I found this article today and would like to share it with you. I think its great about this and I believe everything the doctor says about the connection between child abuse and animal abuse. What does everyone else think:
Animal Abuse Scholar Receives Award
Tuesday, October 9, 2001
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOGAN -- As psychologist Frank Ascione progressed in his studies of the socialization of children, he noticed a hole and set out to fill it.
"You look through almost any psychology magazine and there are absolutely no references to pets," Ascione said.
Ascione has been rewarded with the 2001 Distinguished Scholar Award, given once every three years by the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations and the International Society for Anthrozoology.
Ascione received the award for his research documenting the connection between child abuse and animal maltreatment.
Ascione theorizes that when children abuse animals, they often are "imitating what they are seeing in the home or community."
It may come from watching parents, siblings or neighbors abuse pets, may stem from witnessing spousal abuse or it may be a result of child abuse.
One way they show their disturbance is to act out on anything that is smaller, Ascione said. Anything smaller can include cats, dogs, turtles -- or other children.
Ascione compares violence against animals to fire starting. At first, a child may find some matches and experiment, causing damage, a little or a lot.
When parents find out, they should tell the child about the danger of fire, take better care of matches and monitor the child a little more.
With younger children, usually better supervision and less access to dangerous material tends to solve the problem, he said.
"In older children, it is more often a symptom of other problems and education usually doesn't help. In those cases, evaluation by a psychologist or a psychiatrist is often needed."
A few months ago, a 6-year-old Ogden boy was reported to have tortured four kittens, killing one and hurting the others so badly that they had to be euthanized.
For Ascione, the most troublesome part about the incident is what the father told police: The boy doesn't have pets because he kills them.
If the behavior is repeated, or committed by an older child, "it may be a symptom of some other issues," and require professional help.
"It's really dangerous for a child . . . to not learn that animals feel pain," Ascione said.
One of Ascione's studies found that five of 11 U.S. school shooters from 1996 to 1999 had allegations of animal abuse in their past.
Left unchecked, violence against animals can give a child a sense of excitement and power that may lead to other types of abuse in later life, Ascione said.
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Animal Abuse Scholar Receives Award
Tuesday, October 9, 2001
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOGAN -- As psychologist Frank Ascione progressed in his studies of the socialization of children, he noticed a hole and set out to fill it.
"You look through almost any psychology magazine and there are absolutely no references to pets," Ascione said.
Ascione has been rewarded with the 2001 Distinguished Scholar Award, given once every three years by the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations and the International Society for Anthrozoology.
Ascione received the award for his research documenting the connection between child abuse and animal maltreatment.
Ascione theorizes that when children abuse animals, they often are "imitating what they are seeing in the home or community."
It may come from watching parents, siblings or neighbors abuse pets, may stem from witnessing spousal abuse or it may be a result of child abuse.
One way they show their disturbance is to act out on anything that is smaller, Ascione said. Anything smaller can include cats, dogs, turtles -- or other children.
Ascione compares violence against animals to fire starting. At first, a child may find some matches and experiment, causing damage, a little or a lot.
When parents find out, they should tell the child about the danger of fire, take better care of matches and monitor the child a little more.
With younger children, usually better supervision and less access to dangerous material tends to solve the problem, he said.
"In older children, it is more often a symptom of other problems and education usually doesn't help. In those cases, evaluation by a psychologist or a psychiatrist is often needed."
A few months ago, a 6-year-old Ogden boy was reported to have tortured four kittens, killing one and hurting the others so badly that they had to be euthanized.
For Ascione, the most troublesome part about the incident is what the father told police: The boy doesn't have pets because he kills them.
If the behavior is repeated, or committed by an older child, "it may be a symptom of some other issues," and require professional help.
"It's really dangerous for a child . . . to not learn that animals feel pain," Ascione said.
One of Ascione's studies found that five of 11 U.S. school shooters from 1996 to 1999 had allegations of animal abuse in their past.
Left unchecked, violence against animals can give a child a sense of excitement and power that may lead to other types of abuse in later life, Ascione said.
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