17 November 2025

 

OPEN LETTER

Kind Attention: Cape Talk Radio host Clarence Ford

Cc Lester Kiewit

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Dear Clarence,

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I heard Lester Kiewit mention this morning that you will be speaking on Wednesday about the bullying pandemic in our schools. I would like to briefly highlight an often-overlooked dimension of this issue: bullying frequently begins with animals. As you will know, this is one of the key reasons animal welfare has been brought into the Child Rights domain.

 

Pages 19 and 23–25 of our latest Animal Voice magazine touch on this connection in detail:

https://heyzine.com/flip-book/2d2a7ee13d.html

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Because animals are still legally regarded as property, they too easily become outlets for human frustration. Children witness this and replicate it, discovering a troubling sense of power and control over another being. This pattern often translates into bullying on the school grounds and, later in life, into domestic violence and child abuse.

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We are indebted to the United Nations for recognising this link and for incorporating animal welfare into the Child Rights framework as a meaningful strategy to help reduce bullying and other forms of physical, emotional and psychological violence.

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Our latest issue of Animal Voice highlights how children exposed to violence, whether domestic, societal, or directed at an animal, are at heightened risk of lifelong emotional and psychological disorders. Bullying behaviour is one such manifestation.

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I believe one reason the connection between violence toward animals and bullying is not yet prioritised in our schools is a persistent concern that caring about animal welfare might bemisinterpreted as caring less about human welfare.