\n<\/p>\n
Annette Bramley fondly remembers her daughter Holly as being family-oriented and a lover of animals. \u201cShe adored anything small and furry, or even not. I mean, she thought orangutans were beautiful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When Holly ended up in a controlling and abusive relationship, her husband, Nicholas Metson, was quick to use this passion against her. He bought Holly a puppy and then tried to kill it by putting it in a washing machine at their home in Lincoln. After it was rescued by Holly, he drowned it in a bath.<\/p>\n
He went on to kill and abuse numerous hamsters, rabbits and guinea pigs over the course of their seven-year relationship. Annette said she thought he used the threat of animal abuse to force Holly to do what he wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think he would stop at animals. I knew the connection between animal abuse and domestic abuse,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen the police came to the door, we knew nothing else could possibly have happened to her. We didn\u2019t suspect a car accident or anything like that; we just said: \u2018What has he done to her?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Holly, 26, was killed by Metson in March 2023 in what prosecutors described as a \u201ctwisted and barbaric\u201d attack, cutting Holly\u2019s body into more than 200 pieces, which were later discovered by a member of the public.<\/p>\n
Bramley is now campaigning for Holly\u2019s Law in her daughter\u2019s memory, to stop prolific animal abusers from being able to acquire more pets, and to raise awareness of the link between animal and domestic abuse.<\/p>\n
She wants to see an animal abuse register and a scheme to allow police to disclose information on animal abuse and neglect to prevent perpetrators acquiring more pets.<\/p>\n
Studies have shown a strong link between pet abuse and domestic abuse, including perpetrators using animals as a coercive control strategy, while analysis by the UK\u2019s national wildlife crime unit found a link to domestic violence and abuse for 27% of all wildlife crime offenders.<\/p>\n
The government said it had commissioned a research project to explore the connection further and that it would work with the veterinary profession to help staff recognise potential signs of domestic abuse through non-accidental animal injuries.<\/p>\n
Bramley said: \u201cI think vets need to be educated on this. If you have an animal that\u2019s regularly being brought in with a broken leg or dislocated shoulder, they should be able to spot the signs and raise concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Randell, a former senior detective and campaigns manager at Naturewatch Foundation, which is backing the campaign, said: \u201cThe whole concept of Holly\u2019s Law is to be able to at least advise those safeguarding organisations where there is animal cruelty within a domestic abuse environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBearing in mind how many domestic abuse cases involve animal abuse, and the fact that 50%-60% of households in the country have a pet, it will make a real difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he wanted to see animal abuse taken more seriously in the conversation around misogyny, and tackling violence against women and girls, arguing that it is a significantly overlooked risk factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an increasing number of young men, predominantly, who are using catapults and slingshots to harm wildlife. We\u2019ve got to shift that culture. It\u2019s about respect for women, but also respect for all living beings and the environment,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if we\u2019re talking about what\u2019s being done in relation to online abuse of people, we\u2019ve got to make sure it includes animals too.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Holly\u2019s case, Metson had a long history of animal abuse from the age of eight, had openly admitted strangling animals and was on the radar of the RSPCA animal-rights charity but had never been prosecuted.<\/p>\n
For Annette, the drive to make change that might protect women from being abused and manipulated in the way her daughter was keeps her motivated.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single day my thoughts were consumed with what happened and how we failed to save her. And with his history, why was he allowed to go on to have more pets?\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019d been harming animals for all these years. What can we do to stop that?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Annette Bramley fondly remembers her daughter Holly as being family-oriented and a lover of animals. \u201cShe adored anything small and furry, or even not. I mean, she thought orangutans were beautiful,\u201d she said. When Holly ended up in a controlling and abusive relationship, her husband, Nicholas Metson, was quick to use this passion against her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[682,3846,680,1575,13721,4611,17605,21262,1388,668,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-49943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-animal","10":"tag-calls","11":"tag-girls","12":"tag-husband","13":"tag-mother","14":"tag-murdered","15":"tag-register","16":"tag-violence","17":"tag-woman","18":"tag-women"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}