Response to 'Forging the Links: (de)constructing chains of behaviours'

Responds to a critique by Heather Piper & Steve Myers (2006) of the authors' "Making the Links: Child Abuse, Animal Cruelty and Domestic Violence" (2004). Though attention to this issue is welcome & the need to raise awareness is keen, the authors' state that they were "careful...to emphasize a measured approach to this emotive subject." They suggest that Piper & Myers have mistakenly attributed to them arguments that were not included in their paper; these are clarified. The fact that socioeconomic factors, eg, poverty, also characterize the lives of persons seen by child protective & domestic violence professionals does not negate the well-established correlations between child abuse, animal abuse, & domestic violence. K. Hyatt Stewart