NORTH SOMERSET BRANCH Registered charity number 205284

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Domestic Violence Given A Face (Wednesday 23 August 2006)

A Devon dog has been chosen as the face of the RSPCA PetRetreat scheme, which helps the animal victims of domestic violence.

Staffordshire bull terrier, Petra, who now lives with her new family near Newton Abbott, was taken into the temporary care of the RSPCA as her former owner was fleeing domestic violence inBerkshire. The friendly black and white dog had to have one of her back legs removed after her former owners’ partner broke several places by repeatedly kicking her over a series of month.

PetRetreat fills the gaps left by refuges, very few of which can arrange pet fostering and most of which cannot shelter pets due to health and safety regulations and allergy concerns. Pet owners seeking refuge are usually forced to rely on the kindness of friends when it comes to looking after their pets. If friends can’t step in to take temporary care of the animals, then often a traumatic decision must be reached to give them up for re-homing or have them put to sleep.

For many, leaving home without a safe refuge for their pets is not an option, so they stay in a dangerous situation where they, and often their pets, are subjected to recurring threats and violence. However, pets taken in under the RSPCA PetRetreat scheme will be offered temporary homes with a network of specially selected fosterers until the victim relocates from the refuge. 

Due to the confidential nature of the scheme, it is impossible to name or identify clients that have used the scheme in order to fundraise or appeal for fosterers. So in order to give the scheme an identity. Petra will now become its face and logo and serve as a reminder that with help, their can he a happy ending for animal victims of domestic violence.

Carolyn Southwell, the RSPCA PetRetreat co-ordinator said: “It is common for animals involved in the scheme to be fostered for anything from a few weeks to eight or nine months.

“But when Petra was taken in under and fostered under the PetRetreat scheme it soon became apparent that her owner was going to have an unusually long wait before she and her children could be re-housed.

“For that reason, her owner took the selfless decision that it would be fairer on Petra if she signed the dog over to the RSPCA so she could be found a loving new home.”

The PetRetreat scheme, formerly known as ‘Petsafe’, started in June 2002 as a pilot project working with refuges in Somerset, Bristol and Bath. It has since grown to cover the whole of the South and South West and is due to spread into Wales and the West.

In order to help as many people as possible, more animal fosterers are desperately needed to help care for animals that go through the scheme, like Petra.