Three points, SPCAs started long before child protective legislation. People are still arguing heatedly over corporal punishment of children as a necessary tool to good parenting, sure that the alternative is the spoiled children of permissive parenting. And the prevailing certainty of the effectiveness of current animal training, which is firm clear and all based on positive reinforcement, never hitting.
It amazes me that shows like The Dog Whisperer and It's Me or the Dog show over and over that discipline that respects an animal's needs, neither resorting to violence nor letting the animal do anything, works both to curb bad and dangerous behaviour, and the furry one is happier and healthier. Animal behaviorists have known this for over forty years, it's how places like Sea World managed dolphin shows. It's how police canine units are possible, or sheep dogs can be called off from afar. It's not rocket science, it's communication and it's hard work.
As we understand abusive relationships, finally, we know that the abused internalize their treatment, especially when it comes from those we are dependent upon, more so if the abused is a vulnerable child with no other exposure to any other kind of normal. If your parent tells you how much they love you, then hit you, or don't provide you any rules, that is what seems to be love. To think otherwise is dangerous madness, and the unthoughtful carry that into the next generation. This is a huge part of why I never did want children, I knew better than to subject any child to my suppressed rage. A simple spanking or hand slap may not seem like abuse, but when any pain comes with an "I love you", it's fucked up. It shows lack of effort or imagination, an unwillingness to understand or allow a child dignity.
But to have tried to legally force parents to not abuse their children, when the common wisdom was that that was how they expressed love, (still is for many people) was an unthinkable intrusion. Far easier to rescue animals. So the Humane Societies got to the horses first.
For although animals also carry our emotional burdens, it's never been as heavy as for children. We can prove what happens to beaten and neglected dogs, see their whole life in the span of a few years. And no dog will ever say, "he beat me, but I turned out just fine." No, an abused dog may rebound to kind and effective treatment faster after being victimized, but the damage is always visible. A child slapped or left to raise themselves will defend their lazy, mean, silly parents to the point of saying that they were raised just right, they deserved to be hit, oh, no, it was never abuse. They cover it up, explain it away, and pass it on to their own children.
My parents might be excused for not knowing this. In 1962 it was not common wisdom, although it was always common sense. My brother and his wife cannot, but then, they never bothered to train their many aggressive dogs either. Training is a lot of work, takes commitment and consistency, for a dog or a child. The easy way never is.
And just so I rile anyone else who probably shouldn't be here anyway, the New Yorker has a thorough expression of my political thoughts, much more eloquently and intelligently put than I ever could.
This may come down, or I may just close comments to avoid any trolls.
