These Pet Rescues Support Domestic Violence Survivors
“Why don’t you just leave?”
It’s a question far too many people experiencing domestic violence are asked given how complex and varied the reasons why survivors don’t or can’t leaveopens in a new tab are. One of these many reasons shouldn’t surprise the millions of Americans who have pets, yet often does: pets play a major role in many survivors’ decisions about whether or not to leave their abusers.
Studiesopens in a new tab indicate that up to 48 percent of women say they delay leaving a dangerous situation because they do not know how to keep their pets safe. According to a joint report opens in a new tab between the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the Urban Resource Institute, 97 percent of respondents to a survey of 2,500 survivors said that keeping their pets with them was an important factor in deciding whether or not to seek shelter. Yet only 12 percent of domestic violence programsopens in a new tab can provide shelter for pets. Leaving an abuser is often not just necessary for the wellbeing of human survivors, however, but for their pets, too.
“The research is abundantly clear,” Dr. Mary Lou Randour, senior advisor for the Animal Welfare Institute’s animals and family violence program, tells The Wildest. “There is a significant link between domestic violence and pet abuse.”
Multiple studiesopens in a new tab have demonstrated a link between domestic violence and pet abuse, and a variety of surveys opens in a new tabhave found that between 49 percent and 86 percent of abuse survivors reported that their partners had threatened, harmed, or killed their pets.
“Domestic violence survivors should not be forced to stay with their abusers or abandon beloved pets because they have nowhere else to go,” Dr. Randour says.
Thankfully, two national organizations are working diligently to help survivors with pets, and a number of local organizations are also working within their communities.
National Organizations
SafeHavens Mapping Projectopens in a new tab
Established in 2011 by the Animal Welfare Institute, the SafeHavens Mapping Project is a database of sheltering services that assist individuals experiencing domestic violence in placing their pets out of harm’s way. There are approximately 1,200 entries across all 50 states – searchable by zip code – currently in the database. The entries vary in nature and include entities that provide pet sheltering services, have a relationship with an entity that does, or provide referrals to such facilities.
While “local communities will always be the ones that will identify their local needs, resources, and community partners,” Dr. Randour said, national efforts like this project “ can assist the local communities by providing additional resources, identifying gaps in services at the state and national level, and by providing platforms that allow local safe havens the opportunity to communicate with one another, and to share ideas and resources.”
In addition to the mapping project, the Animal Welfare Institute is currently working on analyzing safe haven “deserts,” or areas in the country that lack local resources for survivors and their pets, so that they can direct funders to where the need is greatest.
RedRover Reliefopens in a new tab
RedRover Relif’s mission is to “bring animals out of crisis and strengthen the bond between people and animals through emergency sheltering, disaster-relief services, financial assistance, and education.” The primary way the organization does so is through grants.
RedRover’s safe housing grantsopens in a new tab, which are grants of up to $60,000, are available to nonprofit domestic violence and animal organizations across the United States. According to RedRover’s website, these grants aim to “remove a barrier to safety” and offer “flexibility” for community-specific responses.
The organization also offers safe escape grantsopens in a new tab, which help families with pets safely escape domestic violence together. The funding is mainly intended to help survivors pay for their pets’ temporary boarding while in a domestic violence shelter.Local Organizations
URINYC PALSopens in a new tab (NYC)
The Urban Resource Institute launched NYC’s first initiative to shelter domestic violence survivors with their pets in 2013. People and Animals Living Safely (PALS) offers pet-ready apartments and services across three of New York City’s boroughs that “allow families and pets to live and heal together in the same secure space,” according opens in a new tab to their website. In fact, PALS Placeopens in a new tab is the first domestic violence shelter in the nation and the only co-living shelter in New York City in which every apartment unit has been designed to shelter pets alongside their families.
Paws for Safety opens in a new tab(Rockland County, New York)
The Center for Safety & Changeopens in a new tab — an organization that offers survivors programs and services in Rockland County — established the Paws for Safety program in 2011 to provide a safe haven for pets of those in residential and non-residential domestic violence and abuse services. The program, which the Hudson Valley Humane Society supports, is free and confidentially houses pets with the goal of ultimately reuniting them with their owners.
Praline’s Backyard (Snellville, Georgia)
Praline’s Backyardopens in a new tab provides cage-free housing, food and veterinary services for the dogs of domestic abuse survivors who are in housing transitions.
Ahimsa House (Georgia)
Emily Christie founded Ahimsa Houseopens in a new tab in 2004 after losing her own pet to domestic violence. The first organization dedicated to helping human and animal domestic violence survivors together started in Atlanta but now serves the entire state. The organization works with vets and boarding homes to ensure that domestic violence survivors’ pets have a safe place to stay while their parents are transitioning to a new, safe living arrangement. While pets are in Ahimsa House’s care, their vet care — including any necessary surgeries or vaccines — are taken care of, as is training for behavioral issues that may have resulted from living in a violent home. Ahimsa House also runs a 24-hour, statewide crisis line, assists in transporting pets, and offers legal advocacy assisting victims list their pets on temporary protective orders.
As of June 2022, Ahimsa House had providedopens in a new tab over 150,000 nights of safe, confidential shelter for pets in need.
Shelter Our Pets (New Jersey)
Shelter Our Petsopens in a new tab primarily serves New Jersey and aims to place the pets of domestic violence survivors in foster homes or at a nearby kennel until they can be reunited with their families. Abuse survivors can reach out to the organization directly, but the process is expedited if they are referred through domestic abuse organizations, shelters and outreach programs or other approved organizations. Every applicant is screened and accepted on a case-by-case basis.
As crucial as the work these local and national organizations do is, much more can be done legislatively to help domestic violence survivors and their pets. The Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Actopens in a new tab, which was signed into law in 2018, was a critical step in the right direction. The act not only broadened the definition of stalking to include conduct that causes a person to experience a reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury to his or her pet but also established a grant program for entities that provide shelter to domestic violence survivors to help house their pets.
According to Dr. Randour, 23 programs have received PAWS funds, which will help establish services where there were none and help others expand, and it’s crucial that Congress continues to provide robust funding for these grants.
Dr. Randour also noted that, on the state level, there are still 13 states that must change their laws to specifically allow pets on protection orders, and/or amend their definition of “domestic violence” to include harming, killing, or threatening to harm or kill a companion animal.
