Call for pets to gain protection

done...women are less likely to leave the home if they think their animal is at risk.’’

Palmerston North Women’s Refuge manager Danielle Berry said she was ‘‘really pleased’’ to hear about the submission.

‘‘We have had experiences where women will not leave because there was concern for the animals. It’s really distressing for the woman to be away from the animal.’’

Berry said a lot of women ‘‘can’t imagine leaving the animal to suffer the abuse alone’’.

‘‘Part of the tactic of abuse is to attack everything that’s special to a women...to hurt them in any way to get a reaction.

Berry said women had come in with stories about their animals being severely beaten or killed by partners.

She said animal manipulation was done in front of children, which was distressing for both mother and child.

‘‘Animals are a part of your family and for some women that’s all they have, so to know that there protected as well would put them at more at ease.’’

Under the Animal Welfare Act, if an animal was being abused then people could intervene, but Irvine said that was ‘‘ambulance at the bottom of the cliff stuff’’. ‘‘What we want is prevention.’’ Irvine said they had proposed to amend the legal definition of domestic violence to include ‘coercive control’, which covers emotional and psychological abuse to harm the family pet, or larger animals if applicable.

They also wanted protection orders to explicitly include animals to protect them from abuse. ‘‘That can be one of the reasons women in part feel obliged to stay...where restraint orders have been put in place...that doesn’t stop there being violence against pets. ‘‘It’s very, very difficult for a female to remove themselves if there worried about the wellbeing of the animal.’’

If a vet thought a woman was being abused through interactions with the family, they could pass it on to authorities, he said. A flurry of colourful fabric and creativity will be happening during the upcoming school holidays at Palmerston North’s Square Edge Community Arts with art teacher Kate Wilson-Bryant and fabric artist Ron Te Kawa combining forces.

The pair are collaborating for school holiday classes for children aged 7 and upwards, with WilsonBryant teaching screen printing on fabric and Te Kawa helping the kids to sew their designs into their own creation. Wilson-Bryant has recently moved into Te Kawa’s Square Edge studio space and Te Kawa said it would be their first project together.

‘‘Kate already runs successful classes in Feilding so I can learn from that.’’

Wilson-Bryant said it would be a great blending together of skills.

‘‘I love passing the passion on to kids, so they can then just have a go. I just encourage them and let them be themselves and give them the confidence that they can do it. It’s fun working with Ron, we are quite different and that is quite good, we bounce off each other.’’

A print from each child who attends the school holiday lessons will also become part of a quilt that will go on display at Te Manawa and Te Kawa said it will be a great way to showcase the kids’ work.

‘‘It’s cool for the kids to see their work in a space like Te Manawa. I want to make my world better by making the kids of today more onto it.’’

Te Kawa will also be putting on a puppet show, hand-crafted and written by him for the kids.

The school holiday programme will run everyday from September 30 to October 11 from 10am to 1pm. For more information contact Square Edge Community Arts.