'My dog is family': domestic abuse victims and the pets they can't leave

[niyad]

'My dog is family': domestic abuse victims and the pets they can't leave

When abuse causes the breakup of a home, it’s not just the people who suffer. Leaving an abuser is difficult and dangerous, but with a pet it is even harder


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Only one organization in New York allows survivors of domestic violence to stay in shelters with their pets. Illustration: Vin Ganapathy


There was a cat, the man at the shelter tells me, who was put in a microwave. The man was furious at his partner for leaving the house to run errands without his permission. Knowing she was half an hour away, he told her that if she did not return home within the next 10 minutes, he would put her beloved cat in the microwave. The feat was impossible – and the resulting punishment and distress hard to imagine.

Leaving an abuser can be one of the most dangerous times for a victim. But if you have a pet, leaving is even harder. Almost half of abused victims will delay their departure if they cannot bring their animals. And yet, few domestic abuse shelters around the US are able to accommodate pets. In New York City, the Urban Resource Institute (URI), which has been doing so since 2013, is the only one providing such a service in just a couple of its shelters. The need far exceeds services provided, staff say.

Shockingly, given that approximately 65% of American households have pets, URI say they have only identified seven other urban shelters across the US able to accommodate domestic violence survivors together with their animals.

A Pet and Women Safety Act (shortened to PAWS) is currently pending in Congress. If passed into federal law, the legislation, which implicitly links the two issues of pet abuse and domestic violence, would expand protections to pets and victims of domestic violence. It would also, crucially, expand funding for more comprehensively equipped domestic violence shelters.

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http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jun/16/domestic-abuse-survivors-pets