Pouring bleach into a fish tank, splashing boiling water over the family dog, poisoning children’s pet chickens with weedkiller – these might sound like scenes from a horror movie, but they are in fact survivor testimonies of women living through domestic abuse in Ireland and the UK.
The horrifying reports highlight a disturbing and still largely unrecognised form of coercive control. As Ireland’s pet population continues to rise and domestic violence services report sustained pressure across the country, experts warn that animals are increasingly being targeted inside abusive relationships – not as collateral damage, but as instruments of fear, punishment and power.
Fiona O’Malley, barrister and chief executive of Sonas Domestic Violence Charity in Dublin, says that accounts like these are increasingly common as frontline services regularly deal with cases in which a devastating tactic is used to terrorise women and children: the abuse of their beloved pets.
‘Women should never have to choose between their own safety and the safety of their pet,’ says Fiona. ‘We support approximately 1,500 women and children every year and across those conversations and interventions, one theme emerges time and again – women are frightened not only for themselves and their children, but also for their animals.
Fiona O’Malley, chief executive of Sonas
‘This is not about elevating pets above people, it is about understanding how abuse functions within families and responding accordingly. When perpetrators target animals, they are targeting women and children too. The harm ripples through the entire household.’
She recalls one particularly disturbing case which highlights how an abuser can exploit the bond between a family and their pet to inflict terror.
‘One of our clients fled her husband after years of abuse,’ she says. ‘When he couldn’t physically harm her, he tried every way possible to mentally traumatise her, including sending her a Snapchat video of him pouring boiling water over the family dog.
‘For many families, pets are not possessions. They are companions, sources of comfort, love and emotional support, especially for children living in frightening and unstable homes.
‘For a woman considering leaving an abusive home, the question is not simply, can I escape? It is often, what will happen to my children? Where will we live? How will we survive financially? And what will happen to the dog sleeping beside my child every night?’
Due to the disturbing rise in such cases, Sonas is calling on the Government to examine the issue as part of future domestic violence reform, warning that Ireland’s legal framework has not kept pace with how coercive control is being enacted inside homes.
‘Under the Domestic Violence Act 2018, courts may consider animal cruelty as a relevant factor but in practice, the protections remain limited and fragmented,’ Fiona says. ‘Pets cannot currently be directly included in safety, protection or barring orders. There is no clear legal mechanism to prevent an abusive partner from harming, removing or withholding an animal as a means of control, nor is there sufficient recognition of the impact that witnessing animal abuse has on children.’
She insists that legislative reform is needed to explicitly recognise threats or harm against pets as coercive control.
‘We believe courts should be empowered to include pets within domestic violence protection orders,’ she says. ‘We also need practical legal pathways that allow temporary protection or transfer arrangements for animals when women and children flee abusive homes.
‘Plus, exposure to animal cruelty should also be recognised as a child welfare issue. Research consistently demonstrates the link between violence against animals and violence within the home. Children who witness abuse against pets experience profound fear, anxiety and trauma.
‘This is not random cruelty, it’s coercive control.’
It’s a torture that Samantha*, a mother of three, knows only too well. She remained in an abusive relationship years longer than she should have because of fear for her pets.
She recalls being assaulted – ‘slapped hard’ – just one week after giving birth, while holding her newborn baby. ‘He didn’t care,’ she says. ‘He would strangle and beat me, often in front of the children.’
She also describes repeated violence against the family’s small dogs, including one incident in which her dog was strangled in front of the children, who were crying and begging him to stop.
The lack of pet-friendly refuge options left her feeling trapped, but eventually, she and her children entered refuge for three months while the dogs were placed in foster care. Her former husband has since been jailed and is awaiting trial.
‘We got to visit them and now we are all together again,’ she says. ‘It broke my heart to leave them but at least I knew they were not going to be killed.’
Jodie* says her former partner, who has since been jailed for a terrifying campaign of stalking and coercive control, also used the threat of her dog’s safety to continually terrorise and psychologically manipulate her.
She shares deeply upsetting videos in which he holds a knife to the dog’s throat while asking her if she really cares about the animal. In another, he lets the dog – which is a restricted breed – out unmuzzled and off-lead, taunting her that ‘he’ll be found soon enough’, knowing that if found by the dog warden, there is a chance he would be destroyed. ‘He knew the effect that would have on me,’ says Jodie, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retribution on her ex’s release from jail.
‘I was terrified he was going to kill him and even though he’s in prison now, I still fear when his sentence is up. I’m not sure that fear will ever leave me.’
A 2021 UK study by Refuge4Pets and Dogs Trust found that almost 90 per cent of domestic abuse households with pets reported animals being abused, while 94 per cent reported pets being used as part of coercive control. These figures are staggering, but they are not surprising to Fiona and those working in the sector.
