When a Domestic Abuser Holds the Family Pet Hostage

Source: Adam Jones licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0

It is startling when one sees the statistics that describe the extent of domestic violence in our society. Published estimates put the number of abuse victims at around 10 million annually in the United States. For example, in New York City alone, every year police respond to over 250,000 domestic violence incidents. Directly or indirectly, domestic violence impacts one in four women and one in seven men. Abusive relationships are involved in more than half of the homicides of women in the United States. When people learn about how many people are being abused they often ask, "Why don't they just leave?" There are many reasons why people suffering from domestic abuse don't seek safety outside of the relationship. The reasons include factors like lack of financial resources or access to bank accounts or no safe place to go, and also the fear of losing custody of their children. According to a new study, another significant reason why some people stay in an abusive relationship is that a well-loved family pet is being held hostage.

This new data comes from a national survey conducted by the Urban Resource Institute (the largest domestic violence residential service provider in the United States) and the National Domestic Violence Hotline (a nationwide crisis hotline that is available 24 hours a day and handles around a quarter of a million calls per year). Data was collected from people contacting the hotline. A short 13- question survey was given to abuse victims who also lived with a family pet. Ultimately data was collected from 2,480 people. The majority of these lived with a pet dog (58 percent).

The overall findings are quite clear. It appears that an unfortunate but extremely effective technique by which abusers enforce their power and control over their victims is to virtually hold the family pet hostage. They do this by threatening to hurt or even kill the family pets as a warning of what would happen if the victim tries to leave. The emotional attachment that people have to their pets becomes a point of vulnerability that is used by their abusive partners who are seeking opportunities for additional power and control.

The survey found that 97 percent of the pet-owning respondents said that keeping their pets with them is an important factor in deciding whether or not to seek shelter. In fact, 50 percent of the respondents said that they would not consider going to a shelter if they could not take their pets with them.

The psychological importance of pets becomes clear: 91 percent of the abuse victims indicated that their pets provide the emotional support and physical protection that they feel they need to survive physically and psychologically.

Their fears about their pets' welfare were quite clear since 48 percent anticipated that their abusive partner would harm or kill their pets. In fact, 37 percent reported that their abusive partner had already directly threatened to hurt or destroy their pets. Some 29 percent said that their pets had already been attacked or even killed by their abuser.

The threats coming from the abusive partner affect the entire family; 30 percent of the respondents said that their children had witnessed or been aware of abuse or threats to their pet and 76 percent of the respondents reported they had already noticed changes in their pet's behavior as a result of abuse.

The sad fact is that these abuse victims don't see any clear escape from the situation; 72 percent of respondents were not aware that any domestic violence shelters accept pets. Unfortunately, the number of pet-friendly shelters in the United States is still few, perhaps about 250 nationally, with a handful more offering foster care arrangements for pets. Sadly, this amounts to less than 10 percent of domestic violence shelters.

There are some positive signs on the horizon. At this time, 35 states allow courts to include pets in their protection-from-abuse orders. In addition, 10 states consider an act of animal abuse intended to coerce control of someone as an overt act of domestic violence.

At the very least, these new results point out the need for more pet-friendly shelters for people currently living in abusive relationships. It is obvious that a significant proportion of abused people will not seek refuge from their current dangerous situation for fear that a well-loved pet might be harmed. Holding their pet's well-being hostage gives the abuser power over the victim, and unfortunately, that may ultimately place the abused person in grave personal jeopardy.

Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd.