Empathy for humans and animals

One of the common criticisms made of people who work in animal welfare fields is that they should be helping humans, and that helping animals instead of humans is somehow wrong.  I have always rather suspected that these armchair ethicists are opting out of helping anyone at all, but perhaps that is overly suspicious of me.

A paper by Signal and Taylor (2007) however does established that people in the animal protection community do care about people, in fact more so than a general community sample.  Quite how anyone think callous treatment of animals will enhance compassion towards people... well, I don't know.

• Signal TD & Taylor N. (2007). Attitude to animals and empathy: comparing animal protection and general community samples. Anthrozoos, 20, 125-130.

The Gender Disparity (in progress)

Proportion of Animal Abusers who are Male
93%, 83/89 (Desnoyers 2009)--Rhode Island defendants charged with animal cruelty

References:

• Desnoyers RC (2009). What we can learn about animal cruelty cases from Rhode Island: research and perspective. Animal Law Newsletter, Spring.

See also:

• Gerbasi, K.C. (2004). Gender and nonhuman animal cruelty convictions: data from pet-abuse.com. Society and Animals, 12, 358-365.

How to Avoid Abusive Attitudes

While attention is often given to the connection between violence against animals and violence against people, the implication is that compassion towards animals with foster compassion towards people.

Costello and Hodson (2009) conducted a fascinating study of Canadian undergraduates that showed that

• People who saw humans and non-humans animals as fundamentally different were more likely to have negative/dehumanising attitudes towards immigrants, and
• that people provide with material emphasising the continuity between species became less prejudiced in their attitudes towards immigrants.

There seems to be an innate human tendency to justify dominance of one group over another, by reference to biological differences between the two somehow rendering differences in power and control "natural" (see: Harrawy, 1978). Thus, emphasising and being sensitive to essential similarities between groups and work against this influence.

However the situation may not be as simple as 'more empathy for animals=less violence to animals and people'.  Marten et al (2007) found that people people who felt they were more similar to bugs tended to kill fewer bugs in a self-paced experimental setting were they were encourage to put the insects into a killing apparatus.  But this group actually killed more bugs and enjoyed the killing more after being 'primed' by being instructed to make five kills.  Those who felt they were not similar to bugs made fewer voluntary kills under the same circumstances.  The authors suggest that perceived similarity reduces willingness to kill, but when one does kill it activates defense mechanisms to neutralise or even reverse the aversiveness of the killing activity.

Sources

• Costello K, Hodson G. (2009) Exploring the roots of dehumanisation: the role of animal-human similarity in promoting immigrant humanization. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 13, 3-22.
• Harraway, D. (1978). Animal sociology and a natural economy of the body politic, part 1: a political physiology of dominance. Signs, 4, 21-27(?).
• Martens A, Kosloff S, Greenberg J, Landau MJ, Schmader T. (2007). Killing begets killing: evidence from a bug-killing paradigm that initial killing fuels subsequent killing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1251-1264.

Slaughter

The slaughter of animals for meat is a cause of considerable cultural anxiety.  Even people at complete peace with being carnivores tend not to want to see, or know about, the slaughter process.

By contrast there is a 'New Carnivore' movement where slaughter and butcher are presented as empowering and even spiritual activities (see Parry, 2010).

Most people experience an initial reluctance to kill animals, however  this resistance may be rapidly broken down when a person first kills an animal under the instructions of another (Martens et al, 2007; Martens, Kosloff, Jackson, 2010).

• Martens A, Kosloff S, Greenberg J, Landau MJ, Schmader T. (2007). Killing begets killing: evidence from a bug-killing paradigm that initial killing fuels subsequent killing. Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 33, 1251-1264.
• Martens, A., Kosloff, S, Jackson, LE. (2010). Evidence that initial obedient killing fuels subsequent volitional killing beyond the effects of practice. Social Psychology and Personality Science, 1, 268-273.
• Parry, J. (2010) Gender and slaughter in popular gastronomy. Feminism and Psychology, 20, 381-396.

