Health, Wellness and Fitness for People & Pets JUNE 2015

The LINK-Letter Vol. 8, No. 5 May, 2015 A monthly report of news from THE NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER f ON THE LINK BETWEEN ANIMAL ABUSE AND HUMAN VIOLENCE www.nationallinkcoalition.org Phil Arkow, Coordinator and Editor SUBSCRIBE – It’s Free!! May is Older Americans Month Coming soon: June 15 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day ANIMAL ABUSE AND… DOMESTIC VIOLENCE New Mexico Approves State Funding for Pet Safe Havens New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez signed S 178 in April in a pioneering program that will appropriate $300,000 to provide temporary safe havens for the animals of domestic violence survivors. The recurring funding – $50,000 per year over six years – will become part of the budget of the Children Youth & Families Department. Funds will be disbursed for service provision to the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Animal Protection of New Mexico’s Companion Animal Rescue Effort (CARE) program. The program is believed to be the first in the nation to provide state funding for pet “safe haven” programs. Michigan Introduces Pet Protection Order Legislation Michigan has become the latest state to introduce a bill that would protect animals from harm or threats of harm by jealous and angry partners in domestic violence situations. HB 4478 would allow courts to issue protectionfrom-abuse orders preventing respondents from injuring, torturing, neglecting, threatening, or removing the petitioner’s animals. The law would apply to current or former spouses, individuals with whom the petitioner has a child in common or with whom there has been a dating relationship, or individuals presently or formerly residing in the same household. The bill was introduced on April 21 with 11 co-sponsors and has been referred to the Committee on Criminal Justice. Michigan last addressed this issue with a bill that was defeated in 2008. A similar bill in the Michigan Senate has potential implications for intimate partner violence as well. SB 28 would make it a crime to knowingly kill, torture, mutilate, maim, disfigure, or poison an animal, or threaten to do so, with the intent of causing mental suffering or distress to a person or to exert control over a person. 1

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