By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
While working as a prosecuting attorney, Allie Phillips volunteered at her local animal control—and noticed Michigan animal protection laws were not taken seriously, and there were virtually no animal cases in the prosecutor’s office.
“That’s when I started deeply researching how animal abuse links to almost every crime, but is deeply linked to domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse,” she says. “Little did I know that when I started down that path in 2000 it would become my legal specialty that would take me around the country and world to teach others.”
Now an attorney with three decades of experience, and a human-animal interaction legal educator and author, Phillips says her animal law specialty is prosecuting animal abuse.
“Animal law is important because violence to animals often results in violence to people. Violence is violence, whether committed against a two-legged or four-legged being,” she says.
“Animal abuse is often the first signs of trouble. Taking animal abuse seriously can save people and additional animals from future harm. Animal harm unaddressed in communities results in unsafe communities. How we care for animals speaks to how we are as a society. Strong animal protection laws result in safer and stronger communities.
“Because animals are sentient beings just like humans, they are entitled to the protections that people have. Animal law is a wide field that goes beyond animal abuse and neglect laws. When we can protect all animals, including wildlife, that enriches our world.”
A graduate of Michigan State University and cum laude alumna of Detroit Mercy Law, Phillips has written more than 50 legal publications, 10 book chapters, four federally-funded monographs, and two books: “Defending The Defenseless: A Guide to Protecting and Advocating for Pets”; and “How Shelter Pets are Brokered for Experimentation: Understanding Pound Seizure.”
Specializing in the link between animal abuse and family violence, Phillips has conducted hundreds of trainings all across the U.S., as well as in Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Portugal, and Scotland, and has also had thousands of attendees in online trainings across the world.
“There are hundreds of studies that show us that when an offender harms an animal in an interpersonal relationship, it’s a control feature to secure compliance and silence from adult and child victim,” she says.
“If I can kill the dog, I can kill you is the message it sends. We have research that even targeting farm animals and livestock is part of this cycle of violence.”
When Phillips first started studying “The Link” in 2000 and teaching prosecutors, law enforcement, and allied professionals in 2002, it was an emerging field very few were talking about.
Phillips created Sheltering Animals & Families Together (SAF-T) as a solution to Link crimes—the concept coming to her around 1996-97 while prosecuting a domestic violence case. The victim wanted to drop the charges against her husband—who had already killed one dog—and go home to protect her two dogs and a goat.
When Phillips called a domestic violence shelter, the shelter worker laughed and hung up when she mentioned the client would arrive with two dogs and a goat.
“When I get mad, I find solutions. In that moment, it was like the entire concept for the SAF-T Program downloaded into my brain,” Phillips says.
It wasn’t until 2003 when she moved to the Washington, D.C. area to work for the National District Attorneys Association that she started to talk about the need for pet-inclusive domestic violence shelters for women and children.
In 2008, she published the first written guidelines for domestic violence shelters.
In 2010, she named the program Sheltering Animals & Families Together and incorporated as a nonprofit in 2018. Currently, there are about 400 pet-inclusive domestic violence shelters in 49 states and six countries.
“Colleagues call me the Godmother of the Pet-Inclusive Shelter Movement! Never could I have imagined back then that countless human and animal lives would be saved as a result,” she says.
When she served as Vice President of Public Policy for the American Humane Association, Phillips worked extensively on child protection and animal protection federal and state legislation, with a lot of work on pet protective order legislation.
Always an advocate for never having a child victim go through the investigation/prosecution/court process alone, Phillips says that while at American Humane she collaborated with the Animal-Assisted Therapy Division. The team created Therapy Animals Supporting Kids (TASK) and wrote a Manual for criminal justice professionals that explains how to safely incorporate therapy animals with maltreated children.
Phillips was frequently called out on trainings, and she then became Vice President of Human-Animal Strategic Initiatives.
Named a Top Defender of Animals in 2015 by the Animal Legal Defense Fund and honored with the Trail Blazer Award in 2018 from Urban Resource Institute (the largest domestic violence agency in the U.S.), Phillips also co-founded the National Center for Prosecution of Animal Abuse at the National District Attorneys Association where educational information is available.
With 10 healing and wellness certifications, Phillips also is the owner of the Manifested Harmony, created initially to help shelter pets and abused/neglected animals.
Phillips shares her mid-Michigan home with three senior felines—Dobby, Stella, and Rudy.
“Since I have two home-based businesses, they are my CFOs—Chief Feline Officers,” she says with a smile.
