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Institutional change has resulted in the separation of organizations for the protection of animals and children. This project reunites two organizations to examine associations between human violence and animal cruelty. For 12 months, Family and Children's Services (FCS) investigators and Humane Society (HS) investigators in Wellington County, Canada, completed checklists to examine connections between forms of violence. FCS workers found some cause for concern in 20% of 1,485 homes with an animal companion. HS workers completed 247 checklists, resulting in 10 referrals to FCS. The first study of its kind, this project details the findings of cross-reporting in Wellington County and offers suggestions for future replication.
In the social work tradition, concern for the welfare of children and the development of social services for families reflects a long and often slow evolution of ideology and practice. The origins of the child-saving movement began in colonial days and were enhanced by the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601, which grew out of a consciousness of public responsibility for poverty and its consequences. During the Industrial Revolution, people saw children as durable, inexpensive, and powerless labor sources, and it was not until the 19th Century that the state began assuming responsibility for children through the formation reform schools and orphanages (Laird & Hartman, 1985). Despite increased public interest in ending cruelty toward children, no formal organization for identifying and assessing child abuse and neglect existed until 1874 (Rycus & Hughes, 1998).
In 1824, Richard Martin, MP, established the first animal welfare society in Britain, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), with the expressed goal of influencing attitudes toward animals. Forty-one years later in 1865, Henry Bergh founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the United States. In Canada, the first SPCA organizations were in Montreal in 1869, followed by Ottawa in 1871, and the Ontario SPCA in Toronto in 1873 (Chamberlain & Preece, 1993).
In 1874, an unusual incident created an opportunity to establish the first organization dedicated to the prevention of cruelty toward children. A young girl named Mary Ellen Wilson, who had been abused by her caregiver, attracted the attention of a concerned citizen. Unanswered pleas to child-saving institutions and public officials resulted in the...