The family violence saga: from animal to children.

Leopoldo R. Estol. ♦1
Summary. A description of the roots of violence in the civilization and the
relationship of human beings and animals, in the context of abuse. The role of
the veterinarian in the scope of the veterinary public health and animal welfare
duties. Showing how animal abuse is associated with family violence from the
more bloody way to the subtler.

Keywords: violence, animal abuse, veterinary public health, animal welfare.

Introduction .
History has shown us how deep the union between Man’s society and the
animals has been. We only must see the cave paintings all around the world as
evidence. I can not describe accurately how the attitude of those men toward
animals was, maybe only the relationship of hunters and prey.

Times change, but same things never change. Believers remember Genesis
when God gives Man dominion over the beast, but not to be his victim. It was
only to use them, but most importantly to take care and protect them.

This global conception of the whole cosmos made a special relationship between
man and nature, where the supernatural world shows how the bond was made
with respect and dependence, sharing the natural circle of life and facing his own
mortality with all the living beings.

After the Greek - Roman culture, human reason began to soar and Man started
the gap between Nature, mostly in occidental minds. That way of thinking was
flourishing with Descartes, XVII C, when said that it’s divorce among the
subjective experience and the objective world. If the Universe was autonomous
from Man, the latter would be more capable to understand and conquer it.

The modern times have a main characteristic: the domain of the human beings
and anthropomorphism. The latter was the main tool for the domain over the
environment.

After the XVIII C., the Industrial Revolution changed the social structure in
Europe and the concern about the human relationships and the new relationship
between man and the creation began. It was the beginning of anthropology,
sociology and psychology.


Veterinary Medical, Public Health Diplomate; Director and Animal Welfare Professor at the Veterinary
School, University “Del Salvador”, Argentina.
1
I desire to express my deep gratefulness to the Prof. Lic. María Isabel Oliver, University “Del Salvador”,
on the general topic of the violence and the psychological and anthropologic characteristic; to Ken
Shapiro, PSYETA, USA, who allow me to use what I like from their paper “The Culture of Violence:
The Animal Connection”; to Prof. Paul Nielsen, University of El Salvador, who make the revision of the
draft copy and to Vicky Croft, Washington State University, USA, for the final revision of the English
version of this paper.

1
With the beginning of the XX C. the roots of the inter - discipline, new values,
new habits were born and, after the two World Wars the postindustrial and the
post modernity era started.

The technology was not the only tool or answer to the social problems and
society began to see the need of the integral formation of the human being, with
the social and natural sciences. We are in the age of the concern for the
ecological equilibrium, peace and balance, the development of the person, no
dogmas and new paradigms.

Roots of human violence.

“There is no crime without a precedent” (Seneca)

Recent statistics show that we live in what has apparently been called a "culture
of violence." Maybe one of the most detailed papers about this topic is “The
Culture of Violence: The Animal Connection”. This paper illustrates the ongoing
processes and conditions in our culture by which we are socialized to accept and
even glorify violence toward human and non-human animals2. It is important to
understand how we are socialized into this type of culture. While innate drives
(those all people are born with) are important, the socialization process really
begins with children's observations of and experience with their immediate
environments.

The human evolution is a constant balance of pleasure and pain, love and hate.
The children learn to be sweet and cruel, as they were treated, and with their
primary tie model, they will develop his future human and animal relationship.

The deepest reason for the aggressiveness we may find in the early stages of
the development, in the characteristics of the adult - child model. That is the
cornerstone of the problem: the structure of the family and how it acts as a
linking matrix and primary container of identity models3.

If we want a healthy development, a child will need adult parents who know what
he needs, who protect, respect and love him and help him to find the way into
life.

When the vital need of the child is frustrated, when the adult abuse of him is by
punishment, mistreatment, manipulation, indifference or abandonment, the
child’s integrity will suffer a harm with no possibility of repair.

