Sometimes the threat is not only against the person. It is against what they love.
Horses, pets, assistance animals and livestock can become part of domestic abuse: threatened, harmed, withheld, used to monitor a victim-survivor, or made into the reason they cannot leave.
A form of control, fear and entrapment.
A victim-survivor may be making safety decisions to protect more than themselves: horses, dogs, cats, assistance animals, flocks, herds or other dependent creatures. That changes what leaving means and what safety planning has to include.
- Threatening to hurt, sell, give away or kill an animal
- Withholding money for feed or veterinary care
- Controlling access to stables, land or the yard
- Refusing transport, or holding the keys to the lorry or trailer
- Changing ownership records, passports or registrations
- Using animals to force contact after separation
- Making someone believe that leaving means abandonment
In farming and equestrian life, the stakes can be much bigger.
Horses
A horse may be companion, identity, livelihood and financial asset at once. Threats around sale, ownership, livery, transport or veterinary treatment carry enormous weight.
Livestock
Responsibility for animals can make leaving a farm feel impossible, and livestock are tied to the family business, land, income and legal ownership.
Pets and assistance animals
Perpetrators exploit emotional attachment, practical dependence, or worries about whether safe housing will accept an animal.
Money and care
Feed, farrier, livery, insurance, vet bills and transport costs can be controlled or withheld as economic abuse.
Access and surveillance
Yards, microchips, shared accounts, cameras, trackers and routine visits create opportunities for monitoring, contact or intimidation.
Ownership disputes
Receipts, passports, registrations, business ownership and informal arrangements can become post-separation tools of control that need specialist legal advice.
Ask about the animals. The answer may change the safety plan.
Animal-related disclosures can reveal coercive control, economic abuse, stalking, post-separation contact or barriers to leaving. Do not treat them as secondary. Never promise rehousing, fostering, ownership or legal outcomes unless you are authorised to deliver them, and coordinate with domestic abuse, animal welfare, veterinary, housing and legal services as needed.
- Are you worried about what might happen to your animals?
- Who legally owns them?
- Who controls the money for their care?
- Could the person access the yard, field or property?
- Are there trackers, cameras or shared digital accounts?
- Is there somebody trusted who could help with temporary care?
- Home Office Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance recognises threats or violence towards pets and assistance dogs as intimidation and control.
- Controlling or Coercive Behaviour Statutory Guidance identifies using pets to control or coerce victims.
- Domestic Abuse Act 2021 explanatory notes clarify that property within economic abuse includes pets and agricultural livestock.
- Our May 2026 position statement examines how animal abuse in domestic contexts is treated as criminal damage rather than coercive control. Research
Your concern for an animal is not trivial.
If you are experiencing domestic abuse and are worried about your animals, tell your specialist service: animal-related risk matters for safety planning. In immediate danger, call 999. Safe ways to contact us and helplines.
Nobody should be forced to choose between personal safety and the animals they love or depend on.