What Are The Causes Of Animal Abuse

The Problem of Animal Cruelty

What This Guide Does and Does Not Embrace

This guide begins past describing the problem of animal cruelty and reviewing factors that increase its risks. It so identifies a series of questions to help y'all clarify your local animal cruelty problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known nearly these from evaluative research and police practise.

Animal cruelty is but i aspect of the larger set of problems related to animals. This guide is limited to addressing the particular harms created by beast cruelty. Related bug non directly addressed in this guide, each of which requires divide analysis, include the following:

Nuisance or Hazardous Animals

Stray animals
Noisy animals
Animal waste
Animal bites
Animal-vehicle crashes
Dangerous or feral animals

Harm to Animals Incidental to Other Motives

Overworking farm animals
Animal theft
Canis familiaris fighting or cockfighting
Capturing and harming protected animal species
Hunting out of season
Smuggling and selling exotic animal species
Puppy mills

Some of these related bug are covered in other guides in this series, all of which are listed at the stop of this guide. For the nigh upwardly-to-date list of electric current and futurity guides, see world wide web.popcenter.org.

General Clarification of the Problem

Beast cruelty includes many kinds of mistreatment, from temporarily failing to provide essential care to the malicious killing or repeated torturing of an animal. Every state defines beast cruelty differently, both in terms of the specific deportment that are prohibited and the categories of animals that are protected. For example, hunting is exempted from beast cruelty laws and livestock are not protected, fifty-fifty though in both cases the animals are killed and quite often suffer. Laws in some states protect wild animals from frivolous damage (e.g., "thrill killing"), although most brute cruelty laws are designed to only protect "companion animals" or pets.

Animal cruelty cases tend to span the jurisdictions of several state and local agencies and departments, and the agency officially responsible for treatment brute cruelty cases varies. Some jurisdictions take sophisticated programs within beast welfare organizations (east.chiliad., Humane Societies, Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Beast Control) with particularly trained staff who reply to all complaints of brute cruelty. They may be called animal cruelty enforcement agents, humane law enforcement agents, cruelty investigators, or brute control officers, and while they may have the legal authority to investigate and enforce animal cruelty laws, the public often grants them less legitimacy than police force.i In some jurisdictions, animal cruelty enforcement agents interact with constabulary. In places without local creature welfare organizations, police may exist solely responsible for enforcing all brute-protection laws.2 Where local humane agencies exist, constabulary tend to refer complaints of fauna cruelty to these agencies, fifty-fifty though they ofttimes lack the funding, expertise, and resources to investigate animal cruelty cases.3

The intense public reaction to animal cruelty cases covered past the media suggests that the public is concerned almost the treatment of animals and believes brute cruelty to be a social problem worthy of police force attending.4 Because law routinely come up into contact with people at their homes where their animals are ordinarily kept, the officers are in an ideal position to identify warning signs of animal cruelty and neglect. While some cases will be arduous, involving lengthy investigations, search warrants, and circuitous criminal offense scenes, most cases of creature cruelty are not particularly complicated. Peculiarly in cases of simple neglect, police who identify the signs of fauna cruelty can offer information, suggestions for improving animal care, or warnings, which will usually rectify the situation before a serious tragedy occurs.5

Types of Animal Cruelty

The post-obit types of brute cruelty exist:

Neglect occurs when an owner fails to provide the animal with adequate food, water, shelter, or veterinarian care. Severely restricting an animal's movement full-time past tethering it to a stationary object or keeping the creature in a cage is the most common, and most visible, type of neglect. Fail is the most common type of brute cruelty.6
Hoarding is a severe form of neglect in which the owner accumulates an excessive number of pets, is unable to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, or veterinary care, and houses the animals in extremely overcrowded conditions. Such neglect results in disease and starvation and may even atomic number 82 to the death of the animals.
Concrete abuse refers to intentional acts that crusade the animate being pain, suffering, or death. Abusive behaviors include chirapsia, burning, choking or suffocating, dragging, drowning, hanging, kicking or stomping, mutilating, poisoning, shooting, stabbing, and throwing, amid others. Corruption also includes sexual contact with animals, specially contact that causes injury or severe distress such as vaginal or anal penetration, or ligature or lacerations to the animals' genitalia.

