There were devastatingly sad scenes in Monday (August 19)’s episode of Emmerdale, when Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) had to say goodbye to her beloved dog, Piper.
Belle and Piper have been inseparable since Tom King (James Chase) brought her home, officially to be company for Belle in the aftermath of the house being burgled – although Tom staged the burglary himself. And his real motive for getting his wife a dog was to ensure she stayed at home to look after it rather than going back to work.
While Belle and Piper have had the closest of bonds, Tom has frequently used the dog as a weapon against Belle as he continued his campaign of abuse and coercive control against her.
When he thought she was too close to Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson), he kidnapped Piper to make it look as though Vinny had carelessly lost her. After keeping her in the vets’ surgery for a while he played the hero by bringing her back to Belle, claiming he’d ‘found’ her.
When Belle went into a mental health assessment unit after Tom made her doubt that she was controlling her mental health properly, vet Tom drugged Piper to make it seem like the animal was sick, causing Belle to cut short her stay and return home as he wanted.
And on a recent trip to Wales where Belle finally realised the extent of Tom’s toxic behaviour, he tried to punish her by keeping Piper tied up outside and refusing to let Belle go to her.
Last week, in his most heinous act yet, Tom spotted Piper in the road outside Wishing Well, where she was staying while Belle went to Sam (James Hooton)’s birthday party at the Woolpack. He aimed his car straight at the little dog and sped towards her.
Horrific as this was, it sadly reflects the way that abusers can use the beloved pets of their victims as part of the abuse and as a means of exerting control. Emmerdale worked with the charities Refuge and The Dogs Trust in developing this storyline and producer Laura Shaw said, ‘Hearing first hand stories from domestic abuse survivors it’s clearly all too common that domestic abusers will use the family pet as a weapon.’
Viewers obviously found these scenes hard to watch and the show has previously taken the step of releasing behind the scenes footage of Minnie, the dog who plays Piper, showing how she’s treated with ‘nothing but love and cuddles’ when she’s on set.
In this episode Tom and Rhona (Zoe Henry) had been up all night trying to save Piper, with Rhona of course unaware that her colleague was the reason that the dog was badly injured in the first place. When it became clear nothing could be done, Tom broke the news to Belle.
She was, of course, devastated and said her goodbyes to her little friend, before leaving Tom to put the dog to sleep.
In the aftermath, Tom was now in a position to comfort Belle and try to re-establish his place in her life, but as he laid it on a bit too thick she had a sudden realisation that he was the one who’d killed Piper.
Despite Lydia (Karen Blick) insisting it was her fault for not checking the door was closed at Wishing Well, and despite Rhona believing Tom’s story that Belle’s mental health was once again deteriorating, Belle was firm. She absolutely knew what had happened.
Later she confronted him, calling him a ‘sick, manipulative bully.’ She said she could see right through him and knew exactly what he’d done to her.
Despite Tom’s attempts to cajole her and then threaten her, this time Belle was standing firm. She said she wouldn’t regret her words because she was finally done with him. Their relationship – and his abuse of her – was over.
Of course it’s not going to be so easy for Belle to walk away, as Tom has successfully persuaded most of her family and friends that he’s the innocent party who has to deal with Belle’s volatile mental health. He’s also filled her house with cameras and his cruelty to Piper has shown that there’s nothing he won’t do to control Belle.
So when he threatened her by saying, ‘Bring it on – see how that works out for you,’ we’ve got to fear for what might happen next. But we can only hope that, with Belle’s eyes now firmly open to exactly what has been going on, the power balance has finally shifted.
