A Common Bond - The National Link Coalition

A Common Bond: Maltreated Children and Animals in the Homewho have been exposed to or have participated in aggressive andviolent behavior.3. Asking questions about a child’s experiences with animals can spark amore open dialogue. Many clinicians have observed that children mayfeel freer to talk, and less anxious about doing so, when the subjectinvolves animals. A crucial step for every child protective servicesworker—developing a bond with the family members and earningtheir trust—can be facilitated by asking questions about animals in thefamily or in the child’s life.When used during screening, assessment, or investigation, the followingquestions can provide pertinent information about the child and the child’sexperiences:• Have you or your family ever had any pets? What happened to them?• Do you have a pet or pets now? Tell me about them. What are theirnames?• Have you ever lost a pet you really cared about? What happened?• Has your pet ever been hurt?• Have you ever felt afraid for your pet or worried about bad thingshappening to your pet?• Has anybody ever tried to make you do something you didn’t want to doby threatening to hurt your pet? What happened?• Have you ever seen someone hurt an animal or pet? What happened?• Have you ever hurt an animal or pet? What happened?• What happens when your family pet misbehaves?• Have you ever been punished for something your pet did, like gettinginto the trash? Or has your pet ever been punished for something youdid, like not doing the dishes when you were told to?Observation in the natural environment. One common method for collectingchild protection information is to observe the family members in their home. Ifthere are pets in the home, more information can be ascertained by observingthe interaction of the family members with the pets.When making a home visit, the observer can incorporate the followingquestions into the interview and exchange:• Do you have any family pets or other animals in your home?11