State Rep. Peter Koutoujian, D-Waltham, is pushing a bill that would allow judges to include pets in temporary restraining orders in domestic abuse cases.
That bill, which he and state Rep. Jennifer Callahan, D-Sutton introduced last year, now sits in the House Ways and Means Committee awaiting approval.
Under the proposed bill, if a judge finds reason to include a pet in an order of protection, then the petitioner would be given exclusive custody of the animal.
Koutoujian said that judges actually now have the power to include animals when issuing restraining orders, but many don't make inquiries about whether there is a family pet.
"So it actually mandates that the judges make an inquiry," Koutoujian said of the proposed legislation.
Koutoujian, a former prosecutor with the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, said he witnessed many cases in which an abuser would use the family pet as a "weapon" to maintain control over a domestic abuse victim so that they would stay in the relationship out of fear for what could happen to the animal.
"I took note of the strong correlation between domestic pet abuse and domestic violence," Koutoujian said.
A study from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, found that 48 percent of battered women will not leave, or will return to a violent relationship due to fear of what might happen to a pet if it is left behind.
"The difficulty is getting people to understand that this is not only protecting animals, but also it protects people," by taking away what could be seen as another reason to stay in an abusive relationship, he said.
The bill passed favorably out of the Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture on Nov. 5.
Similar laws to protect pets are in place in Vermont, Maine and New York.
Koutoujian was honored recently by the Animal Control Officers Association of Massachusetts, which gave him the group's 2008 Impact Award at a reception in Marlborough.
The award is given to a state or city official who has supported animal control officers and their goals of protecting animals and public safety and public health.
Richard Conn can be contacted at 781-398-8004 or rconn@cnc.com.