“...Till the middle of the XIX C., it was believed that the aggressive behavior was
an emotional problem of the normal behavior. Later, Konrad Lorenz saw the
aggression inside of same specie (intro - specific aggression) as a mark of the
Darwinism. How animals and humans gave a solution to the critical problems of
2
Shapiro Ken; The Culture of Violence: The Animal Connection PSYETA Psychologists for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals.
3
Oliver, Maria Isabel. Ponencia: La familia, mito y realidad. Significación de roles. Universidad Santa
María la Antigua. Panamá. 1993.

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the strive for the conquer of the proper field, how search for sexual partner, the
rank in the hierarchy, the access to places for food and rest. Aggression as
offence or damage to other, as a vicious attitude, have a positive function in the
struggle for life and for the conservation of the species. As a justification and
apology in the cases where the most week suffer abuse and offense, this thesis
was presented as a practical model in the field of politics, economics and human
relationships. Was accepted for some people and with the same warm feeling
was rejected by others”4.

Animals provide a dominant theme in children's entertainment and violence is a

factor in these experiences. Various institutional uses of animals are exploitative
(e.g. factory farming); also children often observe violence to animals in their own
home; finally, children themselves are often violent to animals-- through curiosity,
the task of mastering their own aggression, and in response to violence and
neglect of themselves. Animal abuse can promote violence to humans.

If these negative experiences featuring animals are an important part of our

gradual adjustment to, our socialization into “the culture of violence”, then
compassionate interactions with and presentations of animals can prevent it.

That behavior makes a definition of the attitude towards the animal species,
without paying attention at the learning ability of Man and without taking care of
the first years experiences of the human life in the socio - cultural context.

The entail of the slave and the master was made thorough millenniums by the
male adult in relation with other vulnerable beings, believing they are his
property: women, child and animals. It was the application of this power, with,
conscience or not, without control, openly, with the tolerance of the society, the
result was a high cost to society.

Child abuse, a form of violence we don't hear much about, is also on the rise.
Every week 17 children die from neglect or abuse in the US. Unfortunately, these
acts, like street violence, keep going up every year.

If we have no sensitivity to the suffering of a child, when that child becomes an

adult he will transfer it to other children, maybe their own or other vulnerable
beings and sometimes in a refined and subtle pattern5. The early practice of the
exploitation of children was substituted by some psychologic cruelty: “Education
for his own safe”. The more success the educator (boss - property owner) has,
the bigger and worst will be the consequences for the child. His feelings of pain,
frustration, anger were always forbidden by punishments, and all of this teaches
him to be mute. We may be in peace because we see a mute child, but this
hides us a point of danger in the future, a threat to his future development.

The adults who were taught by this method will relive on the face of weak and
vulnerable beings the vulnerability of their early times and the struggle to recover
4
Droscher, Vitus. Aprender a convivir. Editorial Atlántida. Buenos Aires.
5
Miller, Alice. Por tu propio bien. Editorial Tusquets. Barcelona, España.

3
of their own power that was let by the hands of their parents. The feelings of
pain, confusion, annoyance, powerlessness and fear disconnected to the original
reason may lead to destructive actions against others (antisocial behavior) or
against himself (addictions, suicide).6

“... are not any crisis or system the source of the killing behavior of those people.
Where human beings, men whose parents where proud of their obedience when
they were children, at an early age”7

Each day we hear of increasingly violent crimes committed by increasingly

troubled individuals. If we look at their violent childhood, we may see common
patterns: violent parents, inappropriate discipline, neglect, emotional repression.
When an abusive individual chooses a child as victim, it is almost invariable that
violent behavior with animals, equally helpless and dependent creatures begins 8.

In these days, is extremely difficult to understand how we supposedly intelligent

human beings, tolerate the daily violence towards fellow humans and other non-
human sentient beings. If we look at a simple dictionary, no where can we find
distinctions in defining the words “cruelty” and “violence” with respects to the
recipients: human or non-human.

“…failing to exert overt time…toward the eradication of cruelty in whatever form,

each of us lends tacit approval for its continuance and thereby even as only one
person we share a personal responsibility that of its perpetrators”9

Human - animal bond.

