KEY POINTS:
Former All Black Norm Hewitt is to be the face of an SPCA campaign touring schools natiownide.
Animal abuse and family violence will be core subjects when Hewitt visits students to help teach them compassion towards both animals and people.
Hewitt will take the campaign to selected schools in Wellington, the Bay of Plenty and South Auckland between now and Christmas. Over three years, he will visit schools nationwide, accompanied by animals and an SPCA officer.
The programme targets 10 to 12-year-olds and will use "empathy training" to teach compassion.
SPCA national chief executive Robyn Kippenberger said the organisation investigated numerous cases of violence and cruelty towards animals each year.
"All too often, the perpetrators are children or teenagers. This is of clear and obvious concern to the SPCA, particularly when we know how the violence can escalate," Ms Kippenberger said.
"Cruelty to animals is also an important indicator of inter-human violence."
She said many serious offenders started their criminal careers with sadistic acts against animals.
"Abuse or neglect of animals is often a symptom of general family violence or of children mirroring the violent behaviour meted out to them," Ms Kippenberger said.
Overseas research had shown that empathy training using animals had been effective in teaching compassion.
The training also increases expectations of how to treat others, and the children's expectations of how they should be treated, she said.
- NZPA
