The RSPCA across Australia, including Tasmania, recently received government funding to provide shelter to animals made homeless due to family violence.
According to Community Legal Centres NSW, “There is growing recognition that animal abuse is a form of domestic and family violence. Australian and international studies suggest that animal abuse occurs in up to 70% of domestic and family violence cases. Companion animals provide emotional support, unconditional love, and stability for many victims-survivors of domestic and family violence. This bond can be exploited by perpetrators, who may inflict or threaten harm to animals as a strategy to intimidate, coerce or control human victims-survivors. Many victims-survivors describe the distress and grief of witnessing the perpetrator torment their beloved animal. Studies have shown that between 18-48 per cent of victims‑survivors are so concerned for their animal’s safety that they delay or avoid leaving abusive relationships. An even higher figure of 68 per cent delayed leaving where the animal had already been abused. This ultimately leaves both human and animal victims-survivors vulnerable to long periods of abuse.”
The abuse of pets in our household
My children’s father was an abuser. Not only did he abuse me in front of them, but he also abused their pets. He kicked the cat whenever it tried to enter the house. His word was law: “There’ll be no animals allowed in my home.”
My abuser was a brutal man. He used to punch his dog to train it to be compliant, and stated as one of his parenting strategies that children be trained by this method as well.
He shot a wild cat I had befriended. It had taken weeks to instill trust in the animal to where it would eat food I put out on the verandah for both our pet cat, and this cat. As soon as my abuser found out I was enjoying the trust the cat gave me, he went to the woodpile behind the shed where the cat was sheltering and shot it. I heard the shot and asked him about it. He said, “I won’t have feral cats around here,” and pretended this was his concern. However, I knew the cat had been killed to give me grief. He told the children when they came home from school that he’d shot the cat, to upset them as well.
He threatened to hurt or kill family pets if I left with our children.
When we left, we weren’t allowed to go back to the house as we lived too far out of town, so we had to go interstate from the refuge without taking any belongings or any pet with us. As soon as he knew we weren’t returning, he let every pet out into the wild: budgies, guinea pigs, rabbits, ducks and chickens and our cat. He wouldn’t feed them and just let them go into the bush.
The dog he left tied up for days while he went to town to work.
The effects of pet abuse on victim survivors
In a 2018 report for an animal studies journal, 70 per cent of women fleeing family violence said their pets were abused too. Abuse of pets is prevalent in abusive relationships with abusers threatening, hurting or killing family pets. This is another form of control the abuser uses over their partner and another reason many victims delay leaving.
My ex-husband just treated the animals as another form of control over us and he knew how much it upset me when he abused them as well, so the more he saw me being affected the worse he became.
Pets, like children, are vulnerable and don’t understand why they are subjected to abuse and for me, this makes the abuse against them even more abhorrent and detestable. Seeing my pets abused made me despair and I felt like I had no control over my life and no autonomy over what happened within my home.
Our pets gave us unconditional love, and I used to think that repaying that love by leaving those pets behind and opening them to further abuse was distressing and yet another loss in the already substantial list of things we were losing. It hurt terribly and added to the mental trauma his abuse had already inflicted.
The chief executive of Engender Equality, Alina Thomas, says animals are often used as a tool for abuse and control. In a recent interview with The Examiner, she said, “Harm to pets might be used as a threat, like 'if you leave me, I'm going to hurt the pet, kill the pet', or it might also be that the animal is getting abused as a as a form of violence against the victim-survivor, so they're having to witness their animal getting hurt," she said.
She said it was important to understand the grief and trauma associated with pet violence and integrate it into services. "We love our pets as family members, and to have them killed or harmed in front of you ... I think because you're responsible for them, there's a whole other layer of grief and trauma that can come along with that."
Why funding is essential
Funding for animal shelters for pets made homeless due to family violence, even short-term shelter, is invaluable because refuge, even brief, increases a victim’s motivation to leave an abuser when they know that their pets are safe. It is my belief that support for victim-survivors with pets is "invaluable". I would have left the abusive relationship sooner if I’d known our pets were safe in a shelter or a refuge that is pet friendly. Their pet’s safety removes the worry that leaving a pet may open it up to more abuse and eases the guilt associated with leaving the pet behind.