This relationship is a puzzling relation of nature and culture, a dialectic and
complex situation ideal for the multi disciplinary approach. The study of this
relationship has not only value for him, but in the last years it has revealed a
increasing importance in the understanding of human behavior problems.

Several studies [Lorenz (1964); Morris (1967); Levinson (1969, 1972); Corson
and Corson (1981)] about the animal’s ownership as child substitute show us
that in several primitive communities they hold a similar status and use. “…in the
developed occidental societies the roll of animals as ‘perpetual children’ forever
innocent and dependents show us their infantile identity. The pet is at the same
time an animal, a child and us as children…”10

Pets allow us to make a projection over them of our vulnerability, our playing
character, the docility and the submission of our childhood.

As Carl Jung (1964) and Rollo May (1974) said:

6
Linton, E. Estudios del Hombre. Fondo de cultura Económica. México. 1942.
7
Miller, Alice. Op. Cit.
8
Siino, B. N. A shared cry. The Lathan Letter, Fall ’94, pg. 1.
9
Tebault, H. Confessed Ignorance. The Lathan Letter, Fall ’93, pg. 2.
10
Shavishinsky, Joel. Ideas predilectas: La domesticación de los animales, la conducta y las emociones
humanas. Nuevas perspectivas. Aaron Katcher y Alan Beck. Fundación Purina Fondo Editorial.
Barcelona. España.

4
“…those creatures may show the daemon and animal side of ourselves, hardly
difficult to make in an integrated way of any person in the human being…” and,
as Jung said, “…the pets show us the shadow, the evil half dominated in our
person which we must live and try to make an integration to ourselves to make
complete our puzzle as beings”

But this does not happen only in modern times. The Indian tribes like the Plains
Indians in the U.S. they celebrated their spiritual rebirth and the regeneration of
the living earth with all its components during the 18th and the 19th century, with
the “Dance to the sun”. They include symbolic representations of various animal
species, particularly the eagle and the buffalo, that once played vital roles in the
lives of the people and are still endowed with sacredness and special powers.
The ritual, involving sacrifice and supplication to insure harmony between all
living beings, continues to be practiced today by many contemporary native
Americans. 11

Violence and animals.

“Violence is violence. The only things that differs is whether the victim has two
legs or four” Phil Arkow.

The general implication of this linkage between human and non-human animal
violence is that violence is violence and the general level of violence is self-
perpetuating. Lessening the violence in any setting, whether in life, in stories, or
on TV, can have positive consequences for society in general.

More specifically, agencies working for human and non-human victims share
common concern and can help each other. Workers in various animal-related
agencies can be trained to recognize signs of child abuse, while those in human
service and law enforcement agencies can be trained to recognize animal abuse.

The late anthropologist Margaret Mead once wrote “One of the most dangerous
things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with
it”12.

Today, the violence and the cruelty toward animals have a place all the time in
the news. One of the most usual forms is animal fighting, mostly with dogs but
also with cocks and bulls. Nevertheless, society reacts with rules. Sometimes, in
some places.

One of the places where the specific laws acts in a real way is maybe the Unites
States. In this case, it was a three-year investigation. Jointly conducted by the
United States Department of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Public
Safety in conjunction with the United States Attorney's Office in Austin, Texas,
U.S.A., has led to 29 people being charged with violations of the Animal Welfare
11
Lawrence, E. A., The Symbolic Role of Animals in the Plain Indian Sun Dance. Volume 1 Number 1
(1993) Society & Animals
12
Siino, B. N. Op. cit., pg. 9.

5
Act. "I can't think of a more cruel act than throwing two dogs into a pit just to
watch them fight," said Michael V. Dunn, assistant secretary of agriculture for
USDA's marketing and regulatory programs. "Dogfighting is disgusting, and it is
illegal. We have no tolerance for this sort of activity."

Also they guess that it is very rewarding to know that these people are finished in
the underground dog-fighting arena, Freeman said. "Everyone involved in this
case takes great satisfaction from knowing that we saved countless animals from
torturous suffering and even death in the fighting pits."13

This sort of large-scale investigation has a domino effect, she said. When one
person is charged, he or she generally "rolls over" on a few others. We have
destroyed their confidence and trust in one another. Underground dog fighting
will never be the same.

