Sophie Capshaw-Mack’s idea seems as natural as the fit of a glove. So much so that we can’t help but wonder, why didn’t anyone else think of this before now?
Survivor’s Best Friend is the positive born from a horrific experience. The nonprofit rescues shelter animals and empowers survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Shelter animals need rescue, just as do people who have become the victim of sexual assault and domestic violence. Capshaw-Mack’s belief was the mutual impact of shelter animals and survivors on one another “transforms past traumas into future hope,” the group’s website says. “Sophie hopes to shift the conversation away from the perpetrator and the trauma — itself — to instead focus on the resilience and strength of the survivor.”
The nonprofit got started last year. Three years earlier, Capshaw-Mack was raped and North Carolina law didn’t see her as a victim.
How?
Laws that are something of a head-scratcher protected her attacker. Nonconsensual sex with an incapacitated person is legal if the person willingly got drunk or high. It’s not illegal to drug someone’s drink, either.
Let’s hope the bill passed last week in the House of Representatives makes it through the Senate, gets Gov. Roy Cooper’s signature and goes on the books as soon as possible.
Less than 10 states do not recognize people as victims of sexual assault if their actions led to their incapacitation. And we are the only state where a person cannot revoke consent for a sexual act once it is underway. The House bill doesn’t touch that last part; Sen. Jeff Jackson has filed such a bill in the other chamber, the fourth such effort. The proposed legislation rests in the Senate’s Rules Committee for now.
The bill traces its origin to Leah McGuirk, who last year at a bar took her eyes off her drink just long enough to fish her purse for a wallet. She only finished half the drink, which was drugged in that brief instance. She passed out and had a seizure.
When she filed a police report, she learned she wasn’t a victim.
Rep. Chaz Beasley, a lieutenant governor candidate in 2020 from the Democratic Party, introduced House Bill 393 with 63 other co-sponsors from both major parties in response to McGuirk’s experience. Our Bladen County representative, Republican William Brisson, was part of the unanimous vote of support.
Biscuit is the canine Capshaw-Mack adopted to help her cope. She learned about other survivors with shelter animals, which led to starting Survivor’s Best Friend.
Donations at survivorsbestfriend.org allow dog and cat adoptions free of charge for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. The financial gifts also fund medicals costs for adopted pets to include up-to-date vaccinations, veterinary exams, and spaying and neutering procedures.
Capshaw-Mack and McGuirk were victims. It’s time for North Carolina law to see it that way, too.