Animal abuse as an outcome of poor emotion regulation: A preliminary conceptualization

Animal abuse is an under-reported yet prevalent form of both passive and active forms of aggressive behavior. Its severe and upsetting consequences are not only experienced by the victims themselves, but also others in proximity (e.g., pet owners). Despite this, research and theory focusing on the motivations for such behavior appear to be sparse and limited in development when compared to other types of offending behavior, such as interpersonal violence. This article examines the motivations that underlie animal abuse and the maladaptive emotion regulation techniques that facilitate this type of behavior. We focus on two specific emotion regulation styles that have been implicated in existing literature; that is, the mis-regulation and under-regulation of emotions. Based on existing research and theories, we posit that the facilitative role emotion regulation plays in the perpetration of animal abuse is vital in our understanding of how and why this abuse occurs. In this article, we present a preliminary conceptualization of animal abuse behavior that depicts emotion regulation as a pivotal factor in key explanatory pathways.