Petition · past parliament · Home Office

Introduce a Pet Removal/Protection Order for victims of Domestic Abuse

Closed 317 signatures

What the petition asks

Domestic abusers use threats or actual abuse of pets to control and coerce their human victims to do or abstain from many activities. The fear of what may happen to the pet prevents human victims leaving their abusers, and keeps children quiet about their abuse. Enable the safe removal of pets.
By enabling the safe removal of pets, abuse victims will be encouraged to leave their situation of abuse. Some do leave, but return and are revictimised or put themselves at unnecessary risk. Many services exist to help these victims, but often the victims feel they are alone in their experience, and think people will ignore them or laugh at them for putting such a high importance on a much loved pet. Nor does current animal welfare legislation does not cover this, or all pets.

Timeline

11 Mar 2020 Petition opened for signatures
11 Sep 2020 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 317
Status Closed
Department Home Office
Opened 11 Mar 2020
Closed 11 Sep 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.