Columns

Pet care option can ease minds of victims

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published April 22, 2007

People love their pets. Dogs and cats are part of the family.

But sometimes husbands and wives fight like cats and dogs - and their pets get caught in the crossfire. Domestic violence often breeds animal cruelty.

Rosemary Lyons is education coordinator for Pasco County Animal Services. More than a year ago, when she and staff veterinarian Dr. Terry Spencer joined the West Pasco Domestic Violence Task Force, they realized that their expertise dealing with abused animals could come in handy helping abused spouses.

They learned that many women are reluctant to flee if it means leaving behind a pet. And there's no room in a sheriff's cruiser or an abuse shelter for Fido.

They wanted to change that. Lyons and Spencer approached their bosses about setting up an informal arrangement under which Animal Services would provide foster care for the pets of people fleeing abusive relationships. County officials liked the idea, and commissioners recently gave the initiative their stamp of approval.

No money changed hands. Sometimes public safety just requires people who care.

Now, if an abuse victim leaves her home and wants to bring along a pet, she can.

Both the Salvation Army domestic violence shelter in west Pasco and Sunrise of Pasco's shelter in eastern Pasco will arrange for temporary animal shelter - not at the county compound in Land O'Lakes but in private homes of volunteers. Everything will be secure and confidential.

"The victim won't know where the animal is," Lyons said. "We want to have complete safety of that volunteer who's protecting the animal."

This Pasco service is long overdue. For several years, abuse victims in Hernando have benefited from close collaboration between the Dawn Center, which runs a domestic violence shelter, and the Humane Society of the Nature Coast, which provides foster homes for the pets of battered women.

But abused women in Pasco have long had to choose between themselves and their pets.

"We had one situation where the woman wouldn't come into the shelter because of her dog," said Penny Morrill, head of Sunrise. "She wanted to leave, but she was afraid if she left the dog behind, he'd kill the dog."

After domestic abuse counselors made arrangements for someone to care for the woman's dog, "it freed her to get out," Morrill said.

Now, every abused woman in Pasco with a pet has that option.

"You don't have to stay with your abuser because of your pets," Morrill said. "Hopefully, we will keep a lot more women safe."

Not to mention their cats and dogs.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at 813 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 21, 2007, 19:03:45]