Appeal for dog lovers to help family dogs at risk
Dogs Trust is appealing to dog lovers in Yorkshire to help families with children fleeing domestic abuse, by volunteering to foster a family dog at risk.
Dogs Trust is appealing to dog lovers in Yorkshire to help families with children fleeing domestic abuse, by volunteering to foster a family dog at risk.
According to the NSPCC 1 in 7 children and young people under the age of 18 will have lived with domestic abuse at some point in their childhood and recent stats reveal that roughly two thirds of women living in a refuge had a child or children with them at the time of the survey.
Dogs Trust say pet dogs are often a huge part of these children’s lives and to lose them at such a traumatic time can be devastating.
The animal welfare charity add that most refuges are unable to accept dogs so various reasons, meaning families fleeing domestic abuse often have to make a difficult decision to leave their four-legged friend behind.
The Freedom Project, an innovative pet fostering scheme providing vital support for people fleeing domestic abuse in Yorkshire, aims to help families by placing the dog at risk into the home of a volunteer foster carer who will care for them until they can be safely reunited with their families.
Since the Yorkshire scheme began in 2005, the charity has successfully placed nearly 600 dogs in foster care, helping around 500 families flee an abusive situation. More than 80% of the families helped by the project have children.
Dogs Trust Freedom Project Manager, Clare Kivlehan said,
“A dog can really enrich a child’s life and while it can be heart-breaking for children to be separated from their four-legged friend, the parents and children we help are able to leave an abusive situation, safe in the knowledge that their beloved pet will be well cared for until they are in a position to take them back. With the support of our volunteer foster carers, the Freedom Project has helped hundreds of dogs like Casper by placing them in a temporary foster home.”
“Due to the high demand for our service we are urgently looking for volunteers with experience of caring for dogs, who are at home during the day and can look after dogs for an average of six months. All the dogs’ expenses are covered by Dogs Trust, so this is a particularly rewarding volunteering opportunity for dog lovers who aren’t able to own a dog on a permanent basis.”