My cousin Katie is the County Manager and attorney for Orange County Animal Control in Florida. One of the projects she is spearheading made the local news (link to video below). She is working with Harbor House, a domestic violence organization, to setup a shelter for pets there. I was surprised to learn of the relationship between animal and spouse abuse. Katie’s project will allow women who are victims of domestic abuse to bring their pets with them to Harbor House.
There are statistics that show some women who are abused at home will not leave if they have a pet. Fearing for the safety of their pet, they stay at home only to endure more abuse. Knowing they can bring their pet along, women are more apt to leave the abusive situation and get help, possibly saving their life and that of their pet.
We are all very proud to hear about the work you are doing with this Katie!
For more information on Harbor House, please visit their site.
The video from WFTV featuring Katie’s project.
This is important and I think its great that you highlight it on your site. I’ll be passing this along as well.
Harbor house has a very good initiative in their hands. Hopefully they can get the 250K they need to get moving on this.
Thanks Oscar. Yeah, I got word of this from my aunt and wanted to pass along the information. I was surprised that battered women will sometimes stick around just to protect their pet. The correlation between spousal and animal abuse is something I just learned as well.