The Link Sweden and the Swedish Animal Welfare Society organized the 25 May a day of violence against animals and violence in close relationships with a lecture by Phil Arkow, initiator of The Link in the US.
Arkow shows a connection between acts of violence against animals and people later convicted of violent crimes against people. In close relationships can force against the animal used as a way to intimidate and control. In families where the animal is exposed, it is very likely that other family members are exposed, and where other family members are at risk, the risk that the animal is exposed. These relationships called The Link.
Phil Arkow calls for cooperation between veterinarians, social services, animal welfare inspectors and police to quickly prevent violence. Veterinarians and animal welfare inspectors are often the first to receive indications of violence occurring in the family. Violence against animals, either if you see it in children or in family, is often the first indicator that it is not right.
Arkow believes that the caring professions, social workers, should pay attention to violence against animals occurs and have knowledge of The Link. A study from the US shows that 82 percentage of families where violence against animals occurred, also had issues of social.
Violence against animals in a relationship means that violence is normalized as part of the family living. A problem occurs when an abused woman trying to leave the man but can not bring the animal. Threats of violence against the animal can then be used by the man to get the woman to come back. In one study tells a woman, who did not want to abandon their dog to get into a shelter, Phil Arkow to “I’ve loved this dog longer than any relationship I’ve ever had“.
Phil Arkow believe that no distinction should be made between violence to people and violence to animals but believes that in a good society, we should work against all forms of violence. He says that when animals are exposed are children and partner at risk, when children tormenting animals, they can be victims and, children who are violent toward animals is a warning sign that the child can become a violent adult and put both people and animals in danger.
Arkow also believes that the difficulty of accessing violent crimes against animals is that animals are still regarded as possessions, and that crimes against animals are not given high priority enough.
> Animal rights
The FBI Animal Cruelty Database
On January 1, 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began tracking crimes against animals via theNational Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Animal cruelty crimes are now listed in the database as Group A offenses — the same category as arson, rape and murder. This is the first federal effort to track animal crimes, and it’s a major step forward. The NIBRS database will now include all animal cruelty cases investigated by participating law enforcement, which will fall under four categories: gross neglect, torture, organized abuse (such as dogfighting and cockfighting), and sexual abuse (bestiality).
Finally, there will be a national, authoritative resource for animal cruelty information. LCA’s campaign is targeted at increasing participation from citizens and law enforcement for the database to succeed.
> The Link
Animal Abuse Can Be ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ Indicator of Interpersonal Violence, Experts Say
Hunting Linked To Psychosexual Inadequacy & The 5 Phases Of A Hunter’s Life Of Sexual Frustration
In his book, What Is Sport: A Controversial Essay About Why Humans Play Sports, social psychologist Rob Alpha explains how researchers with the Genetic Economic Analytics Group found the neurophysiological link between sex and a man’s desire to hunt. It turns out the same regions of the brain that are activated in the sex drive and orgasm are also activated by the compulsion to hunt and harvest animals. Renowned psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger (1893-1990), who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1981, and is the namesake of the Menninger School of Psychiatry, wrote extensively about the Erotic Sadistic Motivation Theory of sport hunting. “Sadism may take a socially acceptable form [such as deer hunting and deer stalking] and other varieties of so-called ‘sport,’” he writes. “These all represent the destructive and cruel energies of man directed toward more helpless creatures.”
In the groundbreaking 1948 book, Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life, which remains the most authoritative survey of abnormal psychology (renowned for its comprehensiveness, balance of theory and practice, strong research base, clinical sensitivity, and which is also updated annually), the authors state, “Perhaps more directly relevant are experiences in which individual infliction of pain on an animal or another person has given rise to sexual excitement. We have noted elsewhere the connection between strong emotional and sexual stimulation.”
Menninger’s theory was later expanded by other leaders in the field of psychology, including Dr. Joel R. Knowing how (University of Michigan) who theorizes that hunting “may reflect a profound yet subtle psychosexual inadequacy.” While clinical psychologist Margaret Brooke-Williams adds, “Hunters are seeking reassurance of their sexuality. The feeling of power that hunting brings temporarily relieves this sexual uneasiness.”
During the fall season across North America hunters reach peak “buck fever,” and clinicians report that incidences of domestic violence and wife-beating always peak the day before each species of hunting season opens. If we could peer inside the unconscious mind of the hunter, we would find a Pandora’s Box of repressed sexual issues. InKilling The Female: The Psychology of the Hunt, author Merritt Clifton writes:
“Whether or not hunters shoot deer to demonstrate sexual potency or out of sexual frustration,
in symbolic lieu of raping and killing women, there can be little doubt that as a social ritual,
much hunting is all about killing the feminine in the hunter’s own self.”
> Read more here