5/14/2014
It's a connection that many people might not know about: 85 percent of women and 63 percent of children seeking shelter from domestic violence report animal abuse in the home.
UNM law students propose animal welfare court

For months now, UNM law students Laura Castille and Amber Macias-Mayo researched the issues and found a connection between animal abuse and domestic violence.
They found that many times in the cases they studied, animals had been used in domestic violence situations as a way to control their victims. They also found many of the suspects in those cases were never prosecuted for animal cruelty.
Macias-Mayo and Castille shared those findings with the State Bar of New Mexico.
"It's not shocking enough to enforce and even prosecute people for acts of animal cruelty," Macias-Mayo said.
That's why the duo believes the Albuquerque metro needs an animal welfare court.
Tucson's Pima County has a specialty court that enforces animal cruelty laws to help protect families.
"It's not just trying to protect our dogs and cats and our home," Macias-Mayo said.
This specialty court would either sentence the suspect to jail or counseling that the suspect would have to pay for.
Macias-Mayo and Castille have learned local judges want to meet with the to talk about possibly bringing a similar court to the metro.
"I'm glad we had the idea and they have the knowledge to just get the discussion going," Macias-Mayo said.
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