Bizkaiko Foru Aldundia - Diputación Foral de Bizkaia

José Francisco Capacés Sala, a veterinarian who has practiced at the small animals’ clinic since 1980, has also been Professor of Ethics at the Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio in Madrid, amongst other responsibilities. Throughout his career, he has carried out extensive educational and informative work on animal welfare via countless conferences, book chapters and articles. He is currently Coordinator of AVEPA’s Ethical Commission and a member of the Committee for Ethics and Professional Integrity at the College of Veterinarians in Madrid, and believes that the relationship between gender violence and animal abuse should be addressed and given more attention, due to the numerous interrelations and implications involved for all victims.

Domestic or gender violence and animal abuse: where do they overlap?

There is evidence from scientific research and clinical tests that suggest there are interrelations, which we will call “links”, between the abuse of children, women and vulnerable adults (for example the elderly, or those with a disability), and animals. A better understanding of these connections may help to protect the victims, both human and animal, and to promote their welfare.

In violent homes, animals are often used or mistreated with the aim of threatening or intimidating children, women and elderly members of the family. This is mainly done to exercise power and domination over the victim through blackmail. On occasions, the woman has been able to escape, but her partner mistreats the animal that remains in the house, with the aim of forcing her to come back, or to punish her for having left. An animal remaining at the home is a factor that further prolongs the woman’s stay there, increasing the risk of abuse.

Are veterinary consultations a space where these situations can be detected?

Nobody doubts the “emotional bonds” that are created between the members of a family and the pets they share their home with. These bonds make them cry and feel “sorrow” when those pets become ill or die. On many occasions, they unload their pain at our appointments, and they complain that not even their closest circles understand this sorrow. If many women who are victims of gender violence hide their pain from those around them out of fear of not being understood, or of being blamed, how are they going to communicate the sadness they are suffering on behalf of their animal, who is also abused, as a prelude to the abuse that they themselves are going to suffer?

In cases of gender violence, the person who mistreats the animal is the same person who mistreats the rest of the family members. The aggressor generally begins with verbal abuse, continues by throwing or hitting objects, and the level of violence escalates to abusing the pet, and culminates in committing acts of violence towards the women or the children. The animal abuse “familiarizes” the aggressor with violence, facilitating subsequent acts of cruelty towards family members.

What are the main means of identification?

According to the Observatorio del Maltrato Animal (Animal Abuse Observatory) www.observatoriomaltratoanimal.es, the most common indicators in the context of homeowners, caregivers or those responsible for others, describe a collection of situations that go from inadequate supervision of the animal’s health, to the presence of minors who reveal cruel behaviours or viciousness towards the animals, amongst others. They also include specific physical indicators, and behavioural indicators.

Are there resources for responding to suspicions of this kind of violence?

When faced with a case where animal abuse is suspected, which implies that this treatment is extended to other members of the family or women, we must above all be prudent and not anticipate conclusions, nor make value judgements. Expertise must prevail in our actions. It is essential to have the indispensable tools to be able to properly document the case, as well as the custody of the evidence obtained, so that in the end our allegation has the desired effect. We don’t have detection or notification protocols, nor is it clear who we should turn to, as making a report to the authorities in our name may entail unnecessary problems, and anonymous reports have little effect. We usually take the case, properly documented and with suitably guarded evidence, to the legal departments of animal protection associations, to SEPRONA (the Nature Protection Service), to the local police, to the courts or prosecutors. We are very uncertain about the end effect for the victims, and we fear that they might suffer complications due to our actions, which we are legally and ethically obliged to take.

What would you say are the main barriers in the veterinary sector to being able to adequately tackle these situations?

Regardless of the ethical and legal considerations that oblige us to report and document the facts as direct witnesses, there are many considerations that can be in conflict, that can restrict or make our decisions more difficult. The most common are:

• Fear of compromising the safety of the victims (people and animals).
• Lack of trust in our ability to recognize the abuse.
• A perception that our report won’t mean much.
• Ethical conflicts with regards to professional secrecy.
• Personal risk, to ourselves, our colleagues, or our work.

What type of tools could facilitate intervention, and which agents would they involve?

I propose some actions that are already being carried out in other countries that have been working with this link between gender violence and animal abuse for some time:

• Protocols should be created for sharing information (cross-communication), between social services, veterinary organizations, children’s protection associations, animal protection, organizations that defend women and the police establishment.
  
  
• Organizing conferences and seminars for professionals who work with children, women and animals, to explore the possible links and potential practical actions.
  
  
• Encourage studies and research into these links and into animal abuse, and their relationship with gender and domestic violence, familiarizing veterinary students and those in other healthcare professions with these concepts.
  
  
• Create temporary shelters for animals coming from violent homes, to allow the victims to leave their homes as soon as possible, without the fear that the animal will remain there and continue to suffer abuse.
  
  
• Create a group or multidisciplinary agency to call attention to these links and act as a working network for research, interchange of ideas and projects, to provide imaginative solutions to this huge problem of gender violence.
  
  
• If we are not able to measure, to quantify these links between animal abuse and gender violence, we will be unable to get closer to providing imaginative solutions to them. For this reason, it is very important that the questionnaires that are given to women who are victims of violence and who access these services include direct and indirect questions about their pets. This data will be revealing, and we will have preventative information to be able to help these women who have been or who may potentially be victims of violence, if any sign of animal abuse is detected, and which they may consider insignificant.

How do you think that the role of the veterinary professional should be approached and defined to give the coordinated, interdisciplinary response required by gender violence?

As professionals who have increased our interest and concern, we are called upon to play a role to be able to help to find creative approaches when dealing with violence, which goes beyond caring for animals. These are the opportunities that we are presented with to collaborate with the reduction of the social scourge of gender violence:

• Playing a primary role in researching and documenting animal abuse, as expert witnesses, and as guardians when it comes to other forms of violence.
  
  
• As participants in the multidisciplinary response teams, helping with the creation of programmes that protect animals and their families from the cruelty of abuse.
  
  
• As participants and instructors with social support professionals, to provide the recognition of animal abuse as a predictor of gender violence.
  
  
• As participants in programmes that give counsel and protect people from risk, providing temporary shelter to these animals.

Which guidelines are considered useful for professionals who handle cases of violence (in the social, police, healthcare fields, etc.), in relation to the animals in the family?

Direct and indirect questions about pets should be included in the protocols, and observing or asking about the care and treatment given to those pets should be included in assessments. This information may provide useful data about how the family works and/or about violence in the home.

Questions about the behaviour of children and adolescents towards animals should be included in the assessment of cases in which there is violence and abuse. Without making assumptions, we should consider the possibility that a child who repeatedly harms animals may have suffered abuse, or may live in a climate of violence.

Safety and protection plans for the victims of violence must also provide measures for animals in the home.

Animal abuse must never be overlooked. If it is detected early, it will be possible to break the spiral of violence and save the animal and other victims who suffer the terror and brutality in silence, paradoxically, in the very place where they should find love, safety and hope.

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