Why should social workers care about

animals? A/Prof Nik Taylor & A/Prof Heather Fraser

Overview

• Learning goals

• Human and animal rights

• The Link/s

• Helping animal and human victims of violence

• Conceptualising animal inclusive social work practice

• Supporting grass roots organisations

• References

Learning Goals

Participants will:

• Gain an understanding of links between human and animal directed abuse

• Consider how social workers might help human and animal victims of violence

• Reflect on the connections between human and animal rights and ethics

• Consider what animal inclusive social work practice might entail.

Why look at animal abuse?

• May help identify troubled youth and dysfunctional families

• It is relatively common (1/5th children exposed)

• Negative developmental consequences associated with it

• Can be a marker of family violence

• Linked to other forms of violence

• Number of victims is staggering

• “Ending animal abuse is an important step in ending all violence” (Flynn, 2012)

The Link

• In one US study 65% of those arrested for crimes against animals had also been arrested for battery against humans (Degenhardt, 2005).

• In another, 1.8% of 43,093 people surveyed (extrapolated to equate to c. 215 million Americans) admitted to animal cruelty. Compared to those who did not report animal cruelty, they were significantly more likely to have committed all 31 antisocial behaviours also measured.

• The strongest relationships were between committing animal cruelty and robbery/mugging, arson, harassment and threatening behaviour(Flynn, 2012).

Animal abuse and family violence

Link between domestic violence and companion animal cruelty where companion animals may be used to:

• ensure the silence of the victim.

• maintain power over the victim.

• coerce the victim to do something against their will,

• punish the victim.

Helping Animal and Human Victims of Violence

Service Implications 1

• Animal abuse often means increased violence to humans

• Simmons & Lehmann (2007), abusers who harmed family animals use greater range and severity of violence to humans. Increased controlling behaviours.

• Human-animal bonds can intensify through shared violence experiences

• Fear of harm to animals can be factor in women’s decision to return.

• Animals provide comfort and healing; staying together during recovery important for all species

• Life savers, friends, trusted companions.

Service implications 2

Humans refuse to leave/stay longer in violent relationships due to concern over animals

Providers can reach more human victims

Potentially forge stronger relationships due to care and/or acknowledgment of animals

Need for more services

Surveyed family and child services in Qld & NSW in 2004/5:

• Over 60% reported the welfare of companion animals was of considerable/major concern to their clients.

• Most indicated they saw deliberate animal harm as another way in which abusers had kept control of the abused.

• Indicated disparity btw formal reports and actual cases – due to clients fear of reprisal.

• 96% indicated that there was a need for a specific service to address this issue.

Conceptualising animal inclusive social work practice

• Staff development

• Policy

• Direct practice

• Theoretical perspectives

Steps needed

• Include animals

• Intake assessments, housing, acknowledgment

• Update policies and procedures

• Training and development

• Research shows: little training on offer; social workers generally keen; need more resources; establish training throughout SW education.

Is it only relevant with companion animals?

What about, for instance, slaughterhouse workers? Farmers? Meat-eaters? Hunters? Fishers?

Starting point: animals are considered secondary to humans

Often deemed unworthy of moral consideration

• What happens to groups of humans where this happens?

Ecofeminism

• Does not accept the human domination of animals;

• Cares about the environmental consequences of farming and consuming animals;

• Animals not unthinking and unfeeling machines;

• Opposes animals being seen as natural edible resources designed for human use, inc the assumption that humans need to eat meat;

• Does not accept the legitimacy of hunting, especially in the name of sport; and

• Seeks to reposition human-animal relationships to prioritiseegalitarianism and solidarity across differences (Adams, 1991).

Human and Animal Rights

• “Drawing on the insights of ecology, feminism and socialism, ecofeminism’s basic premise is that the ideology which authorizes oppressions such as those based on race, class, gender, sexualities, physical abilities, and species is the same ideology that sanctions the oppression of nature”

• (pp. 1 Gaard, G. (1993) Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature. Temple UniveristyPress).

Speciesism

• “…we see the interconnected nature of speciesism with ableism, sexism, racism, and so on. Since all forms of oppression are connected, and help reproduce each other, all must be considered…” (Fraser & Taylor, 2016, p. 49).

Sentience

Sentient: able to perceive or feel things

Sentient animals have their own feelings, thoughts and connections with others. They also have their own experiences of physical and emotional abuse is worthy of attention and redress

Human-animal intersubjectivity

• ….some theorists esteem human-companion animal relationships as deep and inter-subjective, resting on a shared sense of selfhood (Irvine, 2004), or mindedness (Sanders, 1993); which reflects “co-habitation, co-evolution, and embodied cross-species sociality” (Haraway, 2003, p. 4). Within this body of work animals are not subordinated but shown to be, “conscious, purposeful partners in interaction” (Irvine, 2004, p. 4) [Fraser, Taylor & Riggs, in process].

Selected References

Adams, C. J. 2015. The sexual politics of meat: A feminist-vegetarian critical theory. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Adams, C., & Donovan, J. 1996. eds. Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explanations. Durham, NC: Duke University Press

Ahmed, S. 2004. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Cudworth, E. 2011. Social Lives with other Animals: Tales of Sex, Death and Love. London: Palgrave.

Drew, L., & Taylor, N. 2014. Engaged activist research: challenging apolitical objectivity. Counterpoints, 448, 158-176.

Fraser, H. 2008. In the name of love: Women's narratives of love and abuse. Women's Press/Canadian Scholars Press.

Fraser, H., & Seymour, K. 2017. Understanding Violence and Abuse: An Anti-oppressive Practice Perspective. Fernwood Publishing

Gruen, L. 2015. Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationships with Animals. New York, Lantern Books.

Riggs, D. W., Taylor, N., Signal, T., Fraser, H., & Donovan, C. 2018. People of diverse genders and/or sexualities and their animal companions: Experiences of family violence in a binational sample. Journal of Family Issues, 39(18), 4226-4247.

Taylor, N., & Fraser, H. 2019. Companion Animals and Domestic Violence: Rescuing Me, Rescuing You. Springer.

Taylor, N., Fraser, H., & Riggs, D. W. 2017. Domestic violence and companion animals in the context of LGBT people’s relationships. Sexualities,

Taylor, N., & Twine, R. eds. 2014. The rise of critical animal studies: From the margins to the centre. Routledge.

Taylor, N., & Fraser, H. 2017. Slaughterhouses: The language of life, the discourse of death. In The Palgrave International Handbook of Animal Abuse Studies (pp. 179-199). Palgrave Macmillan, London.