This diploma thesis summarizes regulation of animal in human care protection. It describes international conventions and also European Union and Czech laws. It includes definition of animal and categorizations of animals. The status of animal in Czech civil law is content of this thesis too. On international level are the most important conventions of Council of Europe. The part of this work concerning European Union includes conceptual tools, primary law and secondary law. The main law in Czech Republic is the statute for protection of animals against abuse. In extreme cases of animal abuse or neglect of care about animals criminal law is there to protect them.

Women and children who turn to domestic violence shelters for help witness about the violence they and their companion animal have experienced. There are strong emotional bonds between humans and animals, which domestic violence perpetrators can use to hurt or control their partner. In fear that the domestic violence perpetrators will harm the animal if the victim tries to leave the relationship, thus she remains in the relationship to protect the animals. The aim of this study was to investigate how animal welfare officers work to discover the link between animal abuse and human violence. Moreover, how animal welfare officers help the victims in such relationships. The study was conducted using an inquiry and telephone interviews. The result of this study showed that the majority of animal welfare officers in Sweden work to discover the link during animal welfare inspection. With education, guidelines and cooperation with other authorities, they have the possibility to help abused animals and humans. In conclusion, animal welfare officers have an important role in dealing with abused animals and humans. They might be the first ones to discover violence and can thereby help the victims away from the domestic violence perpetrator.

Additionally, images of animals alone immediately increased attitudes regarding treatment of animals. This difference does not appear to increase further over time. Images of animals alone appear to aid in immediately altering individuals' sense of continuity with animals. The attitude that animals and humans share some commonalities and exist in relation to each other could assist in adoption campaigns by allowing the potential owners to place themselves with the animals they are adopting. However, over time information combined with images of humans and animals significantly increase this sense of commonality. The applications for the results depend on what type of attitude one desires to change and how soon the change has to occur. The present research reveals that images appear to affect attitude change regarding companion animals and the way they are treated more than text information.; Companion animals now serve as more than tools for human use, they have become family. Many individuals now spend increasingly more money on animals than in years past and are more likely to acknowledge the animal as a family member. With this change in roles many humans have become more empathetic to animal cruelty. Studies have been conducted to examine various aspects of animal cruelty and how it relates to humans. However, few have examined attitude change regarding animal abuse. If attitudes can be positively changed in adults, these individuals are in a position to pass the information onto their children. Adults are also currently in the position to make changes in legislature regarding humane treatment of animals. An experiment was conducted which examined adults' attitudes toward animal abuse and whether they can be changed. Text information was examined as a variable for attitude change. Additionally visual aids in the form of photographs were used in conjunction with and separate from the text information as variables. Two types of photographs were used: images of companion animals by themselves or the same animals accompanied by adult humans. The text information used was adapted from an ASPCA presentation obtained, with permission, from the Orange County ASPCA. The power point presentation included information on the connection between animal violence and violence toward humans, how to help stop animal cruelty and how to report it. Six conditions were created using the three variables. It was found that pictures have an immediate effect on attitude change and information affects individuals in certain measures but not others. On all measures, images had more of an effect than information alone. Only when the text was accompanied by a picture, did it produce a significant change. Attitudes regarding the treatment of animals saw an immediate increase in both conditions in which images of humans and animals were present.

In the past few decades there has been research dedicated to understanding the roles that animals play within violent households. The American Humane Association (2010) has developed what they termed The Link. This concept examines how forms of violence, including domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and animal abuse, are often intertwined. This qualitative study was facilitated using focus groups and interviews of animal service officers in Orange County, Florida to evaluate the relationship and training provided from a local domestic violence shelter. There were a total of 22 Orange County Animal Services employees who participated in four different focus group sessions, and two interviews with officers who had previously made referrals to Harbor House of Central Florida, the local domestic violence shelter. Results show that animal service officers view themselves as often being the first responders to a situation and, hence, an agent to help all victims, including both animals and humans. Participants indicated that their relationship with Harbor House of Central Florida has been weak and that many were unfamiliar with the referral program known as INVEST. They provided recommendations to strengthen their relationship with Harbor House of Central Florida that included trainings, support, and cross-reporting efforts that they felt were needed

Thesis advisor: Betty Blythe / This dissertation is a secondary analysis of a preexisting dataset, the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), Assessments 0-4 produced by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) located in the Family Development Center at Cornell University (2001). This is a large scale dataset employing five sites across the United States. Three sites are used: the Northwest, South and Southwest as they contain the largest numbers exhibiting the behavior of interest, hurting animals by children. These sites have sample sizes of 261, 221 and 327 children, respectively. The samples were chosen for varying levels of risk for child abuse and neglect; data collection began in 1991 and is ongoing. The children were born between 1989 and 1996. The number of children who hurt animals at each site was as follows: 16 (South Site), 25 (Northwest Site) and 36 (Southwest Site). Hypotheses were that more males than females would hurt animals; females who hurt animals would show more internalizing problems than males who hurt animals; males who hurt animals would show more externalizing problems than females who hurt animals and children who hurt animals would experience higher rates of physical abuse than children who have not hurt animals. An additional hypothesis was that hurting animals would correlate with aggressive and delinquent behaviors and attention problems as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL, Achenbach, 1991). Only one hypothesis was fully supported: aggression, delinquent behavior and attention problems all correlate with higher rates of these behaviors exhibited by children who hurt animals. Aggression, in particular, was associated with the behavior of hurting animals. Physical abuse was not correlated with hurting animals and only one site (the Southwest) showed a statistically significant difference between males and females for this behavior with males more likely to do so. Other findings of interest show correlations between hurting animals and aspects of parenting, day care utilization and foster care placement at at least one site. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

