KEY POINTS:
Amid the joys of Christmas is always the sobering reality that we are marking the end of another year. With the celebrations comes the need to take stock and perhaps form a resolution for improving things in the year ahead.
As I've pondered the 12 months gone by, I've had an overwhelming impression of something deeply wrong in our community. I've been horrified and troubled by the seemingly endless reports of babies and little children subjected to abuse, resulting in severe bruising, broken bones, head injuries and even death.
Hideously cruel deaths, such as those of Nia Glassie or Jyniah Te Awa, weigh heavily on the hearts of many New Zealanders. And there isn't much comfort to be gained from international surveys which show that our country suffers from one of the highest rates of child deaths through mistreatment in the developed world.
Less horrifying, but no less worrying, is another survey which recently named us one of the worst countries studied for school bullying.
There's an obvious link between child abuse and bullying statistics as a huge proportion of school-level violence can be traced back to abuse received, or witnessed, in the home.
But chillingly cruel behaviour isn't restricted to abuse of innocent children or to school bullying. In my own field of animal welfare, we are no strangers to the same sick, vicious behaviour being meted out to innocent animals. And, here again, some of the worst examples of cruelty are the work of children who are on the receiving end of abuse or witness it regularly in their homes.
To take one example from the last year, a dead cat was discovered tied to a street sign in Tauranga. The hapless animal had a nail rammed through its head and its tail and three paws had been severed with the fourth paw hanging by a thread of skin. This was the grisly work of a teenager.
There are still some people who insist that abuse of children and cruelty to animals are totally separate issues and that, in any case, animals don't matter all that much!
Needless to say such sentiments tend to provoke a firm rebuke from me. It doesn't take a vast amount of psychological insight to work out that anyone who takes pleasure in hurting either an animal or a person may well be compensating for a sense of powerlessness in their own life or acting out a pattern of behaviour learned in the home.
All too often, they are themselves victims of current or past abuse. Moreover research indicates that, where the family animal is the target of abuse, it is undertaken to control, frighten or as an act of revenge against a family member.
Additionally, our own experience, through our SPCA Inspectorate, supports the view that a home in which animals are abused is likely to be one where children are also badly treated.
It was for this reason that, in September, the Royal New Zealand SPCA announced a joint nationwide initiative with Child, Youth and Family to keep each other informed of signs of abuse in homes visited by CYF social workers and our inspectors. We believe this to be the first such agreement in the world between two national organisations independently caring for children and animals.
At the same time, we need to teach empathy to our children and help them respect and feel responsible for all members of the family, including the animals. We believe the education programmes run by the SPCA are having a considerable impact in advancing the culture of kindness.
Another welcome development has been the media's heightened awareness of the problems of cruelty and abuse. The Herald's series, "Our Lost Children" deserves particular praise for its comprehensive approach and its unfailing compassion.
But violence and abuse lie embedded in our community and will no doubt require great effort, from all of us, to root it out. There is, however, one thing that every one of us must do, should the occasion arise, and that is to "break the silence".
During the last year, we have learned the horrifying truth of what happens when people don't speak up about the suffering of a child. Perhaps we have to ask ourselves who were the greatest offenders - the perpetrators or those who remained silent? In any event, silence is unacceptable as a response to the suffering of animals and vulnerable people of all ages.
So let's make it our collective New Year's resolution to sound the alarm whenever we suspect a child is caught in the web of cruelty. And let's do the same for animals - for their sake and because the whimpering puppy or the cat screaming in agony may be an indicator of a frightened, persecuted person whose life could be in danger if we fail to act.
* Bob Kerridge is chief executive of SPCA Auckland.
