[music] Currently, only 17% of domestic violence shelters across the country accept animals.

Here in the state of Florida, we have approximately 73 domestic violence shelters and currently only 18 accept pets.

Most survivors with pets, if they can't take their pet with them, they will choose not to leave because they know what will happen to that pet if they do.

So that is one of the reasons why we are doing what we're doing, because we want to make sure that there are enough safe places for them to leave to.

[music] So I've been in the rescue and shelter world for almost 30 years now, and it's always tugged on my heart.

When owners feel like they have no choice but to surrender an animal to the animal shelter system.

And domestic violence is one of those challenges that we face in the rescue world, because there aren't enough domestic violence shelters themselves that take pets.

So if they want to try to keep their pets safe, they feel the only way is to bring them to an animal shelter to surrender them.

Protecting Paws For Life are 100% volunteers.

We were formed to support domestic violence shelters and becoming and maintaining pet friendly environments.

So we work hand in hand with domestic violence shelters to teach them how to become pet friendly in order to reduce the barriers for domestic violence victims when they are choosing to leave an abusive situation and they have pets at home that they're able to bring their pets with them.

[music] Currently, we have over 12 retail and veterinary partners across the Tampa Bay area collecting donations for us.

So our community will drop off donations to any of those locations.

They will visit us during events and donation drives.

They will drop off at my personal home.

The amount of donations that we get through our partners and through the community has been phenomenal that we've had to spend very little money on donations.

We're just so grateful for that.

[music] And one of the partners that we have is Casa Pinellas.

We not only support their shelter with staff training and donations, we also support their pet pantry at the Family Justice Center as well.

[music] Casa Pinellas is a certified domestic violence agency.

So we offer a variety of programs for survivors of domestic violence.

It runs the gamut from an emergency shelter when people are fleeing domestic violence, to our Family Justice Center, where people can walk in and receive all sorts of case management and support for all sorts of various situations that might be happening in their lives due to domestic or interpersonal violence.

[music] Hi.

It's good to see you.

Come on in.

So how are things going?

Things are going really well.

Protecting Paws For Life has been an incredible partner for us to be able to really serve the needs of survivors.

There's a big link between violence with pets and with humans.

And so in families where we have violence, oftentimes the pets have experienced traumatic situations as well.

And so when survivors are coming into our shelter or our family justice center and they're taking care of their extended family, their pets, um, protecting Paws really helps us to make sure that we're adequately assisting them to take care of those beloved family members.

[music] It can be very difficult for a survivor to leave an abusive situation.

There's lots of power and control tactics that the abuser can use nationally.

They say that it takes a survivor seven times to leave an abusive relationship.

And of course, one of those power and control issues oftentimes is a pet.

[music] My story started about four and a half years ago, I started dating a person who came right out of prison.

He was very institutionalized.

The violence started probably the first week we were together and just spiraled to the point of multiple strangulations.

A lot of hitting in the head and the face.

And I've had surgery because of him.

And it wasn't just physical abuse.

It was also the psychological, you know, the emotional and financial abuse as well.

There were several times where, you know, I said, I've had enough.

I'm just going to pack up and leave.

And I had been alienated from my family and my friends.

He's like, well, where are you?

Where are you going to go?

You have nobody to go to.

Nobody to turn to.

No support system.

And also a big factor was having my cats.

It was where am I going to go with my cats?

The situation that really made me say, okay, it's time to go was when he threatened physical violence against my cats.

Something like a light switch flipped in my head and I said, that's it.

It's time to go.

I'm not just gonna leave my animals with somebody who's been physically abusive to me.

Because if I leave and leave them there, then there's the high probability that he will abuse them.

And I wasn't willing to give them up to a shelter or a humane society because they play an integral part of helping me heal.

And in my healing process.

And plus I've had them since they were kittens.

So we are very attached to each other.

But I had no idea at that time that every other time I tried to leave, that there were shelters that would accept animals.

It's not well known.

[music] It's difficult to even understand that you're in a domestic violence situation oftentimes because it doesn't start with violence.

It starts with power and control, and it develops over time.

And one of those dynamics is threatening abuse or harm to a pet or keeping a pet from the owner.

There's a whole lot of variations that can happen there, but it starts with that power and control and then develops over time, oftentimes into violence.

So it's very hard for people to even understand when those relationships are beginning, that there's some dynamics that could potentially become violent and dangerous later on.

You literally have to rebuild a relationship yourself with your animals, because then it's it's a part trust issue with, say, me, because they're like, why are we in this situation?

Why are you allowing this to happen?

They don't understand that you're not permitting this to happen to yourself, and you're trying to protect them too.

But then they're also afraid.

So they go through their own trauma, um, which, you know, they have to heal from as well.

Trauma affects dogs and cats, very similar to the way it affects children.

So you'll see aversive behaviors start to come out because they won't necessarily tell you what's wrong.

And so being able to be patient and showing kindness and love to these animals is incredibly important.

Routine is really important.

Keeping an environment calm and soft and quiet and learning how to build trust is incredibly important.

So we take our time with these animals.

We just teach them how to rebuild that trust for people.

Usually they are bonded to their human, which is great, but we want them to make sure that they understand that not all humans are bad.

It's such an underreported crime.

We still in our society victim blame and don't talk about the issues.

So survivors feel very isolated.

They feel very alone.

And once we can really help them understand, it's very prevalent.

There's so many people that have experienced it.

I think it'll really start to make a difference in our communities, and we can really start to address the issue in a much broader way.

[music] I like keeping families together.

I think it's important both for the humans and the animals that are facing trauma, to be able to stay together.

When I'm about to have an anxiety attack or a panic attack, one of my cats will run up on my chest and just sit there and purr right on top of me or my other cat.

She will run up and actually need on me, or what we call making biscuits.

Both of them bring certain supports to me when I'm going through certain situations.

But being out of that situation, it's kind of like a huge weight is off my shoulders because I know I'm safe where I'm at, and it's actually helped me restart to rebuild relationships in my life that were important to me and are important to me now.

And I have a really good support team where I'm at.

It's really empowering.

It gives you a lot of fire under you to say, okay, I'm ready to pick myself up.

Like the Phoenix, pick yourself up out of the ashes, out of the fire and just be brand new.

[music] We have a 24/7 hotline.

Somebody can always call Casa Pinellas and talk to an advocate.

Ask questions about what's happening.

You know, is this abuse?

Is this something I should be concerned about?

They can also come in to our Family Justice Center.

We're open 9 to 5 Monday through Friday.

Everybody's situation is completely different in what they need, but we want for survivors to know that we want to be comprehensive and make sure that we provide what they do need so that they can reach safety.

And that means taking care of the whole family, including children and of course, pets.

[music] It's been amazing for me to be able to form and see protecting Paws For Life grow, rescue is near and dear to my heart and being able to help in this capacity, it just means a lot.

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