Article: Animal abuse, domestic violence linked, expert says

When animals are abused, people are at risk.

When people are abused, animals are at risk.

"We call all this 'the link'," Phil Arkow, coordinator of the National Link Coalition, told members of law enforcement, social services organizations, prosecutors, domestic violence victim groups and animal control Wednesday during a workshop at the South Bend Police Department.

The afternoon workshop -- "The Link Between Animal Cruelty and Public Health and Safety" -- was co-sponsored by the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office and the Indianapolis-based Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

The day's message was clear: Animal abuse and domestic violence -- child abuse, child sex abuse and abuse of the elderly -- go hand-in-hand.
Advertisement"We've known since the 1300s that child abuse and animal abuse seem to go together," Arkow said.

During the 1990s, he added, "We started to notice the link with domestic violence."

Adults who are cruel to animals are either "ignorant ... socialized to abuse," or they lack adequate coping skills, according to data Arkow presented.

The same animal abuse mentality has been shown to threaten, intimidate and control people during instances of domestic violence and child sexual abuse, as well as incidents of neighborhood retaliation.

But while statistics show a strong link between animal abuse and domestic violence, laws pertaining to cases of animal abuse are largely outdated in the U.S., and still evolving.

"Animals (in the U.S.) are in the same legal category as a toaster ... they're property," Arkow said.

"But no woman ever ran back into a burning house or a domestic violence to save her toaster," he noted.

Indiana, meanwhile, "is ahead of the curve" when it comes to animal cruelty statutes.

Torturing or killing an animal, or participating in animal fighting events (such as dogfighting) can be charged as a Class D felony, as can second convictions of beating and abandonment or neglect.

County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak, who last year proposed a law to make it possible to charge a person with a Class D felony if they caused the death of a law enforcement animal (K-9 dog or horse) when driving while intoxicated, says prosecutors can find themselves hamstrung by misdemeanor statutes in cases of animal neglect.

But the prosecutor noted one case where an argument broke out between a man and a woman ... and the man killed her dog after the woman went to work.

"He can now be charged as a felony," Dvorak noted.

"When animals in the home are being abused or neglected, it is a warning sign that others may be in danger as well," Dvorak said.

"Once we completely understand this correlation," he added, "together we will be in a better position to identify violence within the home more quickly, hold the abusers accountable for all their criminal wrongdoing within the home, prevent future violence and ultimately protect our community."