I guess when I sort of first
thought about this idea, I kind of expected
kicking and punching and all of those kinds of things.
But the sadistic level of what people come up
with to inflict this kind of abuse
on their pets and the pets of their partners,
has really opened my eyes to what
some people are capable of.
The location of the Pet Refuge
is kept pretty confidential.
We don't want abusers coming to look for pets
to get back at their partners.
Now we're going to go into the dog area.
It is going to get noisy because dogs are very reactive
to people, because of the trauma they've been through,
and also in particular to men as well.
This is one of our residents.
He's been with us for quite a while,
and he is definitely a bit fearful of men.
A lot of safe houses are not set up to take pets.
So for us, it was really
about forming a partnership with Women's Refuge.
We'll take care of the animals
while you're taking care of the women.
In 2019, Women's Refuge conducted
research in partnership with Pet Refuge.
53% had delayed leaving
a violent situation because of their pets.
23% had had a pet
killed by their partner.
But I guess encouragingly,
73% also said that if there'd been
somewhere available like Pet Refuge for their pet to go,
they would have left sooner.
People will do whatever they can to protect their pets
from that abuse.
So, you know, they are really coerced
into doing what the abuser wants.
We've literally had clients
that have waited years for the opportunity to leave
and literally have said to us
that the only reason they've left
is because there was somewhere for their pet to go.
A mother had
bought her son a puppy
and the ex-partner
had come round with his friend
and held a mock court session
to decide whether the child could keep the puppy.
And of course, they decided no,
and so they took the puppy outside
and actually killed the puppy.
Yeah.
We opened in July 2021,
and since then we've helped over 120 pets and their families.
Police have predicted that there will be an increase
of around 35% in family violence over the next
two to three years.
We knew that there was a significant need
for our service.
We probably underestimated how big the need is.
It's a temporary home.
These are very much loved pets,
so their owners really want them back.
We can keep pets for generally up to four months.
In some cases we've had to rehome a small number of pets,
and that is actually due to the huge issue of housing.
It's like, what can we do to encourage
landlords to rent to people with pets?
You know, how do you leave?
There's no housing. Where do you go?
You've got no money.
So it's not as simple as saying to someone,
you just need to leave because there are so many barriers
to that and having a pet is just one of those barriers.
For us this is just
a small part that we can play,
which is making sure the pets are safe.