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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: May 2008

Order protecting duck said to be a legal first

 

MASTIC, N.Y.-- A protective order issued on April 3, 2008 on behalf of a duck named Circles was believed to be a legal first. Ylik Mathews, 21, a neighbor who allegedly shot Circles in the neck with a pellet gun, received the order after pleading not guilty to felony cruelty in Central Islip First District Court. Previously convicted of first degree robbery, Mathews faces up to two years in prison. He was held on bail of $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond.

"To my knowledge, it's the first order of protection for a pet in Suffolk County outside of domestic violence cases," prosecutor Michelle Auletta told Luis Perez of Newsday.

"In 2006, then-Governor George Pataki signed into law a legal provision to include pets in orders of protection," Perez wrote. "The measure was first used when a judge in Queens listed Be Be, a 5-year-old bichon frise, as a party in a domestic dispute."

Maine and Vermont also adopted legislation authorizing orders of protection for animals in 2006. California and Nevada followed in 2007. At least 13 other states have had similar legislation introduced.ANIMAL PEOPLE is aware of protective orders issued to keep people away from specific animals that predate the enabling legislation, but they involved a direct risk to human safety, and were issued chiefly to individuals who developed potentially dangerous obsessions with zoo animals, for example trying to release them or enter their habitats.