The American Humane Association and Paula Abdul, are joining forces to promote on-site housing for women who are victims of domestic violence and their cats and dogs. The award-winning singer will be the official spokesperson on behalf of the cause and produce a public service announcement that will soon air on You Tube.
The new program called PAWS (Pet’s and Women’s Shelters) is the first national proposal to support on-site housing for pets at shelters. The vast majority of shelters do not currently accept animals. PAWS is the brainchild of Allie Phillips who is the director of public policy for the American Humane Association. As a lawyer she was keenly aware of the worry and fear women have when they must leave behind their beloved pets.
The statistics reveal that 85% of women, who come to a shelter for protection report that the family cats and dogs have been threatened, physically hurt or killed by the abuser. Many women put their own lives in danger and stay in unsafe conditions, just to protect their pets.
This is such great news! Good for Paula Abdul!
It is overwhelmingly the experience of battered women that their abusers threaten, hurt or in various ways mistreat their beloved pets. This is, in fact, one sign that a man is or will eventually be abusive– that he mistreats animals. And yet a battered woman’s pets are such a comfort to her. I get teary thinking about all of the ways and times my animals have comforted me. They sense when I am troubled and come to me, nuzzle my hand, sit beside me. In the case of my beloved Mama Cat, she climbs up onto my chest at night while I am in bed and nuzzles my nose with her nose, all while purring loudly, then she nestles in and we sleep together. Sometimes her support and comfort has been just what I needed and has meant so much to me. I know every woman here who has animals she loves and who love her will relate.
It’s so true that one reason a woman won’t leave an abuser is, she’s afraid for her pets if she does. I’m so glad this is being recognized and, again, that there are efforts underway to protect the pets of abused women and the relationships of abused women and their animals.
Heart
It sounds like an excellent programme.
Hopefully more women will leave the abusive relationship if they can take their pets with them.
This is wonderful in more ways than obvious. It is well known that people donate more to animal shelters and pet causes than they do to battered women’s shelters, homeless shelters, and rape crisis shelters.
So this will pull in those people.
Heh. We kept a big sled dog when we moved to an urban area. After my husband left for work, the dog would climb up on the bed and lay against my back, on top of the covers. At first I didn’t know it wasn’t my husband against my back. Then, ad things came apart in my marriage, when my husband was there, the dog would growl and bare his teeth. This was not a case of a 70 lb half wolf dog being abused. But the husband resented it a great deal. Gradually the dog took to sleeping on the floor on my side of the bed, nuzzling me awake in the morning. Often when I was upset, I would trail my arm over the edge of the bed and the dog would lick my hand.
He died before I really needed him. He often ran loose with feral dogs. I tried to stop him, but when he took the porch with him one day (where he was tethered) I gave up. He and his “pack” were shot by RCMP.
I’m so glad to hear this. This is so overdue.
Animal companions are the great heros and heroines to women. When human men exude evil, cats and dogs try to save the women. Good for this program!!
I am currently in the process of becoming an approved foster home for the DV victims of the shelter I volunteer at. I totally sympathize with this situation–my animals are my world. Often times they are the only love women have in these situations.
Such good news!
Dogs and cats (and, according to some of my friends, birds such as parrots) offer heart-healing love, play, and interaction. We are blessed by them in good times and bad, and battered women need such love. This is a good program.
We also had mice. They are very affectionate, funny, fun, and educational. Sometimes when I would get depressed about my situation, before I could take action, I would sit and watch that little “Ladymouse” every day. She’d come over to the side of her cage and lift her pink nose up to smelll me, then fastidiously clean herself, because we are so dirty compared to mice; then every day all day, clean her home, take whatever bits of hair or fur I offered her and run with them to weave them into and plump up her nest, do her treadmill exercise, run through her tunnels, have a sip of water, a nibble on a nut, and run back down to feed everyone and constantly remove objects she didn’t want in there by pushing them out of the cage. This went on all day. She did it even when “Dickhead” mouse injured her. Shortly afyer that, he mysteriously got injured himself.
But anyway, she inspired me. You can find it in the smallest of places. She also loved to be petted and ride around the house on little shoulders. We lost her once, although we could see her sometimes it was over a week before we caught her at a dish with her favourite treat, a teeny bit of cracker with bacon fat. Some days later I found out what she’d lived on for that week or so. She ate the bottom half of several pages of one of my cookbooks, on the kitchen counter with others, between bookends. She still makes me smile, everytime I open that Canadian Living cookbook.
@Satsuma - I agree with you!
This is great news!