The Link Between Animal Cruelty and Human Violence

Introduction

For a while now, there has been an established link between cruelty to animals and human violence, which not enough people seem to know about. This post aims to address that, and to encourage people to go vegan, if they haven’t already done so.

Evidence

– http://www.animalstudies.msu.edu/Slaughterhouses_and_Increased_Crime_Rates.pdf

“…The findings indicate that slaughterhouse employment increases total arrest rates, arrests for violent crimes, arrests for rape, and arrests for other sex offenses in comparison with other industries. This suggests the existence of a “Sinclair effect” unique to the violent workplace of the slaughterhouse, a factor that has not previously been examined in the sociology of violence.”

– http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2018/02/the-psychology-of-speciesism-how-we-privilege-certain-animals-over-others/

“Our research showed that the philosophers were right when they drew an analogy between speciesism and other forms of prejudice. Speciesism correlates positively with racism, sexism, and homophobia, and seems to be underpinned by the same socio-ideological beliefs. Similar to racism and sexism, speciesism appears to be an expression of Social Dominance Orientation: the ideological belief that inequality can be justified and that weaker groups should be dominated by stronger groups (Dhont, et al., 2016). In addition, speciesism correlates negatively with both empathy and actively open-minded thinking. Men are more likely to be speciesists than women. Yet, there are no correlations with age or education.”

– http://nationallinkcoalition.org/faqs/what-is-the-link

“Animal abuse is part of an inter-generational cycle of violence. Children living in homes with domestic violence and animal abuse absorb unhealthy attitudes and family norms… and hand these values down to their own children when they grow up.”

– Animal abuse and human abuse: partners in crime – https://www.peta.org/issues/animal-companion-issues/animal-companion-factsheets/animal-abuse-human-abuse-partners-crime/

“Research in psychology and criminology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals don’t stop there—many of them move on to their fellow humans.”

– The psychological damage of slaughterhouse work http://www.ptsdjournal.com/posts/the-psychological-damage-of-slaughterhouse-work/

“These employees are hired to kill animals, such as pigs and cows, that are largely gentle creatures. Carrying out this action requires workers to disconnect from what they are doing and from the creature standing before them. This emotional dissonance can lead to consequences such as domestic violence, social withdrawal, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, and PTSD.”

– Gary Yourofsky on speciesism – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1W5RQOxgdU&t=14m23s

“The path to peace is through veganism. We can find peace on this planet by eradicating speciesism, because this is the first form of hatred humans are taught. Racism, sexism, anti-semitism, heterosexism—these are branches of hatred. The root is speciesism because that’s the first form of hatred humans are taught.”

Animal sentience

– Animals are alive, sentient and can feel pain just like us. – https://www.ciwf.org.uk/farm-animals/animal-sentience/

– Some animals have even been shown to display moral behaviours – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJxRqTs5nk

– Ted Talk on animal sentience: “What animals are thinking, and feeling, and why it should matter” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wkdH_wluhw

Conclusion

Aside from the more well known benefits of veganism, such as the better treatment of animals, and less destruction to the environment, one of the less talked about reasons is the link to human violence and discrimination.

Nonveganism has been linked to increased human violence, and various forms of discrimination, and therefore we can only ever truly be against violence, by aligning our values with our actions and doing our best to reduce unnecessary suffering to animals by going vegan.

Further reading

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-animal/

http://www.adaptt.org/veganism/ethics.html