P.E.I. needs more pet-friendly housing, say violence prevention advocates

Some domestic violence prevention advocates on P.E.I. want landlords to ease up on rules around pets.

Sometimes victims will refuse help if their pet can't stay with them or will remain in an abusive situation, they say.

"For most people their pet is very much part of their family. They are reluctant to leave their pet behind, just like they would be reluctant to leave a child behind,"Danya O'Malley, executive director of P.E.I.Family Violence Prevention Services, told CBC Island Morning host Mitch Cormier.

"They also worry for their pet's safety they might be worried that their ex may hurt their pet," she said.

The University of Windsor reported in 2017that some form of animal maltreatmentwas present in almost 90 per cent of domestic violence cases.

Sometimes people will use pets for leverage and threaten to hurt them to intimidate a person, said O'Malley.

Some animals seized

Marla Somersall works with the P.E.I. Humane Society and said the organization has witnessed situations like this, with animal protection officers getting called in by RCMP.

"It depends on the situation. If we feel an animal is at risk we do have the option to seizethat animal, but generally we try to work with the family members to try to come up with a good plan that is safe for the animal and safe for the family."

The Chief Mary Bernard Memorial Women's Shelter in Lennox Islandhas a deal worked out with the P.E.I. Humane Society to take animals forup to ten days, but shelter co-cordinator Danielle Annand said some people don't like that option.

"The idea of being separated from their animal makes them very anxious and we've had women decline our services because of that."

No dog houses

O'Malley said often people can make short-term arrangements butthe housing crisis has made finding long-term solutionsharder.

"Finding housing, even if you have no barriers, is very, very difficult."

If landlords were more accepting of petsit would help ease the situation, she said but many landlords worry about pets causing damage.

"We have worked very hard to ensure that all of our spaces are pet friendly. And I urge other landlords to reallytake a look at where the damage comes from. We've had more damage caused by humans than by pets."

O'Malley said pets haven't been a problem in any itsunits.

In November the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported the apartment vacancy rate for Charlottetown dropped to 0.2 per cent, down from 0.9 per cent the year before.

The province is in the process of building 10 units for victims of family violence which will be pet-friendly.

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