Page 14 - Delaware Lawyer - Spring 2023

FEATURE
The Hon. Jennifer Ranji
Domestic
Violence andAnimalAbuse
A new group studies
Pets are intricately woven into the fabric of family life. Sixty-seven percent
of United States households own a pet,1 and the benefits of doing so are the links between two significant. Pet owners report higher self-esteem, less fearfulness, and more
abusive dynamics
extroversion and exercise.2 The non-judgmental nature of pets helps to alleviate child anxiety and increase child empathy, and children rank pets above parents and friends as most likely to be there for them no matter what.3
12 DELAWARE LAWYER SPRING 2023
Sadly, family pets are also woven into the abusive dynamics that exist when domestic violence is
present in a household. For a perpetra- tor of family violence, a pet provides an easy target for abuse, another tool by which the perpetrator can control the victim, and another source of trauma for children witnessing the abuse of a beloved pet.
Studies have repeatedly shown high correlations between the presence of animal and intrafamilial abuse. A stunning 89% of women in domestic
violence shelters who owned animals re-
ported that their pets had been abused
4
by the perpetrator, and approximately
three-quarters of children exposed to animal cruelty also reported experi- encing child abuse.5 Studies have also found that more frequent and severe animal abuse correlates to more severe abuse of the human victim.6
Abuse of a pet not only correlates to the presence of intrafamilial abuse, it also makes it more difficult for human victims to escape the abuse. Studies have found that over half of pet-owning