Children and Animals: Exploring the Roots of Kindness and Cruelty by Frank R. Ascione - Reading Report

 

In this reading report from Ascione, F., 2005. Children and animals. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, p.xv-42, it will state and explore children relationships with animals, the kindness and the cruelty. Questions will be answered such as what motivates human maltreatment of animals? Or is animal cruelty a sign of future serve violence? This report will have my opinions on the issue of animal cruelty done by children. 

To begin with the main point is Ascione states how “We can teach empathy, or we can encourage cruelty.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.xv). This tells us how its a lot about one having empathy or not for a living thing. For example he states how “The sociopath may lack empathy, but he (or she) is an expert at exploiting it in others...women who remained with abusers because of threats to harm a beloved pet...cases in which a child abuser also hurt or killed the victim’s pet.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.xv) This tells us what we all already know, animal abusers are linked to other violences. Importantly,  it all starts at a young age, we either took the route of empathy or the other route.

“Teens charged with torturing and killing dogs, pups.” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, March 19, 1999)

“Boy sentenced for disfiguring dog. A 13-year-old boy convicted of cutting the eyes out of a dog...” (Herald Journal, January 4, 2001)

“Teen accused of pet torture. Novato suspect described as ‘budding young sociopath’ ” (Marin Independent Journal, November 29, 1995) 

Above is a few journal titles that Ascione mentions, to remind us that some children can also become far from their innocent titles. Continuously, Ascione also states “the incidents that are less dramatic, less likely to appear in newspaper headlines? In the United States, most cases of child maltreatment are cases of neglect and animal neglect dominates humane societies’ caseloads.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.27) he continues explaining how improper care of children and animals can have devastating effects on their wellbeing. However we only see severe violent headlines what about the less sever cases.  

“Two cases of child murder, one by a 10-year-old boy in England , the other by a 9-year-old girl in Mississippi the latter child was allegedly exposed to a grandfather who enjoyed killing cats” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.16) Children are easily influenced by their surroundings and in some occasions its not the parents but others they are exposed to. It shows how a little exposure can have a devastating effect.  

Sometimes it’s not about the animals. It’s to make the people suffer with animal abuse as a threat because they know their targets love their pets. “Children who fear certain animals are taunted by peers’ threats to force contact with these animals...sibling emotional abuse in which a brother enjoyed pretending to choke his sister’s cat or give it to the dog” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.16) 

Furthermore, sometimes animal cruelty is justified, for example “In these toddler years, some children might experience pleasure in the movement and sounds made by an animal in pain. Helping children move past this inappropriate and immature response to animal suffering” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.16). Ascione mentions this crucial fact many times through his book, that raising your children to respect and have empathy for animals will prevent animal cruelty in children lives and though their adult life too. However, “a child of even two or three is capable of some degree of appreciation of the sufferings of an animal” so using the excuse that children abuse animals because they are too young to understand is unacceptable because like Ascione states, children aren’t born with empathy but by the time they reach three or four they would have learned it by then. Overall, children who abuse animals have a lack of empathy which is taught by their parents. 

In chapter 2, Ascione mentions a paper by Norman Triplett published in 1903 called “faults of children”, where kids from fourth grade to freshman in high school were asked to write an essay about who they thought was the meanest and “nearly 1 in 10 of the 309 essays mentioned cruelty to animals as the basis for defining “meanness” in peers.”  (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.16) It ranged from bullying animals to killing animals.  

On the other hand, Ascione compares caring and abusive side of animals and children. “Some children may look to animals as sources of support in these stressful times but others may manifest their distress by attacking animals who are even more vulnerable than the children themselves.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.20). This tells us that children exposed to domestic violence or other devastating events can manifest traumatic behaviours where they feel either they must hurt others too (abuse animals) or seek help from others (seek safety and comfort from animals). I believe a child’s own personality and how they were raised will determent which way they’ll choose. Can also be controversial where it could be solely the child’s personality that leads them to do harm or it can be the influence of others they see everyday. Also some kids seem to link things together, such as to them all women who cares for animals are good people, when they might not be or some kids might see all women who care for animals are bad because of an experience they’ve had.  

“the importance of pets as “transitional objects,” like a security blanket or favourite to, that help infants soothe themselves, experience safety and...in the absence of adult presence, a pet could provide comfort and security.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.21).

