Georgia’s Victims Deserve H.B. 177

Hello! My name is Kyleigh Cook, and I am the Policy Lead for API’s Criminal Justice Center. This year, our Center focused on increasing protections for victims of domestic violence in Georgia, specifically by amending Georgia Code to support victims’ ability to escape their abusers. This spring, I am tracking Georgia House Bill 177 for Dr. Audrey Haynes’ POLS 5010 course, while interning for the Georgia General Assembly.

If passed, H.B. 177 would allow judges to explicitly protect companion animals when granting protective orders to victims of family and dating violence. 41 states, including South Carolina, Tennessee, and Louisiana, already provide explicit provisions for pets in protective orders. 

Family and dating violence situations occur when individuals are emotionally, physically, and/or sexually abused by a household member or an intimate partner. Intimate partner violence (IPV) alone results in the death of nearly 1,300 Americans each year, including 163 Georgians in 2023. 

In addition to inflicting verbal, physical and/or sexual abuse on victims, abusers often use tactics to coerce and control their victims into continuing the relationship. An estimated 3,714,000 Georgians reported experiencing coercive control or entrapment at some point.

In these situations, abusers may exploit victims’ attachments to their pets by harming or threatening to harm household animals. In 2023, the Georgia-based non-profit Ahimsa House, which enables victims to leave their abusers by providing temporary housing for pets, received 3,785 calls from survivors with concerns for their pet’s safety. 

Notably, these concerns are not unfounded. 71 percent of victims entering domestic violence shelters report that their abusers threatened, injured or killed family pets. In 2013, Ahimsa House partners and staff rushed an 18-week-old puppy in their care to the emergency vet, who later determined his owner’s abuser had poisoned him with rat poison. To date, Ahimsa House has provided over 198,000 nights of safe, confidential shelter for pets in need.

H.B. 177 amends Georgia Code § 19-13-4 to allow judges to grant petitioners, “...the care,  custody, and control of any animal owned, possessed, kept, or held as a household pet by either party or by a minor child living in the household or residence of either party.” Additionally, respondents can be ordered to refrain from taking, transferring, encumbering, or concealing a petitioner’s pet(s) and engaging in any conduct that violates Georgia’s animal cruelty laws. 

 In some cases, coercive control serves as the only indicator of relationship abuse before the situation turns deadly. In 20 percent of domestic homicides, victims did not experience physical abuse before dying at the hands of their partner. Yet, coercive control tactics, such as threatening household pets, are almost always present prior to these acts of deadly violence, suggesting a critical need for early intervention to prevent loss of life.