Fasano: Domestic violence law should include pet abuse

Little Horatio still wears the evidence of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his former owner's son five years ago.

Now going on 8 years old, the Catahoula leopard dog took so many beatings to the head prior to his rescue that he must now sport goggles to avoid bright sunlight. His abuser bludgeoned the dog as a means of manipulating his own mother, then 81 years old.

Both the woman and the dog, who lived in Holiday, escaped their tormenter when the Pasco County Sheriff's office arrested him in 2005. Today, the dog works alongside his current owner, Kathy Cornwell, in her role as a victim advocate for the Pinellas-Pasco Area Agency on Aging.

Little Horatio -- an alias that Cornwell uses to protect the former owner's identity -- has also inspired new legislation proposed to expand the charge of domestic violence to include torment of a family member through the abuse of a pet.

Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said he filed the proposal last Friday at the urging of Cornwell and another victim advocate who works with Little Horatio.

"It's a sad story, this creep who abused the dog to get things from his mother," Fasano said of the dog's abuser, who was ultimately found guilty on a charge of scheming to defraud instead of battery. "Thankfully she's doing fine; she's back with her other sons ... up north. They'd had no idea what was happening down here."

Per Fasano's bill, acts of domestic violence would include physically tormenting, or threatening to harm or kill, the pet of a family or household member. He or she would be able to address the problem in a court injunction, potentially barring the abuser from gaining custody of the animal or even coming near it.

Little Horatio's plight was no anomaly, according to the American Humane Association, which cites a report showing that 71 percent of pet-owning battered women who enter shelters say their abuser had harmed, killed or threatened family pets.

Sixty-eight percent of battered women report violence toward their pets, and up to 40 percent say they feel they cannot flee their abuser out of fear for the safety of their animals.

"It's one of the strongest manipulative tools of intimidation and anger," said Jane Occhiolini, a retired victim advocate and friend of Cornwell's who urged Fasano to file the bill. "This is the kind of thing we're trying to fight."

The senator said he is still looking for a House sponsor.

cwhittenburg@tampatrib.com

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