Domestic Abuse & Animal Abuse
Last week, I contacted many animal rescue groups in the Dayton/Cincinnati area. I wrote emails to about 22 of them and sent Facebook messages to several others who didn't have public emails. I asked them to share a Fox45/22 news special highlighting reform in the State of Ohio, particularly HB 274 (Goddard's Law).
A heartfelt thank you to those organizations who shared the article and spread the word. This is incredibly important. More change will be had when people band together to insist on it.
I noticed there were opponents of the bill due to the increase in having "more laws" and "more people going to jail." For those who get caught up in idea that increasing penalties will result in more people in prison. I challenge that.
Let's take a look at this statistic:
A heartfelt thank you to those organizations who shared the article and spread the word. This is incredibly important. More change will be had when people band together to insist on it.
I noticed there were opponents of the bill due to the increase in having "more laws" and "more people going to jail." For those who get caught up in idea that increasing penalties will result in more people in prison. I challenge that.
Let's take a look at this statistic:
- 71% of domestic violence victims report that their abuser also targeted their animal (Ascione, 1997)
71% - that's a significant number. Two out of every three victims who is abused by their partner also witnessed animal abuse by the same partner. Their children witnessed that abuse as well.
Chew on that for a moment.
If you can catch the act of violence earlier when it is at a "smaller" scale, it's possible some of the greater atrocities might be prevented. Granted, it's not a small scale for the abused - however, when you start hearing arguments about crazy dog lovers caring more about dogs than people, this is a statistic to throw out there. Currently, under Ohio law, if the animal abuse was reported, there is little to be done about it. Most animal abuse isn't even reported, but we'll discuss that in another post sometime). What we hear about is only the tip of the iceberg.
Chew on that for a moment.
If you can catch the act of violence earlier when it is at a "smaller" scale, it's possible some of the greater atrocities might be prevented. Granted, it's not a small scale for the abused - however, when you start hearing arguments about crazy dog lovers caring more about dogs than people, this is a statistic to throw out there. Currently, under Ohio law, if the animal abuse was reported, there is little to be done about it. Most animal abuse isn't even reported, but we'll discuss that in another post sometime). What we hear about is only the tip of the iceberg.
We've known about the link between domestic abuse and animal abuse for decades. If you abuse your animals, you will likely abuse your spouse and children. The cycle needs to be stopped. And if culturally, animal abuse is perceived as the least awful, lessening it will lessen the other types of abuse.
Additional reading:
- http://www.vachss.com/guest_dispatches/ascione_1.html
- http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/18/3/258
- https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/188677.pdf
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