Shelter to open that will help abuse victims get care for their pets

In Massachusetts, domestic abuse victims with animals can turn to only one for shelter - and it's in Pittsfield. Come January, the Boston area will also have a program to help domestic abuse victims and their pets start new, safe lives. It's the Safe Pets Program by Link Up Education Network.

Heather McCarthy, president of Link Up Education Network, said the program will allow people in violent relationships to be able to leave them safely knowing that care  and safety will be available for their pet.

McCarthy said this program has been worked on since around 2004. "We really need something like this," she said. "A lot of shelters of domestic violence in this area do not take pets and so people in the situations stay in the situation to protect their pets."

A study by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) and Northeastern University found a link between people who commit domestic violence and animal abuse in Massachusetts. The study showed that 71 percent of women in shelters said their abuser had threatened or hurt the family pet as well. "They don't want to leave their pets so they stay and it's a bad situation," said McCarthy.

Seventy percent of the offenders studied from 1975-1976 had a combination of animal abuse crimes as well as other crimes. The crimes ranged from violent crimes (38 percent) to drug crimes (37 percent).

The abuse connection can be also seen in some criminal cases. Pet-abuse.com, a site dedicated to reporting and tracking animal abuse, showed a few criminals with animal abuse in their past. Alison Gianotto, president and founder found the instances. She noted that Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler, put animals in orange crates and shot arrows through the crates as a child. Carroll Edward Cole, who was executed Dec. 6, 1985 in Nevada after he was found guilty of five murders, said his first violent act was strangling a puppy.

A program like Safe Pets will help many people get out of bad situations, including ones where the only victim at that point may have been the family pet, said McCarthy. The Safe Pets program will work with foster families to help take care of the animals for a period of time and then reunite them with their owner, once the owner has had a chance to restart his or her life. McCarthy said that Safe Pets can hold the pet with a foster family for any amount of time, but the owner has to contact the program within 30 days with an update or the pet would belong to the program and would then be handed over to the MSPCA.

McCarthy said she feels this program will be very beneficial to people in the area. "There's not a safe place for these people to put their animals." Although the program has not officially launched, it already has had five emergency calls and were able to successfully place the animals with MSPCA foster families and reunite them with their owners.

Liza Berkowitz, a social worker at the Beth Israel Domestic Violence Support Group, said she thinks the program will be good for Boston. "It sounds like a great idea if it can be maintained. Pets can be really important and if there is no way to take their pet or if they have to leave it in a dangerous situation, they won't," said Berkowitz.

The Safe Pets Program will indeed be the only shelter like it in the Boston area. There are, however, shelters like it in other parts of the country. Lollypop Farms is an animal shelter in Rochester, N.Y. that is similar to Safe Pets and has been successful in helping people. The only difference is that Lollypop Farms houses the animals at its animal shelter and not through foster families.

Gillian Hargrave, Director of Strategic Initiative at Lollypop Farms agreed with McCarthy about the need her program serves. "The clients have nowhere else to go. We are the only ones doing it in the Rochester area," said Hargrave. 

Hargrave was not certain just how many people her program has helped but knows it has been useful to Rochester and the surrounding communities. Like McCarthy, she said she feels many people stay in a bad situation to protect a pet and that the shelter allows them a way out.

San Mateo, Calif., also has another program very similar to Safe Pets, run by the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA. This program operates a bit differently but with the same goal in mind: to help safely relocate people and their pets. The San Mateo program works in conjunction with a domestic violence program.

When people go to the program, "one of the first questions they ask is 'do you have and pets and if so do you need a safe place for them to stay?'" said Scott Delucchi, the group' senior vice president. He noted people have two choices in a situation:  to stay or to leave the animal. But he said his program offers a third choice. "We help about 5 to 15 a year. It's a pretty invaluable service," said Delucchi.

In Boston, McCarthy is hoping to be as useful. While only a few volunteers have signed onto Safe Pets, she expects more during an upcoming information night. Her hope is that they will be able to successfully reunite every animal with every owner that goes through Safe Pets.