM their pets

29% indicated their partners HAD HARMED their pets

81% of the respondents had children

41% of the children in these families HAD WITNESSED THREATS OR ACTUAL VIOLENCE to their much-loved pet.


What Does Harm to Animals by Perpetrators of Domestic Violence Accomplish?

A violent man will use whatever there is in the home to maintain his power and control over his partner and children. It stands to reason if there are pet animals there, he can choose to use them in the same way.

By harming a pet a violent man can re-enforce a sense of terror in his partner and children - he may not need to do anything else to demonstrate his power. By hurting a pet he is demonstrating what he is capable of.

If he kills a pet, he may be destroying the women or child's only form of comfort & support by cutting them off from the unconditional love of a pet, this will inevitably add to their feelings of isolation and despair.

If a pet is left in the home when a women and her children go in to a refuge, a man may choose to harm a pet to re-enforce the fear that if she is not there her pets are not safe.

We must also never forget that by threatening to harm a much-loved pet a child's silence can be bought by an abuser - e.g. "If you tell anyone I'll kill your kitten"

We believe that:

  • Agencies must look at the family as a whole: adults, children & animals
  • Animal care and control professionals must be involved in communicating information to domestic violence and child protection agencies.

Animal abuse must be seen and documented as a human welfare issue. Animal abuse must be redefined as family violence.

"He threatened to kick my cat to death … it upset my daughter greatly. She became very fretful and protective of the cat and used to curl up in bed and hold her till they both fell asleep"