Domestic violence remains a serious social issue. In North America, millions of women are victimized each year, and many of these women are victims of violence at the hand of their intimate partners. A small but growing body of research on domestic violence has shown that companion animals are among the victims of such violence. Abuse of or threats to the pets are used to control, manipulate and emotionally abuse the female partner. However, the majority of this research has focused on the perspective of the abused female partner; the male perspective is missing. Through semi-structured interviews with ten incarcerated men who have committed intimate partner violence (IPV), this thesis explores the abuser’s motivations for abuse of the pet as well as their perspective of pets in the context of a violent relationship. The findings indicate that, contrary to previous research, most men do not abuse pets in the relationship, and in fact have positive relationships with their pets. Just as pets are sources of comfort for women in abusive relationships, pets can be sources of comfort and support for the abusive men as well. When incorporated into violence intervention and treatment programs, relationships with pets can provide a venue for men construct a masculine identity in a positive way, and the treatment of animals can illustrate how violence is not an effective solution.

Domestic violence remains a serious social issue. In North America, millions of women are victimized each year, and many of these women are victims of violence at the hand of their intimate partners. A small but growing body of research on domestic violence has shown that companion animals are among the victims of such violence. Abuse of or threats to the pets are used to control, manipulate and emotionally abuse the female partner. However, the majority of this research has focused on the perspective of the abused female partner; the male perspective is missing. Through semi-structured interviews with ten incarcerated men who have committed intimate partner violence (IPV), this thesis explores the abuser’s motivations for abuse of the pet as well as their perspective of pets in the context of a violent relationship. The findings indicate that, contrary to previous research, most men do not abuse pets in the relationship, and in fact have positive relationships with their pets. Just as pets are sources of comfort for women in abusive relationships, pets can be sources of comfort and support for the abusive men as well. When incorporated into violence intervention and treatment programs, relationships with pets can provide a venue for men construct a masculine identity in a positive way, and the treatment of animals can illustrate how violence is not an effective solution.

Domestic violence remains a serious social issue. In North America, millions of women are victimized each year, and many of these women are victims of violence at the hand of their intimate partners. A small but growing body of research on domestic violence has shown that companion animals are among the victims of such violence. Abuse of or threats to the pets are used to control, manipulate and emotionally abuse the female partner. However, the majority of this research has focused on the perspective of the abused female partner; the male perspective is missing. Through semi-structured interviews with ten incarcerated men who have committed intimate partner violence (IPV), this thesis explores the abuser’s motivations for abuse of the pet as well as their perspective of pets in the context of a violent relationship. The findings indicate that, contrary to previous research, most men do not abuse pets in the relationship, and in fact have positive relationships with their pets. Just as pets are sources of comfort for women in abusive relationships, pets can be sources of comfort and support for the abusive men as well. When incorporated into violence intervention and treatment programs, relationships with pets can provide a venue for men construct a masculine identity in a positive way, and the treatment of animals can illustrate how violence is not an effective solution.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Gerad Middendorf / Academics, victims, and advocates have increasingly brought attention to the need for programs and policies to protect and shelter nonhuman victims of domestic violence. Research focused on the “Link” between human-based violence and violence against animals has played a significant role in the creation of these programs, and has prompted a more holistic approach to providing services to all victimized family members. In this dissertation, I focus on the unique origin points of several animal-friendly domestic violence organizations and the models used to serve both human and nonhuman victims, as well as on the individual advocacy and activism of animal-friendly domestic violence organization workers. Data collection from semi-structured interviews with thirty domestic violence workers and advocates provides the foundation for my investigation of the importance of community networks and individual identity as a source of professional navigation of the connected spheres of domestic violence and animal abuse. This study extends the ever-growing collection of research on the “Link” and on the broader discipline of human-animal studies. Finally, this research provides an additional perspective on the use of personal and collective identity to engage in advocacy on behalf of nonhuman victims of domestic violence.

Domestic violence remains a serious social issue. In North America, millions of women are victimized each year, and many of these women are victims of violence at the hand of their intimate partners. A small but growing body of research on domestic violence has shown that companion animals are among the victims of such violence. Abuse of or threats to the pets are used to control, manipulate and emotionally abuse the female partner. However, the majority of this research has focused on the perspective of the abused female partner; the male perspective is missing. Through semi-structured interviews with ten incarcerated men who have committed intimate partner violence (IPV), this thesis explores the abuser’s motivations for abuse of the pet as well as their perspective of pets in the context of a violent relationship. The findings indicate that, contrary to previous research, most men do not abuse pets in the relationship, and in fact have positive relationships with their pets. Just as pets are sources of comfort for women in abusive relationships, pets can be sources of comfort and support for the abusive men as well. When incorporated into violence intervention and treatment programs, relationships with pets can provide a venue for men construct a masculine identity in a positive way, and the treatment of animals can illustrate how violence is not an effective solution.