A big wag of the doggies.com tail to the Rose Brooks Center for Women in Kansas City for recently changing their “no pets” policy to now allow battered women to shelter at the Center WITH their pets.
According to Susan Miller, Rose Brooks’ CEO, forty percent of battered women with pets stay in abusive relationships in order to protect their pets. The Center is spending $140,000 to add seven kennels, a walking trail and pet-friendly play area.
What led them to change their policy? Oh…just a true canine hero. When his mama was getting beaten with a hammer by her boyfriend, the dog jumped in and lay down on top of the woman. The man continued to swing the hammer, but could only reach the dog. Frustrated, he then threw both the dog and the woman out of a second story window. Sparing the woman’s life cost the dog a couple of broken bones.
The woman and her dog were able to escape despite their injuries, and went straight to Rose Brooks Center, where they were told dogs were not allowed. But the woman was so adamant that her life-saving dog stay with her, they bent the rules. Soon, they made the change permanent.
Hopefully, other domestic violence shelters will follow suit. “They provide so much comfort, and to have to leave that pet behind is so heartbreaking,” Miller said. “It has become abundantly clear that the incredible therapeutic benefits that pets can have on a family greatly outweigh the cost and inconvenience of housing them.”
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
when her boyfriend tried to kill the woman with a hammer, her fearless Great Dane jumped in the way, laying over her body and taking most of the blows until the man threw both of them out of a second story window. The dog suffered multiple broken bones in the attack, sparing his owner’s life in the process.
Despite their injuries, the woman was able to escape with her dog, and eventually made her way to the Rose Brooks Center.