Despite what appears to be a recent surge in natural disasters, the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 stills stands out in my mind as probably the most intense and powerful display of nature I have witnessed in my lifetime. A hundred square miles of land laid to waste, an 80,000-foot eruption plume and volcanic ash spewed over eleven states were the results of an incident that occurred in what seemed to be “a blink of an eye.”

Scientists and seismologists would confirm that the blast, as abrupt and spontaneous as it seemed, was really the result of a long chain of geological gyrations and tectonic tremors that set the stage for the devastating release of pressure from below the earth's surface.

As I ponder the co-mingling energies and inter-relationships between this earth's land, water and air, working in concert to produce unfathomable environmental calamities, I can't help but to see them as analogous to our own humanly created catastrophes...

The attention of news-perusers (like those of you reading this article) is regularly caught, horrified and dismayed by the neverending stream of stories recounting seemingly senseless acts of violence inflicted upon people, by people. The stories are especially gut wrenching when the victims are harmed by the ones who are supposed to be loving them.

A mom kills her own kids over here. A dad sexually abuses his own child over here. A guy fathers a child through an affair and “secretly” neglects both of his families; the list goes on and on.

What makes things even more unsettling to someone attempting to digest all of this “news” and possibly gain some understanding for what it means about our society is that with every story, there is a back story. And, not unlike the climactic conditions that precede a powerful discharge of energy in the natural world, the back story often reveals that things were brewing long before so-and-so snapped, erupted, quaked or spilled over the banks of acceptable behavior.

You may learn that the murderous mom was struggling with depression and unable to access health care for two years before she came un-glued. Or the delusional dad had narrowly escaped sexual abuse charges waged by an intern at the office three years before he became a danger to his own daughter.

It can leave you in tears, shaking your head and thinking, if someone had just noticed something sooner, lives could have been saved and futures preserved.

Too often, “too little too late” is how the story goes...

For the record keeping/statistic seeking society that we are, one advantage that we have afforded ourselves (thank dog) is the ability to look back and piece together the combined ingredients which promote the manifestations that then threw our day to day lives into shock.

But statistics only tell a story — they don't change the plot.

Statistics seeking to tell the story of domestic violence in America strongly suggest that our pets and the domesticated animals with whom we share our lives are intricately woven into the insidious fabric of dysfunctional family dynamics — to the extent that, with alarming frequency they are the “bellwether” for, and inevitably included in, violent acts perpetrated by and against the human family members.

If you delve deeper into this phenomenon you'll find more than a few sobering facts: here is a sample...

According to Phil Arkow and the Latham Foundation's Animal Abuse and Family Violence Prevention Project:

-Seventy one percent of pet-owning women entering abuse shelters report that their batterers threatened or ended the lives of family pets to leverage psychological control. And...

-Thirty two percent of these women report that their children were displaying abusive behavior with pets.

-More American households have pets than have children.

-A child in America is more likely to have a pet than a live-in father.

-Significant numbers of physically threatened women and children choose not to enter into a shelter for fear of leaving their pets in jeopardy.

-A child's attitude towards pets/animals is a reliable indicator of his/her (future) ability to show compassion towards people.

Former governor of Colorado and Denver district attorney William Ritter states, “Cruelty to animals is a predictor of violent behavior against people, and as good a predictor as I have seen.”

Given the fact that a hindsight review of most domestic violence (news) stories will likely reveal a long list of precursor events, it makes me wonder...

How many dogs or cats, birds or rats (if only they could talk) would have dialed up the DHS hotline after a family endured a volatile boyfriend or a despondent mother for days, an anxious or angry child took his/her frustrations out on them while they spent the past week on a chain with no fresh water or their “pack” was just clearly and simply struggling for survival — to report "We've got a problem over here. We need help!"?

Although it disturbs me to think of our pets filling the role of cultural “canary in the coal-mine,” it doesn't surprise me that this is the case. As is true with other vulnerable members of society like kids, pets are often caught up in the front lines of violence fueled by aggressive human emotions. And voluntary ignorance does not come easy to them.

The equation seems to be: families + pets in trouble = people in trouble.

Ironically the same formula that provides us a chance for salvation in the throes of a natural disaster is what can save us from a domestic one. Love and compassion are mere words when not paired with action.

Early attention to detail, empathy, available resources and the motivation to act — is the right mix.

Perhaps Mother Nature is helping us learn how to help ourselves — with our pets as her liaisons.

The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. — Mahatma Gandhi

I believe this is so true... so, what next?

John Spieser is a professional dog trainer and owner of Dogheart. He can be reached at john@doghearta2.com.