ACT has unveiled a policy to stop abusers weaponising companion animals against victims of family violence.

The party's Family and Sexual Violence spokesperson Karen Chhour announced the proposal at a Pet Refuge facility. It would amend the Crimes Act to create an offence for using animal abuse as a tool of coercion or control in family violence relationships, with a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment.

The policy would also strengthen Protection Orders to stop offenders withholding, selling or disposing of a protected person's companion animal. Police would gain explicit authority and operational guidance to remove at-risk animals to organisations like Pet Refuge or the SPCA.

Under the proposal, police would be required to document pets on family harm reports. Currently, when police respond to a family violence callout, a victim may leave while the animal remains with the alleged abuser.

"Family violence isn't just about physical abuse," Chhour said. "Perpetrators use threats against beloved pets as another way to intimidate and trap their victims."

Research cited by ACT shows abusive partners are almost 11 times more likely to intentionally harm an animal than partners in non-abusive relationships. More than half of victims delayed leaving an abusive relationship due to concerns for their pets' safety.

Pet Refuge founder Dame Julie Chapman welcomed the policy, saying it recognises how abusers exploit the human-animal bond. "Abusers know the bond people have with their pets and deliberately use that bond to threaten, control and manipulate the people they are abusing," Chapman said.

Pet Refuge operates at close to full capacity 98% of the time and is building a second shelter due to demand.

ACT leader David Seymour said current law lacks a specific offence for using threats against an animal to control a person, despite animal abuse itself being illegal. "The kinds of people who are prepared to torture a kitten, sadly, are exactly the sorts of people who will hurt humans as well," he said.

Seymour said the policy has not been discussed with other parties but he expects support. "I would be amazed if there were people in parliament that wanted to sit on the side of abusers of women and pets," he said.

Forty-two US states include pets in protection orders.