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Police should be trained in how pets can be used in coercive control cases, according to a charity that found a “troubling gap” in awareness about the links between violence against animals and violence against humans.
A report from the Naturewatch Foundation found that only 60% of police forces in England and Wales teach officers about pets being used as tools of coercion, punishment and manipulation, even though more than half of UK households have a pet.
“As a police officer, you’re more likely to turn up at a household with an animal than not, and there is a very clear link between abuse against animals and abuse against humans,” said Mark Randell, a former senior detective who is a campaigns manager at Naturewatch.
He said there were many instances of domestic abusers “manipulating or punishing an animal” in order to exert more control over their victim.
“It could be to say ‘if you leave me I will hurt your dog or your cat’, for example. Or it could even be setting down the rules about how you’re going to treat that animal, telling someone they’re not allowed to take it out,” he said.
“Survivors often form deep emotional bonds with their pets, particularly in the context of abusive relationships. So a police officer who turns up at a domestic abuse crime scene needs to know how to link that pet to the relationship.”
He has presented the findings of the report, One Response, to Scotland Yard as part of a call for mandatory training for all frontline officers and for more collaboration between domestic abuse professionals and animal welfare experts.
Samantha Billingham, of the Survivors of Domestic Abuse centre, which runs training and support sessions, said there was not enough awareness among professionals about the importance of pets in coercive control cases.
She said: “A lot of people are staying in that situation because of their pets, because there are not a lot of refuges you can take your pets to. In some cases these are dogs and cats that have been in the family for many years.
“And these animals are controlled, they’re abused, violent things happen to them because the perpetrator has to be in control all the time. So this has got to be in the training of coercive control where police forces are concerned.”
Billingham was in an abusive relationship for many years and witnessed how animals could be used for violence and control. “I went to bed one night when my partner didn’t want me to, and a few minutes later he came into the bedroom and he’d actually killed our pet bird. He brought the bird in on the knife to show me,” she said.
Labour’s 2024 election manifesto pledged to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and a strategy is due to be published this summer. Naturewatch said rolling out mandatory training could be a key component.
“The government really needs to embrace this, it’s not new thinking,” Randell said. “We need to start looking at the whole picture, and that includes animals. It’s not going to solve all the problems, but this is happening in case after case after case and opportunities are being missed.”
