Large or Food Animal and Equine Medicine Commons^™

Pets And Problems: Exploring Community Patterns In Calls For Animal Services, Paige Dejarnett

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Pets have historically been viewed as family members, children, property, or economic resources. However, research surrounding animal maltreatment has expressed this issue as an individually-based problem, rather than a community-based phenomenon. Correlations have been found between animal cruelty, antisocial behaviors, and future interpersonal violence, whether this correlation be a predictive relationship, or a resultant relationship. Past research has also found correlations between animal treatment practices and the rural/urban differences of this behavior. However, there are many community-based indicators that have not been explored to understand the distribution of animal maltreatment. This study aims to explore these ideas by analyzing the …