BackHome
Refresh: OffView Personal Schedule
Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse in Spain: Cooperative Research Between Health Professionals and Law-Enforcement

Fri, Nov 21, 3:30 to 4:50pm, Marriott, Salon 13, Lower B2 Level

Abstract

46 domestic violence cases were evaluated: 89,13% of the victims were women and 10,87% men. We found a coexistence of interpersonal violence and animal abuse in 93,33% of the cases. We found a wide range of abuse types, the most frequent being: beating 57,14%, death 19%, neglect 23,81%, burning 2,4%, verbal violence (shouting/terrorizing the animal) 66,67%, tethering 4,8%, suffocation 2,4%, drowning 2,4% and shooting 7,1 %. When we analyzed who the perpetrator of the animal abuse was, we found that adult males (father) accounted for 81,4%, adult females (mother) 2,33%, son 4,65%, daughter 11,63% and other relative 2,33%. In previous research we found that some of the victims reported spontaneously that their companion animals had developed behavioral problems in relation to violent acts and that contributed to the victim’s suffering for not knowing how to help their animals. For this research, we specifically asked about behavior problems (such as phobias, aggression, enuresis) and we found that 19,23% of the victims acknowledged that. In 7 cases, we needed to provide emergency shelter for the companion animals thanks to our cooperation with the Freedom Paws Link Project (SAF-T Program partner).

Authors