Cruelty to Animals and Abuse of Family Members
We are pleased to be participating in the development of a new program called 'Pets in Transition Too' or 'PITT'. The aim of this program is to create safe temporary shelter for the pets of woman leaving abusive relationships. Recent studies specifically explored the link between family violence, firearms and animal abuse in rural New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island using both survey data and qualitative data (Doherty and Hornosty, 2007). This research showed that 70% of the abused women in the study had pets and/or farm animals. Our purpose is to create awareness of the well researched link between cruelty to animals and woman abuse.
We know that women will delay leaving abusive relationships, and put themselves at serious risk, because of concerns for their animals safety.
Unfortunately, there is often no safe place for them to take their animals, even temporarily. Transition houses are unable to house animals. Many women in the Doherty and Honorsty (2003, 2007) studies suggested that some kind of temporary shelter program should be established. Some of the research findings include:
Ø Of those who animals had been threatened, 41% said their partner deliberately harmed or killed the animal.
Ø 64% of women in homes with firearms thought firearms were used to harm the animal.
Ø 24% of women with children said that their child was aware that an animal had been harmed or threatened with abuse.
We are currently in the process of developing a public education initiative in collaboration with the Public Legal Education, Information Service of New Brunswick and the Miramichi Family Violence Prevention Network. This initiative is being funded by Status of Women Canada. However, if we create awareness, we must also create a response - a solution. We need your participate in order to make this happen.
If you see animal cruelty in your community, please call 911.