Warning Signs of Animal Cruelty

While specialized training is desirable, particularly for complicated hoarding cases or cases of physical abuse that volition be prosecuted, nearly police force officers need only a basic familiarity with animals' wellness and normal states of being to identify the alarm signs of animal cruelty. These signs may include the following:7

Animals in poor physical condition (e.g., skinny or emaciated, open sores, dirty, foul odor, excessive caput shaking or scratching, excessively disordered coat)
Excessively ambitious animals (e.thousand., lunging, snarling, snapping, growling)
Excessively submissive animals (east.m., no eye contact, cowering, shaking, backing away)
Poor general sanitation (e.chiliad., urine or carrion in the dwelling house, no admission to clean h2o or nutrient)
Exposure to extreme weather without proper shelter
Bereft space, lighting, or ventilation for the number of animals present
Cruel solitude (east.chiliad., short tether, small cage, hot car)
Lack of necessary medical intendance (e.yard., fauna is diseased, injured, or dying)
Cruel or inappropriate preparation methods (eastward.g., suspended with front legs off the floor to punish, weighted downwardly and thrown into h2o, forced to run alongside car)
Tight collars or harnesses that are embedded in the animals' flesh
Expressionless animals on the property

Prevalence of Animal Cruelty

National crime-reporting systems practise not monitor fauna cruelty. Doing so would be very difficult, because enforcement say-so is scattered across thousands of state and local agencies, laws vary across states, and standardized reporting structures have not been adult. The two major efforts to collect data on the prevalence of brute mistreatment rely primarily on media reports, rather than enforcement records, every bit the source.†

† Until 2004, the Humane Society of the United states collected data on animal cruelty cases covered in the media. It discontinued the project because of excessive demands on staff (Lockwood 2008). Press clippings were also used build the Fauna Abuse Registry Database Administration Organisation (AARDAS), a private system which was launched in 2002. While the website includes a search engine and crime-mapping capabilities, information technology includes just those cases with a media reference or that proceeded to court. As of April 18, 2011, the database included over 17,000 cases in 6 countries.

One survey of school-aged children in the United states of america plant that 30 percent admitted to committing some grade of animal cruelty.8 Another survey constitute that 14 percent of the population had witnessed someone "intentionally or carelessly inflicting pain or suffering on an beast in the past year."9 This translates to over 15 million incidents of animal cruelty in a unmarried year. Over half of the respondents stated they reported the incident to a law enforcement or humane system. 1 report estimated that approximately v,000 cases of hoarding are reported each twelvemonth, with roughly 40 animals involved in each case.ten

Despite the lack of national information, most researchers agree that cases of fail constitute the vast bulk of animal cruelty cases.11 However, unless the fail is farthermost or involves a large number of animals, these cases are rarely discussed past the media. As a result, the public may non fully understand the prevalence and nature of brute cruelty.12

Harms Caused past Creature Cruelty

The well-nigh obvious harm caused past animal cruelty is the pain and suffering endured past the animal. In contrast to what is oft presented past the media, happy endings in cases of physical cruelty are rare: the abuse is often ghastly and victim animals are rarely returned to good wellness or adopted by a loving family.thirteen Peculiarly in hoarding cases, astringent crowding and a lack of socialization create health and beliefs problems that may exit animals unadoptable and at take a chance of euthanasia.14 One study of fauna cruelty cases in the media in 2003 found that 62 percent of the beast victims were either killed past the perpetrator or euthanized because of their injuries.15 Long-term outcomes are amend for victims of mild neglect, provided their owners change their arroyo to the animal's care.

In add-on to the beast suffering inflicted in even the least sensational cases, the more complicated hoarding cases also generate significant public health concerns. Homes of hoarders are generally filthy, with an accumulation of animal feces and urine on the floor, sometimes several inches deep. The resulting ammonia gas creates toxic air. Utilities and major appliances usually practice not work, and virtually of the bones activities for a functional and sanitary household (eastward.g., showering, sleeping in a bed, preparing nutrient) are impaired. Carcasses of dead animals are ofttimes found in hoarding locations, many of which are eventually condemned.16

While animal cruelty is a serious social problem in its own right, interest in its clan with other forms of violence has motivated a bang-up deal of research. Groups of researchers in both the Us and the United Kingdom assert that people who impairment or kill animals are at high take chances of interpersonal violence.17 These researchers assert that people who mistreat animals will do so habitually and are likely to be fierce to their partners and children. Further, they claim that victims of child abuse are likely to impairment animals and are more likely to exist vehement toward humans as they mature. Most of these studies examined the prevalence of animal cruelty among incarcerated, violent offenders.

All the same, citing methodological flaws in the research and overly broad generalizations, a few researchers believe the link between animal cruelty and interpersonal violence has been overstated.18 Given that most people who have been barbarous to animals accept not gone on to commit increasingly tearing acts towards humans, these researchers worry that bold a direct link will bandage the cyberspace besides wide and effect in misdirected resources.xix The same set of external factors (e.g., stress, poverty, substance abuse) may underlie multiple forms of violence. However, cruelty to animals, solitary, is non a particularly influential predictor of interpersonal violence, and fauna cruelty may precede or follow other types of violent offenses.20

Factors Contributing to Beast Cruelty

Understanding the factors that contribute to your problem will help you frame your own local analysis questions, determine effective measures in response, recognize key intervention points, and select advisable responses.

