25.11.25
Reflections on recent developments in the Protect Animals. Protect People campaign
Domestic abuse hurts everyone. It hurts survivors. It hurts children. It hurts friends, neighbours and entire communities. And it hurts the animals who share our homes and our lives, the pets who live in 60% of UK households, and who often provide the only source of comfort when home becomes unsafe.
Within our Protect Animals. Protect People (PAPP) campaign, our mission has always been simple: when animals are protected, people are protected too.
For years, this message has been met with quiet recognition and polite interest. But recently, something has changed. There is, at last, a genuine shift happening.
A Turning Point
This year alone.
- 100% of police forces in England and Wales updated their websites to include the link between domestic abuse and harm to pets.
- The RSPCA followed suit.
- An Garda Síochána in Ireland introduced the message nationally.
- In Kilkenny, Irish ministers publicly engage this month with the Protect Animals. Protect People concept.
The message is crossing borders.
In Greece, a groundbreaking programme training frontline police from Zero Stray Pawject adopted the title “Protect Animals, Protect People” precisely because the evidence leaves no doubt: animal abuse is an early warning indicator of wider coercive control.
This year, The Links Group, pioneers in veterinary safeguarding, created online training for everyone using the same tagline.
And the message has now reached the heart of UK politics, referenced in Parliament, first at APDAWG, and now embedded within discussions on the Crime and Policing Bill.
The momentum is real.
Everybody Hurts, Sometimes
The National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV) has just released a landmark publication:
“Family Pets and Domestic Abuse: Big Data Report 1.”
Drawing on 64,046 witness statements, it confirms what survivors, and frontline workers have said for decades: pets are routinely used as weapons of coercive control.
The report documents thousands of cases where animals were threatened, harmed or killed to terrorise, punish, or silence a victim. It is harrowing, and it is essential reading.
A few anonymised examples illustrate the scale and horror of this issue:
- A perpetrator ran a bath and threatened to drown the family cats.
- A puppy suffered a seizure after being screamed at for prolonged periods.
- A dog was thrown from a vehicle and left in the road.
- A survivor described thinking: “No one’s dying today, and no one’s getting left behind,” as she evacuated her children, dogs and cat.
These are not “animal stories.” These are domestic abuse stories, with animals placed directly in the blast radius of human violence.
And it is why our campaign exists.
Why This Matters
In the report, I offered this reflection, a message I hope continues to resonate across sectors, policy and practice:
“Animals are part of our homes, our communities, and our closest relationships. They offer love and loyalty, yet their suffering too often goes unseen, especially when abusers use them to control or harm victims. As a former senior detective, I recognise that protecting animals is also protecting people. This report from NCDV is an opportunity for public protection that we cannot ignore.”
— Mark Randell, Protect Animals. Protect People (PAPP), Naturewatch Foundation
For survivors, the fear of leaving a pet behind is not a “barrier to leaving.” It is a life-or-death calculation.
As one survivor said: “When Housing said no pets, I went back home. I chose my dog because she’d always chosen me.”
When we remove that impossible choice, we change the trajectory of lives.
Where we go from here
The evidence is clear. The momentum is with us. The conversation is national.
This is why PAPP continues to push for:
- Mandatory police training
- Ruby’s Law – explicit protection for pets in civil orders
- Sharon’s Policy – every organisation to have a domestic abuse policy
- Pet-inclusive refuge and fostering options.
- Veterinary and multi-agency training
Because domestic abuse is never just one story. It is a pattern, and animals are part of that pattern.
Everybody hurts, sometimes. But not everybody is heard.
The PAPP campaign stands for those who cannot speak, for those whose suffering is invisible, for those who are controlled, manipulated, injured, or killed as part of wider domestic abuse.
And for the survivors who risk everything to protect them.
Because when we protect animals, we protect people too.
