Collins, Colleagues Call for $3 Million in Funding to Support Domestic Violence Victims and Their Pets

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined a group of 31 of her colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee leadership, urging them to include $3 million in their proposed Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations package to support victims of domestic violence and their pets. The Department of Justice’s Emergency and Transitional Pet Shelter and Housing Assistance (PAWS) grant program – which was created through the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act that Senator Collins co-sponsored and was signed into law in 2018 – helps provide funding for facilities that harbor survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence, as well as their pets.

“Abusers often threaten or inflict violence on pets as a way to intimidate or exert control over their partners and prevent them from leaving,” the Senators wrote. “This vital grant program helps the federal government ensure that more domestic violence shelters are able to accommodate victims with pets or arrange for third party pet shelter.”

“If anything, the urgent need for program funding has grown during the pandemic, as victims of family abuse have been subjected to prolonged periods of isolation with their abuser; and stressors, such as COVID-19-related job losses and additional child care burdens from school and day care closures, have increased the likelihood of domestic violence incidents,” continued the Senators. “Thank you for your attention to this important matter, and we hope you will agree to provide $3 million in FY22 to help empower victims of domestic violence to escape their abuse.”

Multiple studies have shown that domestic abusers often seek to manipulate or intimidate their victims by threatening or harming their pets, but according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), only three percent of domestic violence shelters across the country accept pets. The ASPCA cited a Wisconsin study that found 68 percent of domestic violence survivors reported their abusers were also violent towards their animals. A similar study found that as many as 25 percent of domestic violence survivors have returned to an abusive partner out of concern for their pet. A separate 2007 study found that as many as one-third of domestic abuse survivors reported they delayed leaving an abuser for an average of two years out of concern for the safety of their pet.

Recent reports have also indicated that domestic violence increased during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of individuals being sheltered at home with abusive partners. Moreover, since the grant program was first funded in 2020, demand from shelters for PAWS funding has consistently outstripped available funds.

In addition to Senator Collins, the letter was signed by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bob Casey (D-PA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Catherine Cortez Mastro (D-NV), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ed Markey (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Tom Carper (D-DE), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Ben Ray Lujàn (D-NM), Tina Smith (D-MN), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).

The full letter can be read here.

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