Animal abuse in minors: children's things?

When a case of animal cruelty appears in the media, most people question why someone would do something like this, being much more shocking when the author is a younger. Thus, it is normal for a multitude of unknowns to appear on the subject. Why do some children mistreat animals? What goes through their heads? Is it a game for them? Are they “things” for children?

In the last 40 years many researchers from different parts of the world have tried to give response to these questions, partly due to the greater pro-animalist awareness in our society. To tell the truth, many of them still cannot be answered unequivocally, since for the moment the investigations are insufficient to understand the dimension of the problem, a fact that could be attributed, among other things, to the fact that the attacks are specifically directed at a species other than ours, which may be called speciesism.

What do we understand by cruelty to animals?

But... what exactly qualifies as “cruelty to animals”? The most accepted definition in the scientific literature is that of one of the most renowned researchers in this area, Frank R. Ascion:

“socially unacceptable behavior that intentionally causes unnecessary suffering, pain or distress and/or death to the animal”.

Therefore, and although they cause unnecessary suffering to the animals, more socially accepted behaviors such as intensive farming that ends in slaughterhouses, legal hunting, animal husbandry for fur, scientific experimentation on animals, animal shows (bullfighting, circus, zoo...). However, the definition of cruelty towards animals should also include, according to several authors, acts of mistreatment due to negligence when there is an intention to cause harm.

Why do some children mistreat animals?

After interviewing several adolescent offenders, researchers Ascione, Thompson, and Black proposed in 1997 different answers to this question based on the underlying motivations that the youngest may have when attacking animals domestic or wild.

According to these authors, children/adolescents who mistreat animals do so basically for these reasons:

• To satisfy your curiosity/exploration (p. g., the animal is injured or killed in the process of being examined).

• peer group pressure (p. g., as a ritualistic initiation process to enter a certain group of young people).

• To raise the mood (p. g., to combat boredom and/or depression).

• sexual gratification (known in English as "bestiality").

• forced abuse (p. For example, the minor is forced to abuse the animal by another more powerful person, very frequent in cases of Domestic Violence, where the minor can become the animal's aggressor to prevent a more painful/slow death of the animal by the person powerful).

• animal phobia (the minor kills or injures the animal as a preemptive strike).

• post traumatic game (the minor recreates scenes with a high violent charge as an emotional discharge).

• Training for interpersonal violence with humans (p. e.g., the minor practices his techniques with animals before daring to harm people).

• vehicle for emotional abuse (p. g., harming a family member's pet to scare it).

Other explanations

Other authors add some motivations based on interviews with inmates from Kansas and Connecticut, who had assaulted animals in their adolescence/youth. All examples are real:

• To control the animal (they are intended to eliminate animal behaviors that do not please, for example, kicking a dog's testicles to stop barking).

• To take revenge on the animal (p. e.g., getting revenge on a cat that has scratched the sofa by burning it alive).

• To satisfy a prejudice against a specific species or race (very common hatred of cats).

• To express one's own human aggressiveness through the animal (For example, inflicting damage on the animal to prepare the dog for fights with other animals.

• For fun and to shock others (p. eg, tie two cats by the tail and burn them to see how they run desperately).

• unspecified sadism (desires to hurt, torture and/or kill an animal without having perceived any type of provocation and without any a priori hostile feeling against the animal; one kills for pleasure, to enjoy the process of death). These children would be the ones with the worst prognosis.

Are they "kid stuff"?

On a psychological level, animal abuse is indicating that there are cognitive dysfunctions (wrong ways of interpreting power and control) and/or environmental in the minor. Several authors throughout history have warned of this phenomenon as an indicator of psychological imbalance (for example, Pinel in 1809, or Margaret Mead in 1964).

In fact, the American Psychiatric Association included animal cruelty in 1987 as one of the 15 symptoms of the well-known Childhood Behavior Disorder. Additionally, children who commit acts of cruelty to animals are more likely of having more severe behavior problems than those with other symptoms.

Animal abuse and other forms of conflict

It is also important to highlight that cruelty to animals is related todomestic violence, with the child sexual abuse and with him bullying or bullying, among others.

Children exposed to domestic violence and/or who are abused (either physically, sexually or psychologically) tend to be more violent towards animals than children who have not gone through those unfavorable situations. These children may be expressing the pain that their own victimization process entails through the abuse of the most vulnerable victims: animals.

In other words: animal cruelty in childhood can be a warning sign as the family/school environment is being violent or abusive to the child, so it is advisable to pay special attention to the minor as soon as a situation of animal abuse takes place.

Therefore, these acts should not be considered as a simple passing children's game or downplayed; Behind these episodes of cruelty many traumatic situations can be discovered in which the minor has been the victim.

How can animal cruelty be prevented?

Various investigations have shown that educating minors transmitting positive values ​​towards all living beings on the planet is a very important element in the face of the prevention of cruel acts against animals and the treatment, facilitating the development of empathy, even towards animals. humans.

These educational programs help to develop a sense of responsibility, concern for others, in addition to collaborating in the development of self-esteem, socialization and cooperation.

The implications that this has on a global scale are clear: if cruelty towards animals were taken into account as a more signifying aggression and/or showing antisocial behavior, progress would be made in the understanding and prevention of child and adolescent violence and adult.

Links of interest:

"Three minors escape from the center of Abegondo and kill 40 rabbits" (The voice of Galicia)
"A group of minors frightens the residents of Marinaleda after killing almost 30 animals" (The Post Office of Andalusia)
"PACMA denounces the boys who kicked a kitten to death in Cuenca" (Huffington Post)

Bibliographic references:

• Arluke, A., Levin, J., Luke, C. & Ascione, F. (1999). The relationship of animal abuse to violence and other forms of antisocial behavior. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14(9), 963-975. doi: 10.1177/088626099014009004

• Ascione, f. R. (1993). Children who are cruel to animals: A review of research and implications for developmental psychopathology. Anthrozoös, 6(4), 226-247. doi: 10.2752/0892793393787002105

• Ascione, f. R., Thompson, T. m. & Black, T. (1997). Childhood cruelty to animals: Assessing cruelty dimensions and motivations. Anthrozoös, 10(4), 170-177. doi: 10.2752/0892793977787001076

• Ascione, f. R. (2001). Animal Abuse and Youth Violence, US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Washington: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

• Baldy, A. c. (2005). Animal abuse among preadolescents directly and indirectly victimized at school and at home. Criminal Behavior and Mental Health, 15(2), 97-110. doi: 10.1002/cbm.42

• Duncan, A., Thomas, J. C., & Miller, C. (2005). Significance of family risk factors in development of childhood animal cruelty in adolescent boys with conduct problems. Journal of Family Violence, 20(4), 235-239. doi: 10.1007/s10896-005-5987-9

• Hensley, C. & Tallichet, S. AND. (2005). Animal cruelty motivations: assessing demographic and situational influences. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20(11), 1429-1443. doi: 10.1177/0886260505278714

• Luke, E. S., Staiger, P. K., Wong, L., & Mathai, J. (1999). Children who are cruel to animals: A revisit. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 33, 29-36. doi: 10.1046/j.1440-1614.1999.00528.x