Response to Shelby, "Animal Abuse, Domestic Abuse"

This is a response to Shelby's post "Animal Abuse, Domestic Abuse". Shelby linked to an article where the author notes that people tend to donate to animal shelters over battered women's shelters. I agree with some things the author said. I believe that it's easy to sympathize with animals because they are moral patients, so they can't do anything wrong, but when a human is in a bad state people ask "What did he/she do to deserve this?" or "Why did he/she let this happen?" People often think that a woman can leave her batterer at any time and it's her fault if she stays. However, an animal cannot choose to stay with an abusive owner. Even though battered women are autonomous beings, they are often so controlled and manipulated by their abuser that they lack any freedom to leave their situation. Because situations with humans are more complicated than situations with animals, the author thinks people will be more likely to sympathize with animals. However, I don't see why the author has to pit the two issues against each other. In fact, it is common for a batterer to also be abusive toward the family pet, so there is definitely some overlap between these two issues. Both animal shelters and women's shelters are important, and I don't think we need to talk about which one is more important, because they both are necessary. However, I think the ideal solution would be to rid the world of abuse so there wouldn't need to be shelters.

Question: How can we rid the world of abuse?