‘We know many women delay leaving abusive relationships because they fear what will happen to their pets,’ she says. ‘Some are told explicitly that an animal will be killed if they leave.
‘We believe courts should be empowered to include pets within domestic violence protection orders. We also need practical legal pathways that allow temporary protection or transfer arrangements for animals when women and children flee abusive homes.’
Family barrister Christina Warner, who drafted Ruby’s Law in the UK
The good news is the legal push to recognise animals within domestic abuse cases is happening. In the UK, Ruby’s Law has progressed through Parliament and is now the Domestic Abuse (Pets) Bill. Drafted by family barrister Christina Warner, the proposed reforms would explicitly recognise pet abuse as part of domestic abuse, allow pets to be included in protection orders and strengthen powers preventing perpetrators from interfering with animals.
It was while working in crime and domestic abuse cases that Christina – who named the campaign after her beloved late cat Ruby – noticed a disturbing pattern. ‘I was in court regularly making applications for non- molestation orders [protective orders] and I noticed that a lot of my clients would raise the issue of a family pet, or hesitate to raise it because they thought there was nothing that could be done to help them,’ she says.
‘These animals meant so much to families, to victims trying to flee and to children, and yet the courts weren’t acknowledging them. I thought, this can’t be right.’
In one domestic abuse case in her research, Christina recalls how a woman returned home late to find her partner had poured bleach into a fish tank, forcing her to watch the animals die.
In another, a family dog was subjected to violence after running off in a park, with children witnessing the aftermath.
‘We know from academic literature and case studies that victims will stay longer if there is an animal they believe will be harmed, or has been harmed previously,’ says Christina.
She helped launch the Irish version of Ruby’s Law in Dublin on May 5 this year, a campaign which will be led by Fiona and fellow barrister Mariana Verdes.
It is asking Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan to acknowledge that pets are explicitly recognised within domestic abuse legislation and included in protection orders where coercive control is present.
‘We want to create a legal electric fence around the human and the pet,’ says Christina. ‘So that way the perpetrator can’t remove the animal from the victim’s care, because we know that happens as well, we know that animals are being starved, burned, euthanised as a form of abuse.
‘We want occupation orders that creates protection around a particular address to ensure that our victim and pet can remain in the home, because what we also discovered with our research is that a lot of people that have made the colossally brave decision to leave might end up with nowhere to go, as many refuges can’t take animals. So a major objective is to keep a roof over their heads.’
Her sentiment is echoed by Fiona.
‘Last year, Sonas partnered with the NSPCA to provide temporary accommodation for pets while women and children access refuge or safe-home support,’ she says. ‘The initiative has been enormously valuable, but does not address situations where alleged perpetrators retain ownership or control of animals.’
However, she adds that charity partnerships alone can’t solve a legal problem. While the link between domestic and pet violence has been well documented, there’s another chilling correlation that Christina highlights – that of animal abuse and the murder of humans.
‘Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Fred and Rosemary West – we know they started with harming animals and it escalated into killing,’ she says. ‘This has been explored for decades in academia and that’s the argument I make – by protecting these pets, we’re protecting humans.’
Separately, a different UK safeguarding campaign is highlighting this most sinister link, following the brutal killing of Holly Bramley. Holly, 26, was murdered in 2023 by her husband Nicholas Metson in Lincoln after a prolonged history of controlling and violent behaviour.
Holly Bramley was killed by her husband in 2023. He had also tortured and killed her pets
Prior to stabbing her to death in March 2023, Metson subjected her to severe domestic abuse, which included torturing and killing her pets – including drowning a puppy and putting her pet hamsters in a blender. Following the murder, he dismembered her body into 224 pieces and disposed of them in a river. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 19 years.
Following the case, Holly’s mother launched Holly’s Law campaign, calling for animal cruelty disclosure measures so that serious animal abuse is flagged in safeguarding and domestic abuse risk assessments. It’s a separate campaign but both ultimately come down to the same thing – a desperate need for recognition of this type of violence, and for it to be taken seriously.
‘Irish law still does not explicitly recognise pet abuse as a distinct form of coercive and controlling behaviour within domestic abuse, and that gap matters,’ says Fiona. ‘Because what the law names, society recognises. And what society recognises, victims are more likely to report, and institutions are more likely to address.
‘Recognising pet abuse as coercive control will not solve domestic violence,’ she says. ‘But it will close a dangerous gap, strengthen protections for women and children, and bring Irish law closer to the realities victims face.’
Support is available from Sonas Domestic Violence Charity (sonasdomesticviolence.ie) and Women’s Aid (womensaid.ie), which provide confidential support, advice and 24-hour help for women experiencing domestic abuse
