Throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater: Towards a Sociology of the Human-Animal Abuse ‘Link’?

Abstract

The prevalence of animals in society, and recognition of the multiplicity of roles they play in human social life, has invoked significant interest from certain subsections of the social sciences. However, research in this area, to date, tends to be at an empirical and inherently psychological level. It is the contention of the current article that we need to redress this imbalance if we are to create a legitimate space wherein sociology can be used to investigate human-animal relations/interactions. In order to achieve this, an examination of the foundations of sociological thought is needed. This is explored in the current article through the use of one substantive, highly topical, subject in human-animal studies: the human-animal abuse ‘link.’

Vegan Sexuality: Challenging Heteronormative Masculinity through Meat-free Sex

“…Some forms of violence towards animals, including specific farming practices and the act of slaughter itself, remain more or less sanctioned within mainstream culture (assumed to be 'how things are done' to get meat on the table). However, even these common and seemingly intractable traditions are now also being assessed by specialists on 'the link' in terms of how they influence notions of 'power', 'violence', 'cruelty' and 'empathy' (as these connect to abuse of both humans and animals), beliefs about animals and human-animal relations, and assumptions about dominance over other humans and/or animals (Taylor and Signal, 2008). One way of understanding the violence of the reaction against 'vegansexuality' would be to see it as a particular manifestation of this link.…”

Teaching Kindness: The Promise of Humane Education

“…Th is is particularly the case when HEP (with animals present) are used primarily to redress human empathy defi cits, thereby preventing later human-directed problems. Whereas the limited literature in this area seems to support the utility of HEP in such a way, it may be that positing (knowledge about) animals as a tool to help humans actually undermines the very idea that HEP are aiming to challenge in the fi rst place: the poor treatment of animals (Taylor & Signal, 2008).…”

“…For example, Th ompson and Gullone (2003) have suggested that a lack of empathy (both humanand animal-directed) may go some way to accounting for deliberate cruelty to animals. It must be noted, however, that even though low empathy has been linked to poor treatment of animals (e.g., Taylor & Signal, 2005), and, by extrapolation, humans, factors such as a maladaptive family environment and abusive parental practices are likely to contribute to the development of aggression and violence toward both species (Ascione, 2001;Hastings, Zahn-Waxler, Usher, Robinson & Bridges, 2000).…”

“…Adopting a defi nition of empathy as a multidimensional construct incorporating cognitive (understanding) and aff ective (sharing another's emotional state) components allows for the possibility of designing such intervention strategies (Taylor & Signal, 2005).…”

Animals and Sociology

“…Cats, dogs, rodents, birds and reptiles were the most common victims of the abuse and the most common methods of cruelty were shooting and direct physical aggression like 'hitting, beating, kicking, or throwing an animal against the wall' (Flynn, 2000, p. 89). Retrospective studies confirm the 'progression thesis', or 'graduation hypothesis' (for discussion, see Flynn, 2011), which suggests that children who deliberately harm other animals will 'graduate' to deliberately harm humans, while others confirm the 'desensitization thesis', 'which is more concerned with the general levels of callous behaviour which permeate modern life' (Taylor and Signal, 2008). In a study of retrospective accounts of 64 male sex offenders, David Tingle et al (1986) found that nearly half (48%) of convicted rapists and 30 per cent of convicted child molesters reported having been involved in childhood incidents of cruelty to other animals (cited in Taylor and Signal (2008)).…”