Link Drawn Between Animal Abuse and Violence Against Humans

Humane Canada is providing a free workshop for Ottawa professionals, funded by The Ottawa Community Foundation, explaining the Violence Link and how greater understanding can help keep our communities safer. 

The 'violence link' means not only abusing animals and then abusing humans, it is also "human abuse and animal abuse often going on at that same time," according to Hannah Brown, the Manager of Humane Canada's Criminal Justice Reform Program. 

Ms. Brown, an experienced lawyer specializing in Animal Law, explained that the link can be as complicated as a  "person who abuses the family pet as a means of emotionally abusing their partner, their child or even their elders". 

This link between abuse towards animals and towards humans is not a novel theory, with German philosopher Immanuel Kant drawing the comparisons in the 18th-century - but the Canadian Violence Link Coalition was formed in 2018, showing the "practical steps in bringing together stakeholders" has only just begun.  "We need to take this issue seriously," said Ms. Brown. "It pervades most forms of criminality and it needs to be legislated for and stakeholders need to be trained and given the tools they need to tackle the violence link." 

The stakeholders in question are those working in related fields, be it shelters for victims of domestic abuse, police officers, social workers and others. 

When asked why it has taken so long to get concrete work done towards getting legislation in place, Ms. Brown said that there needed to be a "central body" bringing all the different areas together but mentioned that now it is in place giving them "a national voice to bring the evidence to Parliament".

Thanks to funding by The Ottawa Community Foundation, Humane Canada is providing free access to a workshop and a conference to explain and train those in relevant fields from the Ottawa-area.