The USA’s Animal Welfare Act prohibits participation in any animal-fighting

venture, by causing one animal to fight with another animal for purposes of sport,
wagering or entertainment. Criminal violations of the AWA are punishable by
imprisonment for up to one year and fines not to exceed $100,000 for each count
of conviction.

Other things happen in Argentina. Powerless laws allow people to do, without
punishment, cruel covert activities and, some times, with the help of politicians
and, sometimes, police forces. But we may see today at Internet: Dog and puma
fighting in Argentina 14 and as Nuria, the owner of this Web site, said, ”In certain
regions of Argentina, fighting between dogs and pumas is considered an
amusement. Generally, two argentine bulldogs are put in a ring with a puma,
sometimes hurt after being captured with a steel leg hold trap. This argentine
dog, had better know as Argentine Dogo, is a well balanced and non-aggressive
dog, also very affectionate to children, that the evil human mind can change in a
killing machine”.

In addition, we may see cockfighting at several places around the world. This
ancient bloody activity has deep roots in rural parts of the world and in certain
areas of the United States. Although the activity is illegal in most jurisdictions, it
continues, generally in a covert setting. Because cockfighting is subject to
criminal sanction and informal social disapproval, cockfighters have developed
rationalizations, which they use among themselves and offer to outsiders.
Cockfighters do more than merely talk about their pastime they actively engage
in formal and informal lobbying to keep criminal penalties for their activity at a low
level of severity.

Violence to human and animals.

A brochure of one Animal Rights Organization, People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals, (PETA) warns us that violent acts toward animals have long been

13
APHIS Press Release Corrected Dogfight Ring Press Release, February 5 1998 12:07
14
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/3787/dogpuma.htm

6
recognized as indicators of a violent psychopathology that does not confine itself
to animals. 15

Is “a consensus of belief among psychologists...that cruelty to animals is one of

the best examples of the continuity of psychological disturbances from childhood
to adulthood. In short, a case for the prognostic value of childhood animal cruelty
has been well documented16.

The FBI has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that
regularly appears in its computer records of serial rapists and murderers, and the
standard diagnostic and treatment manual for psychiatric and emotional
disorders lists cruelty to animals as a diagnostic criterion for conduct disorders17.
Studies have shown that violent and aggressive criminals are more likely to have
abused animals as children than criminals considered non-aggressive.18 A
survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats found
all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well, including one
patient who had murdered a boy. 19To researchers, a fascination with cruelty to
animals is a red flag in the lives of serial rapists and killers.

History is replete with notorious examples: Patrick Sherrill, who killed 14

coworkers at a post office and then shot himself, had a history of stealing local
pets and allowing his own dog to attack and mutilate them. 20 Earl Kenneth
Shriner, who raped, stabbed, and mutilated a 7-year-old boy, had been widely
known in his neighborhood as the man who put firecrackers in dogs' rectums and
strung up cats. 21 Brenda Spencer, who opened fire at a San Diego school,
killing two children and injuring nine others, had repeatedly abused cats and
dogs, often by setting their tails on fire. 22 Albert De Salvo, the "Boston Strangler"
who killed 13 women, trapped dogs and cats in orange crates and shot arrows
through the boxes in his youth. Carroll Edward Cole, executed for five of 35
murders of which he was accused, said his first act of violence as a child was to
strangle a puppy. In 1987, three Missouri high school students were charged with
the beating death of a classmate. They had histories of repeated acts of animal
mutilation starting several years earlier. One confessed he had killed so many
cats he'd lost count. Two brothers who murdered their parents had previously

