Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies Articles

Is There a Link between Human Violence and Hunting?

From National Link Coalition: The National Resource Center on The LINK between Animal Abuse and Human Violence
October 2022

She concluded that given increasing evidence of a significant co-occurrence between animal cruelty and human violence, that deriving pleasure from killing or causing suffering to other sentient beings is predictive of low empathy levels in hunting behavior, that hunting can desensitize young children to the suffering of others.

The question is often asked as to whether there is a Link between animal cruelty and violence against humans in the context of hunting. Research in this area has been minimal, but a 2014 paper written by Australian psychologist and Link author Eleonora Gullone on this topic recently came to our attention.

Gullone described increasing awareness and anecdotal and empirical evidence of The Link between violence against humans, animal cruelty, criminal behaviors, and Eleonora Gullone welfare concerns for children and their families, particularly intimidating domestic violence. In asking where hunting fits in this co-occurrence hypothesis, Gullone noted that animal cruelty can, in part, be explained by compromised empathy development. “It is not unreasonable to argue that killing animals in the form of hunting for purely recreation purposes is a demonstration of compromised empathy since deriving enjoyment from a behavior that causes suffering and harm must be devoid of compassion.

“It is also likely that children’s witnessing of such behaviors by their significant others is conveying a message that harming and killing sentient beings for pure sport is acceptable. Following from this, it is likely not a coincidence that hunting is performed predominantly by males who, as a group, have also been consistently demonstrated to have lower levels of empathy compared to females,” she added.

She observed that the number of licensed hunters was on the decline in both Australia and the U.S., despite increases in the number of licensed gun owners. Hunters represent a clear minority of the Australian adult population, she wrote, suggesting that shooters themselves are aware of changing community attitudes and feel the need to justify and protect their position.

Gullone noted that contrary to perceptions that hunting is a sport, many animal activists and feminists consider hunting to be another form of violence and male domination. Anecdotal data suggest that there is a co-occurrence between domestic violence and hunting and that that legal violence (e.g. hunting) can generalize or “spill over” into illegal violence (e.g., domestic violence), she wrote.

“Related to this, it can be argued that the endorsement of hunting through its legal status provides societal endorsement to engage in acts of cruelty and violence. Such endorsement is likely to manifest in a circular manner both by being acted upon by those with compromised levels of empathy and by increasing individuals’ levels of desensitization to others’ suffering through such legally endorsed acts of cruelty,” she wrote, examining the phenomenon of kangaroo shooting in Australia by both commercial and non-commercial hunters and humane issues that surround the shootings despite rigid regulations.

She concluded that given increasing evidence of a significant co-occurrence between animal cruelty and human violence, that deriving pleasure from killing or causing suffering to other sentient beings is predictive of low empathy levels in hunting behavior, that hunting can desensitize young children to the suffering of others, and that only 5.2% of the adult Australian population hold hunting licenses, it is fair to ask whether it is still appropriate for hunting to be considered socially acceptable behavior. “Are societies that legally endorse hunting as a source of recreation unintentionally promoting ‘criminal’ behaviors through the continued legal status of such activities?” she asked.

Learn more at: Gullone, E. (2014). Co-occurrence of human violence, criminal behaviour and animal abuse: Implications for legalized hunting behaviour. Monash University Department of Psychology [unpublished paper].

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