Linking Animal Cruelty and Family Violence By Lisa Anne Zilney

Introduction

In a recent book that considers the nature and dynamics of prejudice and discrimination, readers will find in the appendix a discussion of animals as an “outgroup” (Plous 2003), a thesis long recognized by prominent thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham, Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and Albert Schweitzer. The author stresses the importance of including animals: “Prejudice is normally thought of in strictly human terms, and the idea of being “prejudiced” against animals [may] appear out of place. Yet animals have suffered in many ways from human prejudice ... in many cases, these prejudices have been psychologically maintained in much the same way as are prejudices against human outgroups” (Plous 2003). The plight of nonhuman animals ¹ worldwide is arguably at its most serious point in history. This condition is obscured daily by the progressive elimination of animals from everyday human experience, and academically, from the realm of environmental sociology and criminology. In 1998, Congressperson Tom Lantos (D-CA) introduced House Resolution 286 to the U.S. Congress. Resolution 286 insisted that attention be given to identifying