A family law barrister trying to secure greater protection for pets in domestic abuse cases will be taking her campaign to parliament next week.

33 Bedford Row’s Christina Warner is the founder of Ruby’s Law, a campaign set up this year to get the Family Law Act 1996 amended to include pets in non-molestation orders, occupation orders amended to ensure survivors can keep their pets and the Domestic Abuse Act amended to classify pet abuse as coercive control.

According to research from Refuge4Pets and Dogs Trust, 90% of domestic abuse households report pet abuse and 94% of cases involve pets as a coercion tool. Warner told the Gazette she noticed, when making applications for non-molestation or occupation orders, that victims had stayed in abusive relationships because they did not want to leave their pet. 

Clients would ask the court to include pets in the order, but Warner said: ‘There is nothing in the Family Law Act that would ensure the safety of the pet either as a freestanding victim of abuse or through human victim proxy. Under the current framework, victims could ask but the judge has no obligation to include the animal… there is no explicit provision to protect pets.'

Christina Warner

Barrister Christina Warner with a photo of her cat, Ruby

Source: Christina Warner

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Warner will be speaking about Ruby’s Law next Tuesday at a meeting of the all-party parliamentary dog advisory welfare group. October marks National Domestic Abuse Awareness Month and the meeting will discuss pet protection.

The all-party group says domestic abuse perpetrators ‘identify that special bond people build with their pets and use this to exert control over children, partners or elderly relatives’ but legislation and safeguarding strategies for people ‘often miss the importance that pets have within relationships and families’.

Ruby’s Law is named after Warner’s cat, who died in 2023. Warner said 'small but sassy and fierce' Ruby embodied the strength of survivors. 

Organisations endorsing Ruby's Law include Refuge4Pets, RSPCA, Blue Cross and the Domestic Abuse Alliance. Warner said the campaign has also caught the attention of animal law practitioners and campaigners in Canada, Spain, Ireland, South Africa and the US. Ruby's Law was discussed in Stormont earlier this month.