A man who punches a woman probably kicks the cat too.
That's a sad reality that animal-cruelty investigators and domestic-violence awareness advocates have come to notice in their years in the trenches, and both are lauding a New Jersey state senator's bill aimed at protecting pets caught in the middle of the violence.
"They'll hurt the animal to show what happens if they don't behave," said Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Today, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr.'s bill to include animals in domestic violence restraining orders passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kean said he created the bill because he heard too many stories about "victims of domestic violence who will stay with their abuser for fear of what will happen to their pets."
"Many times an abuser will threaten or hurt a pet in order to gain more control over their victim," Kean said in a news release.
Smith said the correlation between domestic violence and animal abuse is strong and she believes that other states are looking into similar legislation.
"It's another way to hold an abuser accountable," she said.
Stu Goldman, a former chief training officer with the SPCA in New Jersey, said he's been involved in many cases where animal-cruelty charges were the only way to punish an abuser in domestic violence situations where victims dropped charges or refused to testify.
"These tough guys, these idiots, they know they'll go jail for hitting their wife, but they think they won't for whacking their dog," Goldman said. "They resent the pets. They say 'She loves that dog more than me.' "
