Senate approves pet protective orders

DES MOINES -- Victims of domestic violence could ask a court to also place a family pet under a protective order to keep the abuser from causing harm to the family or animal under legislation approved Tuesday by the Iowa Senate.

Senate File 119, which passed 49-0, would expand the scope of judicial restraint in domestic abuse cases to include pets or animals -- action the bill's floor manager said is needed to address a growing problem.

“This bill addresses situations (involving) a particularly powerful and insidious emotional blackmail that may be visited on family members because of threats to a beloved family pet,” said Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames.

“The threat of killing or torturing or otherwise harming, kidnapping such an animal can be very powerful and we should allow our courts to protect our families from this kind of emotional abuse,” he added.

Under the bill now headed to the House, domestic-violence victims could petition the court to require that an abuser stay away from the family's pets or animals. The provision would not apply to farm animals raised for commercial purposes.

A judge could issue temporary and permanent orders granting exclusive care, possession or control of a family pet. The court action also could order an abuser to stay away from the animal and forbid the abuser from “approaching, taking, transferring, encumbering, concealing, molesting, attacking, striking, threatening, harming, or otherwise disposing” of the animal.