Animal Victim Characteristics

Dogs and cats are the most frequent victims of neglect and physical cruelty, although birds, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, and reptiles are sometimes driveling. Most victims of animal cruelty are pets, non wild animals.21 A survey of veterinarians' experience with abused animals and suspected abusers revealed that offenders may physically abuse younger animals (age 7 months to 2 years), who are full of energy and sometimes difficult to train.22

Wild fauna (due east.yard., raccoons, possums, deer) may be brutally attacked by poachers who intentionally hit the animate being with a motorcar or beat them with a club or bat.23 The animals are killed non for their meat, only rather for sport or the thrill of causing harm.

Hoarding cases unremarkably involve dogs and cats and most involve multiple species.24 These cases typically involve dozens of animals, or in extreme cases, hundreds.25

Offender Characteristics

Neglected animals are oftentimes found in households where residents accept alcohol and drug problems and where residents are overwhelmed and have difficulty meeting their own basic needs.26 Further, some pet owners are merely ignorant of animals' bones needs and how to railroad train them effectively.27 Even though their cruelty is unintentional, owners who lack this essential knowledge may severely neglect their animals.

Although a few studies have shown that a small proportion of vehement adult criminals were chronic animal abusers as children, about children who are cruel to animals commit mild, exceptional acts of cruelty and eventually grow out of it.28 Their cruelty is motivated past curiosity, peer pressure, boredom, or a lack of knowledge about animals.29

Perpetrators are about probable to be older adolescents or immature adults. Males commit intentional acts of cruelty toward animals more oftentimes than females.30 While abuse occurs at all socio-economic levels, it is concentrated in lower socioeconomic households.31 Physical cruelty is often motivated by unrealistic expectations about how animals should deport, and offenders cause pain and distress in an effort to command or retaliate against the brute. They may also express anger most other situations by abusing the animal.32 In domestic violence situations, offenders may corruption animals in an endeavour to intimidate or control their human victims.33

Although far less common than physical abuse or uncomplicated neglect, hoarding has attracted a asymmetric amount of inquiry. As a result, the profile of a typical hoarder is far more specific. Hoarders are most oftentimes single females who live alone, do non work outside the home, and are socially isolated. Nonetheless, hoarding cases besides involve single males and couples of varying ages and living arrangements. Research has identified several types of hoarders, including the following:34

Overwhelmed animal caregivers' patterns of neglect are triggered by a alter in circumstances or resource (e.g., loss of spouse or partner, onset of affliction, loss of job). They have a stiff attachment to their animals and may recognize they are not taking adept care of them only are overextended and cannot address it.
Rescuers have a strong personal mission to "save" animals, believe they are the only ones who intendance well-nigh animals' well-beingness, and actively acquire animals. They deny their behavior is problematic and believe their animals are happy and healthy.
Exploiters collect animals to serve their ain needs and usually take a serious mental illness. They are indifferent to the harms they crusade and generally reject all attempts to help them.

Regardless of the motivation, without adequate treatment and limits on futurity pet ownership, nearly all hoarders reoffend.35

Times of Year and Locations Where Fauna Cruelty Occurs

Enquiry has not examined the specific locations where physical abuse or simple neglect occurs. We practise know that although animal cruelty occurs at all socioeconomic levels and in all communities, information technology is concentrated in households of lower socioeconomic condition.36 Media accounts suggest that animal cruelty occurs in or around private residences (when a pet is the victim) or in isolated public spaces (when the victim is a wild or stray animal). Although research describes the characteristics of the households in which hoarding occurs, nosotros exercise not know the geographic concentrations of hoarding cases.37

Although the seasonal patterns of creature cruelty accept not been researched in depth, the enquiry implies that simple neglect (east.g., inadequate shelter) may be more prevalent during seasons with farthermost temperatures.

Co-occurring Problems

The co-occurrence of animal cruelty with other forms of violence compounds the harms associated with it. Although the link between the concrete corruption of animals and interpersonal violence is unlikely to exist every bit causal equally some enquiry suggests, the occurrence of either type of violence should cue police to check whether other forms of mistreatment may likewise be present.38 The underlying conditions that create the opportunity for brute cruelty to occur (e.g., stress, deprivation, aggression, mental illness, prior victimization, drug and alcohol use) mirror the risk factors for interpersonal violence. As a consequence, people who abuse animals may be at take a chance of committing interpersonal violence, and vice versa. While presuming that people who abuse their pets likewise abuse their children or spouses is inappropriate, being vigilant virtually the potential co-occurrence of various forms of violence is but prudent.

Women in domestic violence situations may filibuster leaving a violent partner, in part because they are concerned about pets that would be left behind.39 Most domestic violence shelters do not adjust animals. The social isolation and limited fiscal resources of domestic violence victims tin prevent them from leaving their pets with family members, friends, or at a kennel. Many women in shelters report that their pets have been threatened, injured, or killed by their abusive partners. Batterers harm pets to exert control, forbid the victim from leaving, or coerce the victim to return.40

Finally, the chaos and filth that characterize hoarding locations have grave consequences for the health of the human inhabitants. Hoarders mostly accept poor hygiene and limited access to a sanitary environment for eating, bathing, and sleeping. These problems with self-care are often compounded by untreated mental illnesses.