Source: https://www.wisbar.org/NewsPublications/InsideTrack/Pages/Article.aspx?Volume=11&Issue=6&ArticleID=26927
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 04:20:56+00:00

Document:
A new federal law expands protections for domestic abuse victims with provisions that apply to the victim's household pets, emotional support and service animals.
April 3, 2019 – If you have a pet dog or cat, you most likely can appreciate the strong emotional bond that pet owners have with their furry friends.
Last year in the U.S., we spent over $70 billion on our pets, which signifies the importance we place on our relationship with them.1 Unfortunately, too often, domestic abusers recognize this emotional attachment and exploit and manipulate the victim’s relationship with their pets by causing or threatening harm to the pet.
The PAWS legislation, which passed with bipartisan support and was enacted on Dec. 20, 2018,5 expands federal protections for abuse victims by adding three provisions to the federal codes related to stalking, domestic abuse protection orders, and the restitution a victim of domestic abuse may receive for the past abuse.
com csk dewittross Christopher S. Krimmer, U.W. 1997, is a family law attorney with DeWitt Ross & Stevens S.C., Madison.
The statute also applies if a person travels across state lines with intent to harm, intimidate, or harass and as a result of that conduct “causes, attempts to cause, or would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress” to a person or that person’s immediate family member, spouse or intimate partner.
At least one court has determined that intent, travel, and reasonable fear of injury or death are the only elements of the crime. That is, an ill-intending person need not take further steps beyond traveling with intent to harm to be guilty of interstate stalking, if there is sufficient evidence to support the victim’s reasonable fear of injury or death.
Now, under PAWS, interstate stalking occurs if an individual travels in interstate commerce with intent to kill, injure, harass or intimidate, and engages in conduct that places another person in fear of death or serious injury to that person’s pet. Specifically, the statute applies to pets, horses, service animals, or emotional support animals.
For instance, let’s say Jane Doe wants to leave her abusive partner but the abusive partner emails Jane or calls her cell phone and threatens to hurt Jane’s dog if she leaves, and Jane reasonably fears that her dog would be harmed if she left the abuser. The abuser’s intent could be gleaned from his conduct, including his words.
Because the abuser used an electronic communication system or service of interstate commerce to threaten Jane’s dog, he can be charged with federal interstate stalking. It would arguably not matter that they live in the same state, because the abuser has used an electronic communication system or service in interstate commerce to make threats.
In states that allow a domestic abuse injunction to include protection for a victim’s pet, PAWS imposes criminal penalties for violating the protection order.
Wisconsin defines a “household pet” as “a domestic animal that is not a farm animal … that is kept, owned, or cared for by the petitioner or by a family member or a household member of the petitioner.”12 PAWS specifically includes protections for horses.
Thus, if Jane Doe has moved to Wisconsin from Michigan to escape her abuser and obtains a protection order that prohibits the abuser from coming near Jane or her dog, the abuser violates federal law if he drives to Wisconsin intending to threaten or intimidate Jane, or to hurt her dog.
The federal law also applies if an individual “causes” another person’s pet, horse, service or emotional support animal to travel across state lines (or through Indian country or U.S. territory) by force, coercion, duress, or fraud and such conduct would violate a protection order that prohibits violence, threats, or harassment against, contact or communication with, or physical proximity to the person’s pet.
In addition to these three substantive changes to the federal legislation related to domestic abuse and stalking, the PAWS Act included funding of $3 million annually to be used as grants for programs that provide emergency or transitional shelter and housing for domestic abuse victims with pets.
The PAWS Act recognizes not only the importance of the relationship between people and their pets, but the unique circumstances of how an abuser can manipulate this relationship to force the victim to remain in the abusive relationship. The legislation is intended to not only protect the pet from abuse but to alleviate any concerns the victim may have about the safety of his or her pet in deciding to escape the abuse.
1 American Pet Production Association, Pet Industry Market Size & Ownership Statistics, 2018.
2 Grinberg, Emanuella, A new law aims to help the pets of domestic violence victims, CNN (Dec. 21, 2018).
4 Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (H.R. 2), Section 12502: Protecting Animals with Shelter.
6 See H.R. 909 (2017-18) and S. 322 (2017-18).
7 18 U.S.C. § 2261A(1)(A).
8 United States v. Walker, 665 F.3d 212, 225 (1st Cir. 2011).
9 18 U.S.C. § 2266(11).
11 18 U.S.C. § 2262 (emphasis added).
12 Wis. Stat. § 813.12(1)(c).
13 18 U.S.C. § 2264 (b)(3)(F).
15 Lectures on Ethics (Cambridge University Press 1997).

References: § 2261
 v. 
 § 2266
 § 2262
 § 813
 § 2264