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Executive Summary...3 Why This Conference?..5 Lead Partners..7 Attendees.8 Results..11 Agenda.14 Speakers...16 Resources.20 Animal abuse does not inevitably lead to interpersonal violence, but we must come to a better understanding of the circumstances in which it does for the sake of both animals and people. -Keynote speaker, Dr. Frank Ascione, PhD, Scholar-in Residence, University of Denver and author of Animal abuse and intimate partner violence: Emerging research on pet abuse in the lives of women who are battered 2
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1. An understanding of the roots of animal abuse and neglect and the connection of such crimes to interpersonal and societal violence. 2. An ability to identify the indicators of animal abuse and the steps to investigation and prosecution of these crimes. 3. An ability to identify the indicators of interpersonal violence and the steps to responding. 4. Skills to examine the correlation between human vulnerability and animal vulnerability. 5. The opportunity to explore community-level partnerships involving prosecutors, animal welfare organizations, social service providers, veterinarians, municipal/provincial/federal governments, the courts and law enforcement agencies. 6. The opportunity to create new networks and relationships that will enhance efforts toward ending violence. 7. The opportunity to found a national coalition for cross-sectoral collaboration toward ending violence against vulnerable communities. As the organizers of this conference, CFHS aimed to increase access to services by working together across 10 key sectors to deepen awareness of the violence link which will lead to safer communities, more effective law enforcement and more relevant and holistic social services. Understanding the link between animal abuse and interpersonal violence has provided Canadian professionals who are engaged in addressing and preventing abuse with a broader framework for thinking about and approaching their work. The 2017 CFHS Canadian Violence Link Conference gave attendees a deeper understanding of how the co-investigation of animal and human abuse can allow for early intervention and improved outcomes for both human beings and animals. By creating effective cross-reporting relationships between animal welfare and human welfare agencies, we are addressing the welfare of the entire family unit animals included. The multi-stakeholder nature of the conference was crucial in establishing next steps in the fight against violence and abuse in Canada, allowing for the creation of a nationwide cross-sector network that is now equipped to recognize the patterns that threaten humans and animals in our society. The range of expertise in the room led to powerful insights and innovative strategies that will advance our collective work. When asked about their experience of the event, attendees of the 2017 CFHS Canadian Violence Link Conference reported a 100 per cent satisfaction rate and affirmed that we are on the right track in our work to take action on the link between animal abuse and human abuse. 4
Those who work on the front lines of law enforcement and violence prevention know that there is a demonstrated link between human and animal abuse. Over the last decade, this correlation has come to be known as the violence link, and we re starting to understand just how reliably animal abuse can predict future violence against human beings. A layperson might be tempted to dismiss the link between the abuse of humans and animals as incidental, occasional or unproven. In fact, multiple research studies conducted across North America have confirmed that the co-occurrence of these crimes represents an established pattern. In one of the key studies on this topic, researchers found that animal abuse was more clearly correlated to family violence than poor mental health, drinking or drug abuse (Zorza, J. (Spring 2010). Dealing with Animal Abuse to Alleviate Family Violence. Family & Intimate Partner Violence Quarterly. Vol. 2 (Issue 4), page 345). Law enforcement agencies in the United States have recently undertaken a data-tracking project that uses the violence link to their strategic advantage, collecting and analyzing data on incidents of animal abuse via the national FBI database. Its stated goal is to prevent violence against animals from escalating to interpersonal violence. This kind of tracking is effective because animal abuse is a useful predictor of interpersonal crimes, such as domestic violence and serial murder. Law enforcement officials, district attorneys and other allied professionals in the United States have been examining the violence link for almost a decade, having formed The National Link Coalition in 2008. The coordinator of the project, Phil Arkow, says: When animals are abused, people are at risk. When people are abused, animals are at risk. This is a phenomenon we can no longer ignore if we are to responsibly manage public safety and social service delivery in our communities. 5
Recently, Canada s work on the link has started to gain momentum and public attention. In 2015, the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies launched a new program called The National Centre for the Prosecution of Animal Cruelty (NCPAC), which provides Canadian Crown Prosecutors with resources that support the successful prosecution of animal cruelty cases. NCPAC was created in partnership with Crown prosecutors from across Canada, as well as allied professionals from SPCAs, humane societies and the veterinary community. Through NCPAC, these groups have the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with animal law experts to ensure that the most up-to-date and innovative information is available and accessible to the prosecution community. One of NCPAC s aims is to educate law enforcement professionals about the violence link and to find ways to apply this knowledge toward improving outcomes for both people and animals. To that end, NCPAC hosted a Crown prosecutor training day in conjunction with the Violence Link Conference in Ottawa on December 4, 2017. 6
Lead partners were recruited from key sectors to sit on the 2017 CFHS Canadian Violence Link Conference steering committee in order to publicly lend their support to the conference. Our lead partners were chosen to represent sectors that we knew were key to whole system change in Canada. These lead partners were asked to help in agenda planning, identifying speakers and conference promotion. The City of Ottawa is responsible for the provision of vital public services in Canada s capital region, as well as the enforcement of municipal bylaws. The Ottawa Police Service is committed to protect the safety and security of their communities. Their vision is to be a trusted partner in community safety. The Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women is a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of organizations and individuals in the City of Ottawa and surrounding regions that is working to end violence against women. 211 Ontario is an award-winning helpline and website that provides information on and referrals to community, social, health-related and government services in Ontario. 7
In all, 204 delegates attended the 2017 CFHS Canadian Violence Link Conference (164 women and 40 men). Below is a breakdown of sector distribution and home province for attendees. The policing sector was most heavily represented at the conference (24% of overall attendees), followed by the animal welfare sector (23%), the anti-violence sector (15%) and Crown prosecutors/government/law (15%). Note that some sector categories above have been consolidated for ease of reporting. As expected for a first-time conference, a large proportion of our attendees (67%) hailed from the province in which the event took place (Ontario). Alberta was second most represented at the conference (10%) and Quebec was third (6%). See the figure below for full information. 8
Conference attendees identified the following as the most urgent issues we need to address in Canada related to the violence link: The need for education across sectors on how to recognize the links between interpersonal violence and animal cruelty, with specific reference to under-education of all players in the justice system Integration of animal welfare into cross-sectoral, coordinated domestic violence responses Systems and funding for fostering the pets of those using violence against women response services. The issue of sexual violence against animals, women and children The structural abandonment of our homeless population and their animals Bystanders: those who are able to act and report violence but do not The need for greater collaboration across sectors The need for legislation that would require all animal professionals to report suspected animal abuse or neglect (similar to section 68 of the Child Welfare Act) The need for standardized protocols between mental health, child welfare and animal welfare agencies 9
A need for greater awareness within the anti-violence sector about the violence link and a need to start asking questions about animal abuse (e.g. during intake) to address the current low profile of animal abuse in the sector The need to educate/inform the general public about the violence link The need for early intervention with troubled youth and perpetrators who commit acts of animal cruelty in order to foster empathy Lack of reporting of animal cruelty The need for better statistics and evidence-based Canadian research (as a precursor to getting the violence link on provincial/territorial and national agendas) Overall, conference attendees were deeply engaged with the subject matter, eager to learn and share new information, excited about insights from other sectors that pertained to their work and ready to take action to improve Canada s response to the violence link. 10
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