Knowing there is even a short-term solution to housing pets, especially in a crisis situation gives those fleeing abusers, peace of mind and allows space to secure their own safety and decide for the future.
Offering support
The RSPCA has offered victim-survivors some reprieve.
Each state offers some form of support, with services including emergency pet boarding, temporary foster accommodation, and financial assistance for veterinary treatment, impound fees and transportation costs.
The Tasmanian program, Safe Beds, hosted 72 animals for 62 people between August 2021 and July 2022, with an average stay of 68 nights. The New South Wales community domestic violence program hosted 866 animals for 566 people in the 2020/21 financial year.
Alina Thomas said programs like Safe Beds were extremely important, with victim-survivors knowing their animals were cared for while they found stability and safety for themselves.
Safe Beds has been invaluable for victim-survivor Rosie*, who said the program was "a deciding point for leaving". She said it was difficult to articulate how much she appreciated the program, with the kindness and care, and the regular updates she received about her pets.
* Names have been changed.
. . .
Current research is exploring the importance of human-animal connections for many people, especially during family crises and/or while recovering from domestic abuse. This research is highlighting the deep bond many women and children fleeing violence share with their animal companions. It has been shown that animals allowed to remain with their humans after victims leave abuse, are themselves healthier afterwards while helping those victims to recover. Animals are affected by domestic violence too, and many of these same animals often have a huge role to play helping women and children in their post-trauma recovery. And as good as the fostering and kennel services are, and as desperately needed as they are, other types of services such as pet-friendly refuges and rental accommodation are also needed because women need to stay with their animals and keep the parts of the family together that are healthy and helping them.
I cannot overstate how incredibly important pets are to people who have survived traumatic events and circumstances. To women who have been consistently told that they’re worthless and not worthy of love, having their pet with them, giving them unconditional love, is tremendously powerful in helping them get over what’s happened.
The increased funding for the RSPCA is part of the whole idea that pets and humans need to stay together, that they are family and that the healing process that goes on in families includes the animals. The animals are a massive part of that healing process, both in terms of helping their humans heal and also in healing themselves. The best way to do that is to allow those families to remain together.
Further options
There is more that can be done to protect those suffering abuse and domestic violence, both human and animal. RSPCA funding for shelters is heading in a positive direction, but governments should also consider:
Including animals in protective orders in Australia as 35 states in the US now do.
Continuing the increased funding and training for refuges and shelters to accommodate animal victims of domestic violence. A significant increase in funding is needed to ensure that human and animal victims-survivors can be housed safely together after escaping violence. As noted earlier, victims will often delay leaving violence due to concern about the safety of their companion animals, so it is essential that crisis accommodation for both humans and animals is readily available.
The NSW Government’s ‘Staying Home Leaving Violence’ program provides support for victims to remain safely in their homes, but it is currently only available in limited locations. The Animal Defenders Office would like to see this program expanded to provide victims-survivors greater options when they have animals in their care.
Reforming tenancy laws to make it easier for victims-survivors and their animals to move into safe housing.
In addition to crisis accommodation, it is also important to ensure that victims of domestic and family violence are able to find longer-term housing, which is safe, affordable, and suitable for animals. Unfortunately, in all Australian states it can be difficult to find rental accommodation that is “pet‑friendly”, as landlords can refuse to allow a companion animal to live in the property for any reason.
Similar reform to tenancy laws in other states would make it easier for humans fleeing violence with animals to secure longer-term accommodation.
I would have loved to see such reforms and discussions we are now having, in 2003 when I left with my three children minus our beloved pets.
Deborah Thomson moved to Tasmania with her daughter in 2010, and now lives with her partner of nine years and a parrot. She moved to escape domestic violence and, inspired by her new partner, wrote her first book, Whose Life Is It Anyway? Recognising and Surviving Domestic Violence, to help others recognise abuse (and in particular coercive control), in the home, and to increase their motivation to leave earlier. After publishing her first book, she became a trained advocate through Engender Equality, a non-government Tasmanian organisation working with people and communities impacted by family violence. Deborah Thomson advocates for survivors of family violence, speaking at domestic violence events across Tasmania, through media channels and podcasts. She recently completed a second book, detailing lived experience with domestic violence by her then husband, spanning 17 years from 1985 to 2003. This book is now used in Tasmania as an information resource for family violence counsellors and students on practicals.
