Each year throughout North Carolina, countless victims of domestic violence risk their lives to protect their defenseless animals from harm.

In a nationwide study, more than 71 percent of battered women reported that their abusers harmed, killed or threatened their pets, and more than 75 percent of those incidents occurred in the presence of the women or their children.

Children who grow up in an environment of animal abuse live in constant fear that a beloved family member will be harmed. Children often intervene to protect their mothers and pets from being battered, and some may even allow themselves to be victimized to save their pets from being harmed or killed.

In an effort to stop abusers from harming or threatening to injure pets, Sen. Julia Boseman has introduced Senate Bill 1062. Spearheaded by the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the bill would allow judges to include the animals in domestic-violence protective orders.

A protective order is a legal order issued by a court that requires one person to stop harming, stay away from and/or cease contact with another person or, in the case of SB 1062, that person's pets as well.

We owe it to the countless domestic violence survivors throughout North Carolina to get SB 1062 passed!

Please ask Judiciary II Chairman Fletcher L. Hartsell, Jr., Vice-Chair Austin M. Allran, Vice-Chair Don Vaughan, and Vice-Chair Ed Jones to schedule SB 1062 for a hearing and to vote for its passage.

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