Animal Abuse Incidence: Males

Incidence of Reported Prior Animal Abuse in Groups of Males Only

Identified as Violent AB TOT PER
Ascione, 1998 Abussive spouse 20 28 71%
Simons et al, 2008 Rapists 94 138 68%
Kellert et al 1985 Held in three federal penitentiaries 60 107 56%
Merz-Perez et al 2004 violent offenders 25 45 56%
Carlisle Frank et al 2004 Abussive spouse ? ? 53%
Tingle et al 1986 Psychiatric admissions/rapists 10 21 48%
Burgess et al 1986 sexual homicide 17 36 47%
McIntosh, 2004 Abusive domestic partner 31 66 47%
Ressler 1988 Inmates convicts of sexual homicide 26 56 46%
Verlinden et al 2000 School shooters 5 11 45%
Simons et al, 2008 Child abusers 60 137 44%
Beaseley 2004 serial murderers 3 7 43%
Myers, Burgess & Nelson 1998 adolescent sexual homicide perpetrators 4 14 29%
Tingle et al 1986 Psychiatric admissions/child molesters 12 43 28%
Pagani et al 2007 9-18 year old youths 107 397 27%
Salter et al 2003 Sexual abuse victims who later abused 6 26 23%
Santtila et al, 1997 offenders 6 26 23%
Felthous 1979 Violent psychiatric patients/enlisted 17 74 23%
Beyer et al 2003 Child abduction homicide 5 25 20%
Wright et al, 2003 Serial murderers 75 354 21%
583 1611 36%

Normative/Control AB TOT PER
Kellert et al 1985 Adults 36 50 72%
Baldry 2003 9-17 year old students 344 734 47%
Baldry 2005 9-12 year old students 118 258 46%
Flynn 2002 Undergraduates 27 94 29%
Henry, 2004 Undergraduates 21 77 27%
Flynn 1999 Undergraduates 29 182 16%
Gray 2003 Undergraduates 6 50 12%
Felthous 1979 Non-violent psychiatric patients/enlisted 7 75 9%
Salter et al 2003 Sexual abuse victims 4 80 5%
Felthous 1979 Non-psychiatric patients/enlisted 1 26 4%
593 1626 36%

Identified as Generally Deviant
Henderson 2011 Inmates 103 180 57%
743 2219 33%

Cruelty to Animals: Definitions

"[S]ocially unacceptable behavior that intentionally causes unecessary pain, suffering, or distress to, and/or death of, an animal." (Ascione, 1993)

"[T]reatment of animals that causes gratuitous, unwarranted or unjustifiable suffering or harm (including death)." (Vaughn et al, 2009).

• Vaughn M.G, Fu Q, DeLisi M., Beaver K.M., Perron B.E., Terrell K, Howard M.O. (2009). Correlates of cruelty to animals in the United States: results from the National Epidemiologic survey on alchohol and related conditions. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 43, 1213-1218.

Hunting

Hunting
Clifton P. Flynn found that (2002) "at least for this sample, hunting related to harming animals in the wild and to property damage but not to other forms of animal abuse or violence against humans."  Carlisle-Frank et al (2004) also concluded "hunting appears unrelated to the abuse of a companion animal." (p. 4). 

As a result, hunting--as a culturally condonned activity--is often excluded from the definition of animal cruelty (Tallicet et al, 2005). Although non-"sporting" and illegal acts of hunting such as freeze-killing (night shooting with a shotgun; Green 2002) would not be excluded.

A rich mythology connects veneration of the wild and animals, with hunting and--in some cases--femininity (Singh, 2001).  However hunting is predominantly pursued by males rather than female in a ration of approximately 8 to 1 (Herzog, 2007).  

Hunting, up to the modern day, typically often involves a strong sense of being an integral part of the natural world rather than merely an exploiter of it (Franklin, 2001).

Hunting Bibliography:

• Carlisle-Frank, P., Frank, J.M., Nielsen, L. (2004). Selective battering of the family pet. Anthrozoos 17, 26-41.
• Flynn, C.P. (2002). Hunting and illegal violence against humans and other animals: exploring the relationship. Society and Animals, 10, 137-154.
• Franklin, A. Neo-Darwinian leisures, the body and nature: hunting and angling in modernity. Body and Society, 7, 57-76.
• Green, G.S. (2002). The other criminalities of animal-freeze-killers: support for a generality of deviance. Society and Animals, 10, 5-30.
• Herzog, H.A. (2007). Gender differences in human-animal interactions: a review. Anthrozoos 20, 7-21.
• Singh, K.S. (2001). Gender roles in history: women as hunters. Gender, Technology and Development, 5, 113-124.