You Shouldn't Have To Choose Between Shelter And Your Pets

If you had to choose between your own safety and your pets’, what would you do?

Thanks to a $50,000 grant, some residents of Orange County's domestic violence shelter, Harbor House, won't have to make that choice.

And not a moment too soon. We're coming up on the one year anniversary of the murder of 50-year-old Karen McGraw of England. She was forced to make that impossible choice: to seek refuge at a domestic violence shelter and loose her dog, or stay. She stayed. And she was murdered for it.

According to American Humane, “between 20% to 40% of battered women are unable to escape abusive situations because they worry about what will happen to their pets or livestock should they leave.” And the Department of Justice estimates that 1.3 million women are victims of domestic violence annually. You do the math. It isn’t pretty.

No one visiting this blog needs to be convinced of the powerful bond that humans and animals share. And I would venture to say that many, if not most, local and state legislators have pets themselves. Given the staggering number of women faced with the impossible choice to escape an abusive situation or continue to care for their pets, I wonder: why are they being forced to choose at all?

Many local shelters and rescues have programs in place to allow victims of domestic violence to board their pets at no cost when they’re admitted to a shelter, and these programs are certainly a step in the right direction, but there aren’t enough of them (though the number has been growing). Given the trauma that prolonged boarding can cause to animals, and knowing the comfort that pets provide to their people, I think there’s a better solution out there. Harbor House found one: the facility they're constructing is adjacent to the shelter, and residents can spend as much time with their pets as they want. But for other shelters? American Humane may have an answer.

The PAWS program (Pets and Women’s Shelters) works with domestic violence shelters on allowing residents to bring their pets with them. Battered women and children get to keep their pets, and pets get to stay with their families that they know and love. Everybody wins.

To help get a PAWS program started at your local women’s shelter, contact American Humane’s Office of Public Policy at (703) 836-PETS (7387) or email PAWSprogram@americanhumane.org. They even offer this helpful pamphlet to get you going.

There are other ways you can help, too. Share Karen McGraw’s story with your local humane society and make sure they allow emergency boarding to residents of domestic violence shelters free of cost. Contact your local and state legislators to urge them to underwrite the cost of said boarding into their budgets since kibble doesn’t grow on trees. And while you’re at it, encourage them to draft legislation that would permit shelter residents to keep their interspecies family intact in a time of great stress and trauma.

No one should have to face Karen McGraw’s choice. Let’s do something to make sure no one else has to.

Photo credit: Gordon Parks