More Than Property: Why Protecting Companion Animals Is Essential in Domestic Violence Response

Companion animals are sentient beings. Anyone who shares their life with a dog, cat, or other animal already knows this: they feel fear, distress, and pain. They form deep emotional bonds and are highly attuned to the emotional environments around them. While science continues to affirm this reality, many legal systems still classify companion animals primarily as property.

This distinction is not just semantic — it has real-world consequences, particularly in the context of domestic and family violence (DFV).

The Hidden Role of Pets in Coercive Control

Domestic violence is not limited to physical harm. It is widely understood as a pattern of behaviour designed to control, intimidate, and isolate. Within this pattern, companion animals are often used as tools of coercion.

Research consistently shows that perpetrators may threaten, harm, or even kill pets to exert control over victim-survivors. These acts are not random or isolated — they are deliberate strategies. By targeting an animal, perpetrators exploit the deep emotional bond between people and their pets, creating fear, reinforcing compliance, and discouraging resistance.

Studies indicate that between 48–71% of victim-survivors with companion animals have experienced threats or harm toward their pets by an abusive partner. This is a significant and often under-recognised dimension of domestic violence.

A Barrier to Leaving

For many victim-survivors, concern for a pet’s safety becomes a critical barrier to leaving an abusive situation.

Research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies highlights that individuals may delay escaping violence because they cannot secure safe accommodation for their animals. Faced with the impossible choice between personal safety and the wellbeing of a beloved companion, many stay longer than they otherwise would.

This is where animal-inclusive support becomes essential. Programs that provide crisis accommodation for both people and their pets, or temporary foster care for animals, have been shown to reduce this barrier significantly. They allow victim-survivors to leave without abandoning a member of their family.

Growing Demand for Support

The need for these services is increasing.

Public reporting shows that RSPCA NSW’s Domestic Violence Program assisted 148 individuals and 248 animals between January and May 2024 — a 108% increase compared to the previous year. This surge reflects both growing awareness of the link between domestic violence and animal abuse, and the urgent need for coordinated, compassionate support systems.

Why Legal Recognition Matters

When the law treats companion animals solely as property, it risks minimising the seriousness of harm directed toward them.

Violence against an animal is not equivalent to damage to an object. It is an act that causes suffering and is often used intentionally to manipulate and control another person. Recognising animals as sentient members of the family better reflects this reality.

This shift in perspective has practical implications. It strengthens the case for including pets in protection orders, ensures their safety is considered in crisis responses, and acknowledges the psychological impact of animal abuse on victim-survivors.

Beyond Domestic Violence

While the connection between DFV and animal abuse is well established, harm toward companion animals also occurs in other criminal contexts — such as break-ins where pets are injured or killed.

Recognising animal sentience in these situations reinforces an important principle: harming an animal is not merely property damage. It is a deliberate act of violence with ethical, emotional, and welfare implications.

A Shift Toward Inclusive Protection

Encouragingly, there is growing recognition across Australia and internationally that domestic violence responses must include companion animals.

Practical reforms are already being implemented in some areas. These include:

• Allowing protection orders to cover pets

• Preventing perpetrators from harming or taking animals

• Supporting the safe recovery of animals when someone leaves

• Recognising threats toward pets, neglect, or withholding care as forms of coercive control

Tasmania, for example, has introduced legislation that strengthens the inclusion of companion animals within family violence responses — a step that reflects a broader shift in understanding.

Moving Forward

Domestic violence is about power and control — and companion animals are often caught within that dynamic.

Acknowledging the role pets play in people’s lives, and the ways they can be used to exert control, allows policies, services, and communities to respond more effectively. It ensures that safety planning reflects real-life circumstances, not outdated legal definitions.

Protecting companion animals is not only an animal welfare issue. It is a critical part of protecting people.

When we recognise animals as sentient beings — as members of the family — we take an important step toward more compassionate, effective, and holistic responses to domestic violence.

Because no one should have to choose between their safety and the life of a beloved companion.