Compelling evidence links animal cruelty and neglect to domestic violence, child abuse, child sexual abuse, and elder abuse. Animal abuse frequently is an indicator and predictor of interpersonal, family, and community violence, particularly in domestic violence and child maltreatment scenarios. Significant numbers of women report that threats to their companion and farm animals prevent them from leaving abusive relationships. Children who perpetrate or witness animal cruelty are at risk of being victims themselves and/or future perpetrators of violence, with lifelong adverse emotional consequences. The need for complex multidisciplinary responses is not limited to areas where animal cruelty and interpersonal violence clearly intersect. Animal hoarding cases, for example, require both humane and human service responses.
In response, professionals in multiple disciplines are actively reexamining the complex motivations behind acts of animal cruelty, advancing innovative public policy reforms, implementing programmatic innovations, and using animal-assisted interventions to help the perpetrators and victims of violence. One such mechanism is cross-training/cross-reporting among human services and animal protection agencies. Legislation to facilitate this has been introduced in the Ohio Legislature by Representative Laura Lanese.
The Animal Welfare Institute and the National Link Coalition, with the support of the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW Ohio), will be hosting three regional seminars in Cleveland, Toledo, and Columbus to explore this critical issue and opportunities to establish and enhance cross-training and cross-reporting processes at the local level.
The Cleveland seminar, titled “Cross-Reporting for Humane and Human Services: A Species-Spanning Approach to Safer Families and Communities,” will be held Tuesday, March 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 12200 Fairhill Road.
These seminars will explore “the dark side” of the human-animal bond and its implications for human and humane services, family welfare agencies, prosecutors, law enforcement, and human and veterinary medicine. The seminars will describe new strategies, public policy, research, and programs to prevent family violence and to respond to its human and animal victims.
Topics to be addressed include the following: animal hoarding, animal sexual abuse, animal fighting, applicable statutes and statistics, case studies, and animal abuse’s specific links with child maltreatment, domestic violence, elder abuse, and community violence.
Recommendations for professionals and advocates and an extensive list of resources will be presented. NASW Ohio will be providing 4.5 CEUs for social workers.
Space is limited to 50 participants for each workshop, so please reserve your space early to take advantage of this opportunity.
For more information contact: Vicki Deisner, Animal Welfare Institute, Vicki.deisner@gmail.com, 614-493-8383
Thank you for the support from the Kenneth Scott Charitable Trust and Maddie’s Fund.