Quiz Yourself: Answers

1. Ways in which a batterer may use an animal to coerce victims of domestic violence include are included in the table in Chapter 2, Section 3.
    
2. Reasons a child might abuse a family pet or another animal include:
    • Pecking order abuse - reacting to their own abuse by abusing someone or something
       smaller or more vulnerable than themselves.
    • Power - abusing animals in order to feel empowered as a means of countering the
       disempowerment felt as a victim of abuse.
    • Re-enactment - children may copy behaviors they witness in their parents.
    • Identification with abuser - children may prefer to identify with those holding power
       and may emulate them by abusing animals.
    • Children may kill pets humanely to save them from the abuser.
    • Children may enact their own suicide on animals.
    
3. An animal may be used as a perpetrator of domestic violence if the abuser trains the animal to attack victims or prevent victims from escaping.
    
4. Emotional effects of animals being drawn into domestic violence may include fear, stress, anxiety, and uncertainty. Symptoms can be present in both animals and humans. Conditions in both animals and humans such as diabetes, hypertension, and gastrointestinal problems can be exacerbated by emotional distress.
    
   These are only some of the possible answers. Did you think of others?