Ascione explicitly states how animals in a household is important, because the way the parents treat their pets is learnt by their kids. For example, in my family I remember growing up with my family dog, he was 1 year old and I was just born, I had two sisters in their 20s and my whole family all cared about the dog in different ways. One of my sisters was the one who really cared for the dog and I guess I choose to take her route and not my mother or father route who preferred to seek comfort in people and less in the pet. I never had a rough childhood, so there wasn’t a need more me to seek comfort in my pet, but I still did, was it because I saw my sister do it? There could be many reasons but overall it’s down to each child’s life experience they’ve had so far, it being a bad one doesn’t mean they’ll become animal abusers.   

 From my own knowledge some kids and adults are more passionate about animals then people, saying things like “I’ll rather run over a person, then an animal”. I can say I am one of those people, however, its never really meant, because the care for animals is equal to human life. In a way it’s a figure of speech where we’ve lost hope in our own species so we turn to the other innocent species and try to save them instead.

Importantly by growing up with a family pet I also went through experiencing the death of a pet. “The death of a pet. This should be taken as a seriously as the loss of a person. Never lie about it to a child. You will lost her trust. Tell her what you can about the animal’s life and the animal’s death” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.22)  he presents how it’s important for a child to experience the loss of a beloved pet and the sense of caring that goes with it, because they are learning the expression of grief and mourning and this same emotion is applied to the people they care about too and they will understand if those people were to be hurt or die this horrible emotion will come back. This also reflects how these children are a lot less likely to be involved in future violent crimes.

Towards the end of chapter 2, Ascione mentions the book by Maurice Sendak, Where The Wild Things Are. He presents this “is a excellent overview that integrates mainstream developmental psychology topics with the often overlooked contributions of pets and other animals to children’s social and cognitive development.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.24)

In chapter 3, Ascione talks briefly about the history of violence towards children, women and animals as back then they weren’t taken as seriously. He begins by stating the era of Beautiful Joe which was a novel by Margaret Marshall Saunders, published in 1893, which was contributed worldwide to raise awareness of animal cruelty. “society was aware that animals could be abused, that women could be battered by their husbands or boyfriends, and that children could be victims of physical and sexual abuse and neglect and social scientists paid no attention...to the possible relations among animal abuse, domestic abuse and child maltreatment” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.26) In this era they hadn’t discovered they all had the same issue which was they were being undervalued, but importantly they were being undervalued because, the abuse was hard to prove. He mentions only by the “1960s and 1970s with the “rediscovering” of battered children, battered women, and battered animals” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.26) that social science is finally finding interrelations among these types of maltreatment.  

One of the most principal advances in our understanding of animal abuse occurred in “1987. This was the year when cruelty to animals was first included in the major diagnostic manual used for assessing psychological and psychiatric disorders (DSM-III-R 1987)” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.31)  

“Only within the last decade and a half has animal abuse been formally listed among CD symptoms” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.31) This means that professionals are now more likely to ask a child and adult’s violent behaviour towards animals  to find out hoe common this behaviour is in childhood and adolescence. 

Boys & Girls

Ascione in Chapter 3 mentions a graph with recordings of cruelty to animals compared to “vandalism”, from 2 to 18  year olds. “By examining the graph, girls, regardless of referral status or age, are less likely, on average, to be reported as cruel than are boys” perhaps because there is “greater levels of physical aggression in which boys engage”. (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.33) I found this interesting because boys while young are encouraged to play rough and perhaps projecting that onto animals to them doesn’t make a difference at that young age. Furthermore, what’s shocking is that there is higher reports on animal cruelty than vandalism but to the law vandalism is more important. “Acesss yearly reports open the incidence of vandalism provided by the office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. These reports are quite detailed... Similar national reports on cruelty to animals by juveniles do not exist.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.34). This was surprising to me because animals are living things, “But isn’t cruelty to animals at least as serious?...because cruelty to animals involves a living victim” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.34).  They are a victim because, they express their distress just like us, so why is drawing on a wall more scandalous than a living creature being in pain?

In chapter 4, Ascione presents something interesting, where he talks about the book by William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1959). It’s a book we’ve all read during school and I believe it reflects a lot about our society and importantly how the boys on the island became violent and sadist towards the pig and the other boys when they were forced out of civilisation. “We don’t condone the boys’ behavior but, with our current knowledge about the effects of exposure to community violence...loss of parents, and experiences of abandonment and displacement to an un- familiar and dangerous land, the behavior of the boys is, at least, understandable.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.43). Since the story is based in war times, the boys are raised with seeing men in aggressive manners, where they must stand up, be emotionless or have to fight “to be a man”. Perhaps because of this toxic masculinity, when they are stripped from the rules of society, their built up anger is released onto animals or even onto people just like in the book. This could be related to real life to why more boys abuse animals than girls, even if we are no longer in war times. Maybe there is still a war but of a different kind.  

