“A lot of people who have been in an abusive relationship have had pets,” she tells Variety. “I wouldn’t have been able to get through a lot of times without my dog. But then, at the same time … animals can be used as a manipulation and used as a tactic as well. Their lives are then, therefore, put on the line [to] try to hurt someone through an animal.”
In 2014, Sarah obtained a permanent restraining order against her then-boyfriend of four years and Geek Charming co-star Matt Prokop. The court order, which prohibits Prokop from contacting or going within 100 yards of Sarah and her home, also extended to her dog, Barkley Bixley.
Prokop has not publicly commented on the restraining order.
As part of her ongoing advocacy, Sarah is calling to end the silence on domestic abuse. “For thousands of years now, we didn’t talk about it,” she tells Variety.
“The community hasn’t shared enough, I believe. And I feel that if we talk about it more, more women — and men and just human beings in general in abusive relationships — will feel more comfortable to be able to talk about it with their loved ones instead of letting their abuser isolate them from everyone, which is the first thing that they do, so that you don’t have that community. So we have to keep talking about it. It’s really important to be able to help those in need.”
She highlights that the ramifications of domestic abuse continue long after the violence has stopped. She says that post-traumatic stress disorder from abuse can stay “in that abused place of your soul, where you think it’s your fault the whole time and you could have done better, you could have gotten out sooner, you could have told people.”