Warning: This story contains graphic content.
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story → contain → content
The relationship Louise* had with a man she met through working in the horse racing industry was relatively brief, and never felt substantial.
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she → have → industry
It was “very on-and-off, not overly serious, very hot and cold”, says the 28-year-old.
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old → say → ?
“It got a bit weird towards the end,” she says.
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she → get → end
“He would throw almost tantrums, throw himself on the ground and carry on – I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t like this’.”
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I → throw → this
He also felt slighted that her adored Staffordshire cross, Indie, didn’t like him during the months they were together.
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they → feel → months
“I said, ‘What are you talking about?
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you → say → What
She likes everyone’, but he said, ‘No, she growls at me’,” Louise says.
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Louise → like → me
Louise, who cannot be identified for safety reasons, believed ending the relationship had not caused lasting problems.
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ending → identify → problems
A couple of months later the man messaged her insisting he needed to see her at her home.
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he → message → home
‘You’re not coming over, I’m not even home, for starters’ …
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I → come → starters
There were heaps of messages back and forth of him going, ‘Nope, I’m coming’.”
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I → be → messages
It was later revealed that he probably already knew Louise was not home because he was tracking her electronically.
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he → reveal → her
When she returned home about 9pm with her brother, who was also her housemate, the pair could not find Indie inside or in the dark yard.
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pair → return → yard
Louise noticed blood, but thought Indie and the other dog in the home had caught a bird.
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Indie → notice → bird
She had work at 3am so her brother suggested she leave him to search and get some sleep.
uncertain
she → have → sleep
Louise’s brother woke her about midnight to say he had found Indie in a garden bed at the very bottom of the property.
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he → wake → property
The other dog’s crying had led him to her.
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crying → lead → her
“She was lying there almost perfectly,” Louise says.
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Louise → lie → ?
“She’d been stabbed 12 times.
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She → stab → ?
“When the sun came up, you could see there was blood everywhere, up on the fences, all over the pavement.
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you → come → pavement
My dog was lying so perfectly with this massive hole in the back of her neck.”
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dog → lie → neck
Police initially believed burglars had killed Indie with a kitchen knife to silence her.
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burglars → believe → her
But after Louise took her for an autopsy and listened to a CCTV recording from a neighbour’s house the case was recognised as family violence and her ex-partner as the suspect.
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- → take → suspect
Only now, after a four-year court ordeal that led to her former partner serving jail time, can Louise speak to a journalist about what happened.
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what → lead → journalist
She wants to raise awareness about this devastating form of violence.
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She → want → violence
Harming animals is known as a serious warning sign among researchers and in Australia’s family violence sector, but few refuges enable women and children to take pets with them.
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refuges → harm → them
Awareness and momentum is now building around pet abuse and harm as a form of coercive control.
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Awareness → build → control
Ged Kearney, the assistant minister for social services and the prevention of family violence, shared her own experience at the August launch in Canberra of a road map to better protect people and animals from family violence, by not-for-profit Lucy’s Project.
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Kearney → share → Project
Kearney revealed a former partner had killed her cat.
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partner → reveal → cat
Before Indie’s death, it hadn’t crossed Louise’s mind that such things happened: “I didn’t even know that [pet abuse to harm partners or an ex] was a thing.”
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abuse → cross → partners
Killing or harming pets is documented as often a precursor to escalating violence, as happened in the murder of NSW mother Molly Ticehurst.
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Killing → kill → Ticehurst
The 28-year-old childcare worker’s dachshund puppy was killed by Daniel Billings, the man later convicted of Ticehurst’s murder.
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puppy → kill → murder
Detective Acting Sergeant Maddison Steadfast, the Melbourne family violence investigator who took over Louise’s case, says some offenders harm or kill the pets of their partners or ex-partners “purely as a way for them to exert power, control or even jealousy”.
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them → take → power
“In this incident, I can only speculate this was a matter of control,” Steadfast says.
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Steadfast → speculate → control
Louise’s ex-partner was jailed for five months on appeal and was recently released.
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partner → jail → appeal
Monique Dam, the chief executive of Lucy’s Project, says Australia lacks data collection on the incidence of violence against pets in family violence settings.
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Australia → say → settings
Improving its collection is among urgent changes required to better protect them and their owners, who often stay in danger rather than flee without pets.
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who → improve → pets
Lucy’s Project has advocated for 13 years for better recognition of the intersection between animal abuse and family violence.
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Project → advocate → abuse
“For so long it has been overlooked,” Dam says.
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Dam → overlook → ?
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
