Battered Wives, Battered Pets: New Laws to Protect Both

Saturday's New York Times (April 1) has an encouraging article headed, "Battered Wives' Pets Suffer Abuse, Too." (Pg A 10.)

It tells us "Maine's governor, John Baldacci, signed a bill yesterday that allows animals to be included in protection orders in domestic violence cases."

According to the article, experts say, "many men who abuse wives or girlfriends threaten or harm their animals to coerce or control the women." It gives shocking examples, such as that of a man who ran over his wife's blind and deaf border collie, and a domestic violence victim who said, "When I left him before, he started mailing me pieces of my cat to tell me if you don't come back this is what I'm going to continue to do.''

We read:
"Maine is believed to be the first state with such a law. But the issue has captured attention around the country as police departments, domestic-violence programs, animal protection societies and state officials become increasingly aware of a link between domestic violence and animal abuse.

"A new program in Columbus, Ohio, takes animals of victims of domestic violence and places them in a women's prison, where the inmates care for them. In Nashville, the city gives such pets a safe haven for up to 30 days. And in St. Louis, the Domestic Violence Pet Assistance Program finds foster homes for the animals.

We learn that a study in the 1990's of women in shelters found "that 54 percent of the battered women said their abusers had harmed or killed their animals..."

And we read,
"Jill Morris, the public policy director at the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, said that she had not heard of another law like Maine's but that some judges had begun to include animals in protective orders."

You can read the full article on line at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/us/01pets.html

It offers a great opportunity for letters to the editor on the need for society to acknowledge the bonds people have with their animals, or on the link between violence against animals and humans. You'll find a strong essay on that issue at http://www.animalsvoice.com/PAGES/writes/editorial/features/link/randour_link.html

You might also like to take a look at a March 29 article from the Tahoe Daily Tribune in which a man who allegedly admitted to strangling 10 Nigerian dwarf goats is quoted:
"It's probably a good thing that you caught me now...I might have started killing people." That article is on line at:
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20060329/NEWS/103290038

The New York Times takes letters at letters [at] nytimes.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.


(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)