Program for pets opens doors for abuse victims

Six years ago, a neighbor spotted a 5-year-old girl in Dorchester digging a small hole in her backyard.

She was burying her dead hamster -- and a family secret. The neighbor asked the child how her pet died.

"I can't tell you, or the other one will, too," she responded.

Police later learned that her mother's boyfriend sexually abused her and threatened her pets to keep her quiet, said Deputy Superintendent Margot Hill of the Boston police.

People aren't the only ones who get caught up in domestic turmoil, Hill said yesterday, joining leaders of a local nonprofit group to announce a recruitment drive for volunteers to provide temporary housing for pets of domestic violence victims while they find a safe place to live.

Noah's Ark Foster Care Program plans to hold an orientation Monday night at the Family Justice Center of Boston for the program, the first of its kind in Greater Boston.

Advocates say abusers sometimes use beloved pets as virtual hostages, to keep the abuse victim from leaving or going to authorities.

In another case, Hill said, a Brockton woman fled with a poodle to a relative's home. The woman's boyfriend, knowing how much the dog meant to her, went to her new residence and threw the dog against the side of the house, killing the animal, Hill said.

"If they're beating their girlfriends or wives or children, the animals are absolutely secondary," said Hill, who leads the family justice division of the Police Department. "The animal means nothing. It's kind of a sociopathic way of thinking."

Sometimes domestic violence victims stay in their troubled homes only because most shelters do not accept pets, Hill said.

"It's their only loving being in a home where there is no love," she said.

The program , funded with $8,000 in private grants, could also tip off police to potential domestic violence cases when the victim does not come forward, but sends a pet for foster care.

Kara Holmquist, the new program's leader, said she hopes the program extends across the state.

In the confidential program, animals will be placed in anonymous foster homes for at least 30 days and possibly longer. Volunteers will be trained in how to take care of someone else's pet and in the dynamics of domestic violence.

The program will pay for the animal's food and veterinary care, Hill said. The program will accept mainly cats and dogs, but will take in other animals if willing volunteers can be found.

Victims will not be told their pet's new location, and temporary guardians will not know anything about the owner. Secrecy is necessary to protect both the animals and the people, Hill said. Eventually, owner and animal will be reunited in a safer home.

Pets can pose health concerns in shelters because the facilities are not equipped to handle animals for an extended period and because a victim can stay for up to 90 days.

Little statistical evidence is available to show whether such pet care programs succeed, said Frank R. Ascione, a psychology professor at Utah State University who has studied animal abuse for two decades.

In two surveys he conducted of women in Utah shelters, about half of respondents reported that their partner had either hurt or killed one of their pets. A quarter of the women said they delayed seeking a shelter because they feared harm to their animals.

Anecdotally, the pet foster programs help, Ascione said.

"There obviously are people who have used it and have found it essentially life-saving for them," he said.