from Dogs For Women:

Bridgid Schulte of The Washington Post tells the story of young prosecuting attorney Allie Phillips who was pursuing a domestic violence case in Michigan in the late 1990s.

According to Schulte’s account Allie was ready to go to trial when the victim came to her and said, "I can't do this. He's already killed my dog. I still have two other dogs and a goat. I've got to go back and protect them."


“That was my first awareness that people will go back into abusive situations because of their pets," Phillips explains. Since that day she has become director of public policy at the American Humane Association, which has worked for a hundred years to save children and animals from cruelty, abuse and neglect. And this occurrence has given her the organization to tackle the problems of women, children and pets trapped in abusive situations.


"I thought what if we get the animals out, too?" she said. "Then [the victims] won't be forced to show up in court and recant. If we can get everyone out, why would they ever go back? That could end the cycle of violence."


Phillips came up with PAWS, the Pets and Women’s Shelters Program, a national education campaign to raise awareness about the issue and to encourage shelters to do something about it.
When domestic violence victims with pets consider fleeing abusive homes and there is no safe place to house their pets, they have little choice but to remain in their homes and subject themselves, their children and their pets to continued violence, or to flee and leave their pets behind. Because victims understand the extent of harm that their abusers will likely inflict upon their pets, if left behind, many victims remain in violent relationships.

In their lifetimes, approximately one in four women will be victims of domestic violence. Given that more than 71 million U.S. households include companion animals as pets, it is inevitable that many of those households will experience both domestic violence and animal abuse. In fact, in a study of intentional animal abuse cases, 13 percent involved incidents of domestic violence, 7 percent co-existed with child abuse and 1 percent involved elder abuse.


Studies show that as many as 48 percent of women seeking shelter from domestic abuse have delayed leaving because of a pet. These studies also found that as many as 74 percent of the women who end up seeking shelter own pets. In the United States, people own 61.6 million dogs, 68.9 million cats, 10.1 million birds and 5.1 million horses. And families with children are the biggest pet-owning demographic.

Maintaining the Human-Animal Bond in Times of Crisis
American Humane’s Pets and Women’s Shelters (PAWS)™ Program acknowledges the richness of the bond between people and their pets, which often provide unconditional love and comfort to adult domestic violence victims and their children. For that reason -- as well as for the safety of the pets -- American Humane strongly advocates keeping domestic violence victims and their pets together whenever possible.

The PAWS Program Startup Guide, written by Allie Phillips, J.D., director of public policy for American Humane, provides simple, how-to methods for starting a PAWS Program at a domestic violence shelter and is available on American Humane’s website, www.americanhumane.org. In 2008, American Humane hopes to see 15 PAWS Programs launched across the country, with additional programs added in subsequent years.


Be an advocate in your community!
Visit American Humane’s Pets and Women’s Shelters (PAWS)™ www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=lk_PAWS for more information on what you can do to help abused women with pets in your community. Speak to one or more of the domestic shelters that allow housing of pets on their premises, and find out how they got started with this program.