15
Animal Abuse & Human Abuse: Partners In Crime. PETA Fact sheet.
16
Animal Health Newsletter, Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine, , Nov. 1994. Cited in
PETA Fact sheet Op. Cit.
17
Goleman, Daniel, "Child's Love of Cruelty May Hint at the Future Killer," The New York Times, Aug.
7, 1991. Cited in PETA Fact sheet Op. Cit.
18
"Animal Abuse Forecast of Violence," New Orleans Times-Picayune, Jan. 1, 1987. Cited in PETA Fact
sheet Op. Cit.
19
Felthous, Alan R., "Aggression Against Cats, Dogs, and People," Child Psychiatry and Human
Development 1980, 10: 169-177. Cited in PETA Fact sheet Op. Cit.
20
International Association of Chiefs of Police, "The Training Key," No. 392, 1989. Cited in PETA Fact
sheet Op. Cit.
21
The Animals' Voice, Fall 1990. Cited in PETA Fact sheet Op. Cit.
22
The Humane Society News, Summer 1986. Cited in PETA Fact sheet Op. Cit.

7
told classmates they had decapitated a cat. 23Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer had
impaled dogs' heads, frogs, and cats on sticks.

In 1990, in Tacoma, Washington, USA, the link between animal abuse and other
violent behavior was examined. The conference theme was “The faces of human
violence” and was a project of the Human Coalition Against Violence, formed
after a brutal rape and mutilation of a young child by a man whose neighbors say
repeatedly tortured animals as juvenile24.

The recommendations came out that:

1. Increase cross training between police and animal control officers as well
as between animal control and social services (children and family);
2. Standardize reporting systems with levels of abusive behavior;
3. Make severe animal cruelty a crime;
4. Coordinate records about crime and misdemeanor;
5. Require animal cruelty reports to go to social services agencies;
6. Provide community awareness programs the significance of animal abuse
and the need to report it;
7. Develop courses of action for teachers to take when students show or
describe abusive treatment of animals;
8. Develop more animal related lessons in empathy and building self-steem;
9. Direct treatment toward severe repeat abusers;
10. Establish a national task force to implement these and similar
recommendations.

Early intervention and treatment are vital, especially since, as I said before,
where animal abuse is occurring, child and women abuse also be occurring. We
have no choice but to explore any possibilities.

What are some ways that we have tried to reduce the violence in our society?

A. Traditional measures
1. We've tried getting tough on criminals -- Some countries are building more
jails, giving stiffer sentences, using the strong penalty (death) more frequently.

2. We plan to put more police on the streets.

3. Because of the violence associated with the illegal drug trade, the authorities
seek out and destroy places where illegal drugs are made or sold, spray
poppy and marijuana fields, and arrest drug lords here and in other countries.

4. Many cities are prohibiting handguns, and a new bill in the US requires a 5-
day waiting period for handgun purchases and a computerized check of the
gun buyer's background.

23
Adams, Lorraine, "Too Close for Comfort,"The Washington Post, Apr. 4, Cited in PETA Fact sheet Op.
Cit.
24
The Latham Letter, Summer 1990, pg. 13.

8
But most of these measures have been tried in the past and found inadequate.

What else can we do?

A. Additional ways of trying to reduce violence.

• Alternatives including looking at the causes of violent behavior, or why people

become violent and commit crimes. One reason, many people believe, that
so much violent crime is occurring is because children today are being raised
in a "culture of violence" -- that is, an environment in which violence has
become a part of our everyday lives and activities. It isn't such an unusual
way of thinking or behaving anymore. They believe that parents and schools
often do not provide the healthy guidance children need to grow up into
responsible, caring adults. Therefore, one important way of reducing violence
would be to prevent it through helping parents and schools create a "culture
of cooperation" -- a social environment in which children learn through
example how to deal with problems in cooperative, constructive ways.

• Socialization into Culture of Violence. Exactly how do children get caught up

in a "culture of violence"? Is there something about human emotions, which
predisposes people to be aggressive or violent? Or do people learn how to be
violent?.

This is a very important question, and there are theories that support both views:

A. The theory of innate or basic "drives" suggests that people are born with
certain aggressive, selfish instincts. Some social scientists believe that
humans evolved with inborn "drives" to hunt, kill, and dominate others in
order to survive. Socialization, meaning the child's upbringing in his or her
society, teaches the child to stop or re-direct violent urges into non-violent
activities in order to live peacefully together.

