Domestic Abuse Law Extends to Pets

An AP-Petside.com poll conducted early last summer indicated that fully one-half of pet owners felt that their pets were “just as much a part of the family as any other person in the household.” Another 36% answered that their pets were “part of the family, but not as much as the people in the household.” All told, over 8 out of 10 people polled agreed that their pets were members of the family. A newly-signed Colorado law takes steps towards treating them as such.

Governor Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 80 on April 12, 2010. The new legislation provides for court-entered civil protection orders to include directives and protections concerning animals. Though the law does allow for additional protections for pets, its purpose it directly tied to instances of domestic violence against people. As detailed in the press release, “Senate Bill 80 will give law enforcement the ability to protect families, children and those who are at-risk,” said Gov. Ritter. “This legislation fills a gap between civil and criminal law to protect families.”

Sponsored by Senator Linda Newell (D-Littleton) and Representative Jerry Frangas (D-Denver), the newly-signed bill is designed to help thwart the “pattern of crime over time” – 1) damage property, 2) injure or kill a pet, then 3) attack their victim – that abusers and stalkers often follow. In support of the bill, Dr. Frank R. Ascione visiting professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work and Executive Director for the Institute of Human-Animal Connection had testified and provided “examples of the co-occurence of domestic abuse and animal abuse and described how animal abuse may influence the actions of a person who is the victim of domestic violence". Dr. Ascione discussed statistics regarding women who delay going to shelters out of concern for the well-being of their pets.

Colorado is not the first state to take this important step to protect both pets and human family members from the devastating effects of domestic violence. According to a Summer 2007 “Expert Insights” piece written by Phil Arkow and published by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence, “Maine enacted the nation’s first laws in March, 2006 that empower courts to include companion animals in domestic violence protective orders; within two months, Vermont and New York followed suit.” Other states such as California, Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, and Tennessee were not far behind. According to the Animal Legal & Historical Center, there were 10 states as of 2009 that had enacted provisions for pets in domestic violence protective orders – it must be noted that Colorado was already included on this list based on its statutory definition of “domestic violence” as including violence against property such as animals under certain circumstances (C.R.S. § 18-6-800.3). Since then, the movement towards including animals within protective orders has continued to grow, with a recent blog posting and news release indicating that West Virginia has passed similar legislation. According to the news release, West Virginia was the 14th such state.

Some Additional Resources
For more information about the connections between domestic violence against people and against animals, be sure to check out the Institute for Human-Animal Connection at DU, which has recently been the focus of an article in the Denver Post.

The American Humane Association also has a section of its website devoted to the Human-Animal Bond.

For further reading on pet news and care issues with a Denver perspective, be sure to check out the Fetch blog by John Davidson, which includes a post on the new Colorado legislation discussed above.

The Animal Law Blog is a regularly-updated blog that features, among other things, “one practitioner’s observations and analysis of animal law news…”

Pet-Abuse.Com has an interesting project where interactive animal cruelty maps have been developed. In the Colorado map 171 out of 258 cases in Colorado have been mapped, 12 of which also involved domestic disputes in some way.

An excellent clearinghouse of articles, information, and research can be found here. On that website, one can also find an early (1997) national survey and article exploring the relationship between the abuse of animals and domestic violence.

Written by Marty Witt, Law Librarian Fellow