Toxic masculinity. Men kicking their bulldog because it makes them look, feel stronger and more dominant. Men who seek this toxic power usually are out to abuse animals in subtle or aggressive way, which lead to abusing their partners in similar ways. Young boys perhaps grow up with these types of men in their lives and look at them as a idol image or fear them. Neither is good.

The graph above shows boys and girls exposed to being abused physically and parents physically fighting.  “boys’ rate of cruelty to animals is 60% while for girls it is zero. The reasons for the absence of cruelty to animals for girls who come from families with domestic violence are not yet clear.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.138). The reason that it’s not clear why there is a huge difference between boys and girls is yet shocking and interesting, because I too don’t know why that is. Boys seem to take the situation differently perhaps it’s society’s stereotypes of boys and girls that are implying girls cower and submit while boys become aggressive, controlling and lash it out onto animals their pain or is it more complicated than that? Or is it that simple? “It may be that girls exposed to domestic violence experience increased fear and anxiety in the presence of their parents and this heightened wariness reduces girls’ likelihood of acting out.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.138)

“children are more likely to be sexually abused by people they know or members of their own family ...sexual abuse in families and in the other settings in which children spend much of their time, for example, day care facilities, we find that animal abuse may sometimes be an element of these abusive scenarios.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.113)

Out of the whole book I think chapter 9  was the hardest to read as Ascione has a whole chapter on sexual abuse and animal abuse involved with children. In Alexandra Artley’s book Murder in the Heart (1993), we are introduced to the Thompson family—Mrs. Thompson (Hilda) and Tommy Thompson, the mother and father, and their two daughters, June and Hilda. The daughters were convicted of killing their father, but with further investigation reveals the bigger picture which “include domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, and the torture and killing of animals.”  (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.113) Tommy Thompson emotionally and physically abused his wife since they got married, their daughters learned at a young age they shouldn’t argue back because their mother would be more violently abused. Animals in their home wasn’t safe either “the time he held a canary under a gas vent and when it began to lose consciousness, would wave it back and forth in the fresh air of an open window to revive it...this was reminiscent of the times Tommy would strangle his wife and then release her” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.114). As one of their daughters reached 12 years old, Mr. Thompson raped her. “His sexual assaults continued each week until June was a 36-year-old woman. June’s silence about her abuse was guaranteed by Tommy’s threats to shoot everyone in the family” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.114). Just just shows if  people released that animal abuse is always must likely to be present in any abusive situation, physical, emotional and sexual. 

In chapter 10, domestic violence is highlighted. “Animal abuse seems to be the rule rather than the exception in families where men seriously abuse and maltreat their intimate partners. Research on this issue, however, is still in its infancy, with most studies appearing in the past 7 years.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.128) Something obvious is still not taken seriously in this day and age. He mentions a few case studies where kids and partners live in terror where a man who has killed their pets, could kill them at any time. 

In my own experience, when I was younger my parents didn’t get along well, there was never psychical abuse but plenty of yelling and threats. Once the yelling got chaotic and me and my mother had to leave, but unfortunately my dogs and cats couldn’t come and I remember that’s all I thought about. What about the dogs? In a way, I think they were my “safety blanket” like Ascione suggests. 

My mother kept ignoring me saying they were fine at home. Although, I thought “we’re not safe there, so how are my pets safe?” Yet again they didn’t matter in a situation like that and that has always infuriated me. I don’t remember my father ever hurting our pets, he actually cared about them, which could explain why he never engaged in psychical abuse. Overall, we had to leave the pets and act like they didn’t exist because it would get too complicated 

“Given the chaos that women fleeing violence are experiencing and shelter staff’s focus on women’s safety, it is understandable that questions about animal abuse may be neglected.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.129). I believe there is a clear gap of who is more important, the dog or the women? yes, its the women then the children and because all that is already a lot of work they don’t even get down to the pets in the household. However, I suspect shelter staffs don’t ask about the pets probably because they wouldn’t know what to do with the animal, thus not asking about animal abuse within the household.

“Research on the association between animal abuse and domestic violence has only emerged in the past 10 years.” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.43) Something you think is so obvious is yet not what everyone thought 10 years ago. That fact alone is terrifying.

To conclude I found it really interesting how Asicone went about writing about these topics, he delivered plenty of shocking facts and plenty of statistics to back up his points. He had written it all in a explicit way, from the pleasant to the very unpleasant. I appreciate this way of writing of showing every angle in detail and clearly because, some things need to be said clearly and explicitly to shock the reader into understanding the truth and the seriousness of the situation of animal abuse and child abuse. 

References:

   Ascione, F., 2005. Children and animals. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, p.xv-130