Saving lives by protecting pets

In many North Carolina homes, the family pet is considered a member of the family. 

But in abusive relationships, the pet often is used as a tool to pressure the victim to stay or coerce her to return.  Social workers and domestic violence advocates recount horrific tales of tortured animals that have lost limbs or suffered broken bones in abusive homes. 

According to one national survey, 71 percent of victims with pets who enter shelters report that their animals had been threatened, injured or killed. 

And 76 percent of the time, the pet is abused in front of the children. Studies show that children who try to intervene to save their pets are at far greater risk of being abused themselves. 

One obvious way to protect families and their pets — and to remove a tool from the abuser’s arsenal — is to allow courts to include pets in domestic violence protective orders. 

New legislation in the Senate, SB 1062, sponsored by Sen. Julia Boseman, would do just that. Finally, pets really would be treated like the rest of the family.