State lawmakers say they want to send a message that it is not OK to coerce people by threatening to harm their pets and livestock.

In a conference committee Friday, lawmakers agreed on the language making it clear that the definition of "terroristic threatening" includes a person’s animals.

State law now defines terroristic threatening as making a threat "by word or conduct … to cause bodily injury to another person or serious damage or harm to property."

Senate Bill 2486 includes the words "pets or livestock" after property.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Clayton Hee said he knows of several instances where a threat of harm against animals or livestock was used to coerce another party in a divorce.

"Some people know that the best threats may be to harm a person’s pets or livestock," House Judiciary Chairman Gilbert Keith-Agaran said. "This bill clarifies that law."

The bill received support from the Hawaiian Humane Society and the Humane Society of the United States.

The public defender’s office called the bill unnecessary, saying that animals already come under the definition of property.