Donate
Membership
Get Involved
In 2023, Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell passed a motion calling for animals to be recognised in family violence laws - and the government agreed to work alongside her to make this change.
Then in November 2025, legislation was introduced in the Victorian Parliament which will recognise the abuse or threatened harm of animals as a family violence offence. It also strengthens protections for victim-survivors by enabling courts to include conditions relating to pet ownership, care, and safety in Family Violence Intervention Orders (FVIOs), and supporting victim-survivors to be reunited with their companion animals.
These reforms aim to remove one of the biggest barriers preventing victim-survivors from leaving violent homes: the fear of leaving pets behind.
Protecting animals in family violence situations is a powerful form of early intervention and is a huge step toward protecting every member of a household experiencing violence.
Perpetrators often withhold food, water, and medications from animals, as well as threatening to sell or abandon them. The definition of family violence will be broadened to include these common ways that animals are harmed or threatened, acknowledging the role animals can play in abusive dynamics.
By recognising harm to animals as a form of family violence, these reforms provide an important pathway for earlier intervention and safer exits from violent situations.
This is a significant step forward in ensuring that no member of a household - human or animal - is left unprotected in situations of family violence.
A proud day that we are finally seeing it coming to fruition - demonstrating exactly why we need representatives for animals in our parliaments.
