We have all seen (or been) this person who proudly presents in 179 photographs – many of which are very similar – their “baby” with a wet nose and luxuriant hair. You just need to know an owner to understand how much the French are in love with their animals. And although unfortunately, around 100,000 animals are still abandoned each year in France, many people are ready to sacrifice themselves for the well-being of their favorite dog or kitten.
But for some, this sacrifice comes at an extremely high cost. Every year, many battered women are faced with a “heartbreaking choice”: denounce their tormentor and take the risk that their pet will be put in danger, or continue to remain silent. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), battered women take a year longer on average to report the violence they are victims of when they have a pet. Particularly because the vast majority of homes around the world do not accept animals.
A “heartbreaking” choice
“It’s a very important subject,” assures Keri Lewis, executive director of Interval House of Ottawa, a Canadian structure that welcomes women victims of violence, but also their children and pets. “There is a well-established link between violence against animals and violence against women. Many women do not leave their abusive partners for fear that their animals will be abused or killed if they leave them behind. As a result, they are faced with a heartbreaking choice: remain in a dangerous situation for themselves or abandon their animals to someone who could harm them,” she explains.
When women choose to leave their companion despite the fact that no one can safely care for their animal, they expose themselves to retaliation or additional trauma. “The pet of a woman welcomed in our shelter was euthanized by the SPA [canadienne]. Another family unfortunately also lost their animals, killed by the violent man they were fleeing,” testifies Keri Lewis, still marked by these tragedies.
Initiatives around the world
It is for this reason that IFAW set up in 2014 in the Netherlands, in partnership with a Dutch women's shelter, a place where female victims can be welcomed with their four-legged companions. The initiative has since become an independent foundation called Mendoo. On its site, the association, which manages eleven women's homes, campaigns for pets to be recognized as “an integral part of the family in assistance programs for victims of domestic violence”.
In Canada, before the creation of homes to accommodate these companions, Keri Lewis remembers the dismay of the women who contacted her. “I received many calls from women who hoped to escape violence but chose to stay when they learned they could not bring their animals,” she says. Fortunately, several options exist for Canadian women today. Shelters, like the Interval House of Ottawa, where victims can stay with their animals, or animal boarding facilities that take care of them until victims of violence are no longer in emergency accommodation and can therefore , find their animals.
-No option for French women
In France, the National Observatory on Violence Against Women estimated in 2022 at 373,000 the number of women who had been victims of physical, sexual and/or psychological or verbal violence by their spouse or ex-spouse. And we live in a country where more than half of households have a pet.
More than ten years after the IFAW initiative in the Netherlands, homes allowing women to stay close to their animals have emerged in other countries. But none has seen the light of day in France. Here, women who are welcomed into shelters must entrust their animals to relatives or to the Society for the Protection of Animals. When contacted, the SPA explained to us that it did not have a partnership with women's protection associations. To date, no project is underway.
Our file on violence against women
Keri Lewis calls for more establishments to accept animals, around the world and in Canada. “A woman is calling us every week at the moment, she is desperate to get a place with us so she can finally leave, with her animal, the violent situation in which she lives,” she confides. Places therefore remain expensive across the Atlantic, but they at least have the merit of existing.
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