Legal News
While working as a prosecuting attorney, Allie Phillips volunteered at her local animal control—and noticed Michigan animal protection laws were not taken seriously, and there were virtually no animal cases in the prosecutor’s office.
“That’s when I started deeply researching how animal abuse links to almost every crime, but is deeply linked to domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse,” she says. “Little did I know that when I started down that path in 2000 it would become my legal specialty that would take me around the country and world to teach others.”
Now an attorney with three decades of experience, and a human-animal interaction legal educator and author, Phillips says her animal law specialty is prosecuting animal abuse.
“Animal law is important because violence to animals often results in violence to people. Violence is violence, whether committed against a two-legged or four-legged being,” she says.
“Animal abuse is often the first signs of trouble. Taking animal abuse seriously can save people and additional animals from future harm. Animal harm unaddressed in communities results in unsafe communities. How we care for animals speaks to how we are as a society. Strong animal protection laws result in safer and stronger communities.
“Because animals are sentient beings just like humans, they are entitled to the protections that people have. Animal law is a wide field that goes beyond animal abuse and neglect laws. When we can protect all animals, including wildlife, that enriches our world.”
A graduate of Michigan State University and cum laude alumna of Detroit Mercy Law, Phillips has written more than 50 legal publications, 10 book chapters, four federally-funded monographs, and two books: “Defending The Defenseless: A Guide to Protecting and Advocating for Pets”; and “How Shelter Pets are Brokered for Experimentation: Understanding Pound Seizure.”
Specializing in the link between animal abuse and family violence, Phillips has conducted hundreds of trainings all across the U.S., as well as in Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Portugal, and Scotland, and has also had thousands of attendees in online trainings across the world.
“There are hundreds of studies that show us that when an offender harms an animal in an interpersonal relationship, it’s a control feature to secure compliance and silence from adult and child victim,” she says.
“If I can kill the dog, I can kill you is the message it sends. We have research that even targeting farm animals and livestock is part of this cycle of violence.”
When Phillips first started studying “The Link” in 2000 and teaching prosecutors, law enforcement, and allied professionals in 2002, it was an emerging field very few were talking about.
Phillips created Sheltering Animals & Families Together (SAF-T) as a solution to Link crimes—the concept coming to her around 1996-97 while prosecuting a domestic violence case. The victim wanted to drop the charges against her husband—who had already killed one dog—and go home to protect her two dogs and a goat.
When Phillips called a domestic violence shelter, the shelter worker laughed and hung up when she mentioned the client would arrive with two dogs and a goat.
“When I get mad, I find solutions. In that moment, it was like the entire concept for the SAF-T Program downloaded into my brain,” Phillips says.
It wasn’t until 2003 when she moved to the Washington, D.C. area to work for the National District Attorneys Association that she started to talk about the need for pet-inclusive domestic violence shelters for women and children.
In 2008, she published the first written guidelines for domestic violence shelters.
In 2010, she named the program Sheltering Animals & Families Together and incorporated as a nonprofit in 2018. Currently, there are about 400 pet-inclusive domestic violence shelters in 49 states and six countries.
“Colleagues call me the Godmother of the Pet-Inclusive Shelter Movement! Never could I have imagined back then that countless human and animal lives would be saved as a result,” she says.
When she served as Vice President of Public Policy for the American Humane Association, Phillips worked extensively on child protection and animal protection federal and state legislation, with a lot of work on pet protective order legislation.
Always an advocate for never having a child victim go through the investigation/prosecution/court process alone, Phillips says that while at American Humane she collaborated with the Animal-Assisted Therapy Division. The team created Therapy Animals Supporting Kids (TASK) and wrote a Manual for criminal justice professionals that explains how to safely incorporate therapy animals with maltreated children.
Phillips was frequently called out on trainings, and she then became Vice President of Human-Animal Strategic Initiatives.
Named a Top Defender of Animals in 2015 by the Animal Legal Defense Fund and honored with the Trail Blazer Award in 2018 from Urban Resource Institute (the largest domestic violence agency in the U.S.), Phillips also co-founded the National Center for Prosecution of Animal Abuse at the National District Attorneys Association where educational information is available.
With 10 healing and wellness certifications, Phillips also is the owner of the Manifested Harmony, created initially to help shelter pets and abused/neglected animals.
Phillips shares her mid-Michigan home with three senior felines—Dobby, Stella, and Rudy.
“Since I have two home-based businesses, they are my CFOs—Chief Feline Officers,” she says with a smile.
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