B. According to the theory of learned behavior, the most important influence on

our attitudes and behaviors is our environment, including the people around
their behavior and us. Most social scientists agree today that learning does
play a very important role in the development of violent behavior. Therefore,
one of the great challenges in creating a more peaceful, cooperative society
is to provide good models of non-violent social behavior. Children who are
exposed to caring, cooperative behavior in others are more likely to act that
way themselves as they grow up.

C. Providing non-violent social models and helping them to choosing a model.

We can design creative projects involving children and plants, or toys, or
people, or animals -- in order to demonstrate caring behavior. But working
with animals to teach children has several advantages. First of all, most
children are naturally attracted to animals, so interacting with animals usually
captures their attention. Another advantage of using animals to model

9
 interaction is that animals are responsive to our behavior, but they are much
easier to work with -- less judgmental -- than people.

D. Using the model. Because animals are so important to children, and because
they are living beings, like us, we can use our interactions with them to model
or teach children how to behave toward other people. Children are likely to do
what they see friends, family, teachers, and others around them doing.

E. Learning animal abuse. The way we learn to accept animal abuse is

fundamentally similar to the way we learn to accept abuse of humans.
Learning one helps prepare us psychologically to learn or accept the other.
Kids often learn to accept animal abuse as "normal social behavior," for
instance, because they have been implicitly taught to NOT THINK and NOT
TALK about it by adults and friends who don't think about it. Discussions
about socially unacceptable acts like spouse abuse, child abuse, rape, and
incest, for instance, have long been discouraged in our society.
Consequently, victims often find it very difficult to seek justice when society
wishes to ignore them or to deny that such a thing could happen. Children
assume that, since these violent acts are not talked about, then they must
not be something to be concerned about. It is difficult to seek justice for
abused animals because here, too, society wishes to avoid acknowledging
THEIR experiences. "People like me...have forgotten," wrote Alice Walker,
"and daily forget, all that animals try to tell us. 'Everything you do to us will
happen to you; we are your teachers, as you are ours. We are one lesson' is
essentially it, I think. There are those who never once have even considered
animals' rights: those who have been taught that animal actually want to be
used and abused by us..."

F. Kids may also learn to accept human and animal abuse because they see
and hear that life is supposed to be brutal -- "survival of the fittest," "it's a
dog-eat-dog world." Sometimes they are even told that an animal wants to be
abused or killed. And we pretend that animals are happy about being used for
food, sport or heavy labor.

Veterinarian’s role.
“Animal Health is an expression of Animal Welfare. The Veterinary Profession is
the one providing health to animals. Therefore, is the only authotativilly can
speak about Animal Welfare” Apostolos Rantslos. President. World Veterinary
Association, Sept. 7, 1998.

We are health care providers, as “health professionals” or “practitioners of the

healing arts”, like physicians, nurses and dentistry.

In that scope, we have a mandate to report human, child and animal abuse and
neglect25.

25
Arkow, P. Child abuse, animal abuse and the veterinarian. JAVMA, Vol. 204, No. 7, Apr. 1, 1994.
1004-1007.

10
Our responsibility exceeds not only to the animal patient but to society we must
answer the question: Is our primary obligation the animal, the owner who paid
and brought the animal to our facility, or equally to both?26

I guess that our role is of leadership. The danger is to do nothing. We are

important tools but misused. Our intervention, focusing on animal wellbeing,
must be our priority.

We must clarify and mitigate ethical dilemmas about our responsibility toward
animal patients and clients.

Traditionally, our profession focuses their energies toward treating medical

conditions on animals. Now we must protect all the vulnerable beings and
promote social skills to those who need us.

We are obliged to report any animal abuse and take a leadership role in
community coalitions against violence.

I guess that in that way, our attitude allows us to be part of the forefront of
response of the new social concern about animals, as natural advocates for
animals in society.

26
Rollin, B. Veterinary and animal ethics. Cited in Arkow, Op. cit.

11