Oral

This session seeks to describe the connection between animal abuse and family violence and its relevance to public health. Animal abuse is recognized as a precursor to or co-existing factor with family violence. Special attention will be paid to research and initiatives that improve early recognition of animal abuse as a risk for family violence and thus, improving prevention and early intervention strategies. Overall, this presentation seeks to educate the public health community about current strategies that reduce/eliminate family violence, and discuss areas that need further research.

Session Objectives: Describe the problem of animal abuse as it relates to other forms of violence Discuss current initiatives to screen for, identify and intervene when animal abuse occurs in the context of family violence. Discuss next steps to improve screening, identification and intervention to decrease animal abuse and family violence.