Child, animal agencies link up to report maltreatment

Dr Frank Ascione has conducted key research into links between animal abuse and child abuse. Picture / Paul Estcourt

New Zealand's child and animal protection agencies are teaming up in response to growing international evidence of links between child abuse and cruelty to animals.

Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS), the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will meet on September 18 to draw up information-exchange protocols.

CYFS social workers who spot neglected or abused animals will report them to the SPCA or the ministry, and the two animal welfare agencies will report neglected or abused children to CYFS.

The plan builds on research led by Utah's Professor Frank Ascione which found that 71 per cent of women with pets who entered women's refuges in the state said their partners had harmed or threatened to harm their animals in the previous year.

He told an Auckland seminar on Monday that both US and Australian studies had found harm or threats to animals in only 5 per cent of the general population. But these rates rose to 30 per cent among criminals and 40 per cent among those guilty of the most violent crimes.

SPCA chief executive Robyn Kippenberger said violent men sometimes threw animals across a room, kicked them or killed them as a threat to make their partners do what they wanted.

"There was a fellow in Lower Hutt last year whose partner was going to leave him, so he put the cat in the oven and killed the kittens to stop her from leaving him, to scare her.

"Often they won't touch the partner, but will kill the cat in front of her or hit the dog."

Ms Kippenberger said child and animal welfare agencies had been talking about joint protocols since getting together in a group called First Strike in 2002, and some SPCA inspectors had already been trained to recognise potential child abuse.

The SPCA was now piloting a questionnaire for its inspectors to assess what sort of workload they might face if they started looking specifically for child abuse every time they answered a call about an abused or neglected animal.

"There may be a neighbour who says there's a dog that's been beaten viciously next-door, so we go on to the property and yes, the dog is bruised and injured, but you see three children and a wife with a black eye."

Ms Kippenberger said she hopes the protocol will set out what will happen when an SPCA inspector passes this information on. "We don't want CYFS turning up and saying the SPCA inspector told me to come," she said.

After the protocol with CYFS is finalised early next year, she plans similar agreements with the police, Plunket, women's refuges and Age Concern's elder abuse and neglect service.

In Auckland and Wellington, the SPCA has already arranged to look after pets for women who go into refuges, often placing them in foster homes.

Ms Kippenberger said Dr Ascione cited US examples where a domestic violence callout activated visits by police, women's refuge, the child protection agency and, if pets were involved, the equivalent of the SPCA.

"They come in and take a photo of the pet which they give to the children saying, 'Put this by your bed. These are the people who are going to look after you and we'll look after the animals until things are sorted out."'


US ANIMAL ABUSE

* General population 5%

* Children with mental health problems 10-20%

* Criminals 30%-40%

* Homes with domestic violence 54%

* Homes women have left to go into refuge 71%

Source: Dr Frank Ascione