DOMESTIC ABUSE AND PETS: THANK YOU, SENATOR PETERS

                          

                         DOMESTIC ABUSE AND PETS: THANK YOU SENATOR PETERS

“Federal stalking law to include pets, support animals”

That’s the headline for a front-page article in the December 15 issue of the Detroit Free Press. Michigan U.S. Senator Gary Peters has managed to add a provision to this year’s farm bill. It targets those who threaten to harm or who do harm to a pet, as a way to harass or intimidate a victim of domestic abuse.

With this bill in place, anyone who’s guilty can be looking at up to five years in jail. (Personally, I’m for ten years, but that’s just me.)

Peters’ proposal aims to take away from wife beaters and sadistic boyfriends the leverage they can gain by threatening to go after a pet. Studies reveal that “as many as 25 percent of domestic violence survivors returned to abusive partners out of concern for their pets.”

Without provisions for pets in women’s shelters, victims of abuse must choose between saving themselves, or staying where they least want to be, in order to save their dog or cat.

Thank you, Senator Peters. You get this week’s Golden Leash Award.

Please visit me at  http://www.bwknister.com/

photo credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/KTRSG-4WF4U