Pets provide ‘the therapeutic and emotional support that families need’
Student athletes from the Hawkeye women’s basketball and the men’s track and field teams rolled up their sleeves last weekend to help create a space in Johnson County where people fleeing domestic violence can stay with their pets while seeking help.
The athletes were assigned to help the Domestic Violence Intervention Program as part of the annual Hawkeye Day of Caring, during which University of Iowa student athletes serve with nonprofits in the area.
“It’s a good way to get some community engagement. We really like interacting with our community, and our community really appreciates us coming out. Especially after this season, we’re just giving back to all the fans who gave so much to us,” Hawkeye women’s basketball player Addison O’Grady said.
The Domestic Violence Intervention Program has been working since last year to build a new domestic violence shelter, which will feature apartment-style units for families and include 70 beds — 30 more than the current shelter. As part of the project, the shelter will be improving on its pet shelter — Cooper’s House — using $210,000 donated by Greater Good Charities, RedRover, PetSmart Charities and James Investment Group.
The old Cooper’s House — named after a staff member’s dog who died several years ago — was built in 2017 and could hold five animals at a time in two dog kennels and three cat condos. There were weight restrictions on the dogs the shelter could keep, so Cooper’s House currently houses only about 10 dogs per year, according to Alta Medea, director of community engagement for the domestic violence intervention program.
“About 75 percent of our staff have pets, so Cooper’s House is a very dear project to many of our staff,” Medea said.
The Johnson County shelter is the only shelter in Iowa that has an on-site area to keep pets, and the average length of stay for clients and their pets in 48 days, according to Kristie Fortmann-Doser, executive director for the program. The shelter also has kept a pet fund for about 25 years, used to help foster pets that can’t be kept in the shelter and pay for food and medical needs for them.
“What we know about pets is that they are the therapeutic and emotional support that families need,” Fortmann-Doser said. “We always look at what are the barriers that individuals and families face, and how do we break those barriers down? How do we make it easier for individuals and families to get what they need, and the support that they deserve?”
The new shelter will house the animals in individual rooms where families can visit with their pets. The rooms will each be able to hold multiple pets from the same household and will have amenities like a couch, a television and access to an enclosed, outdoor play area. There will be five pet suites in the new shelter. Families will have access to their pet’s suite at any time of day or night.
“They stay in a much healthier space when they can stay in a living room instead of in a kennel,” said Bryna Donnelly, vice president of the programs at Greater Good Charities. “Imagine living in a kennel when you’re used to living on a couch. It’s so much better to keep them in healthy mindset so that when they do get permanent housing, you’re not back to a dog that’s been living in a kennel for however many months.”
According to a news release from the domestic violence program, about 47 percent of domestic violence survivors will delay leaving their abusers if they can’t take their pet with them. Red Rover, one of the nonprofits that’s helping fund the new pet center, has set a goal of making 25 percent of domestic violence shelters in the United States pet-friendly by 2025. About 19 percent of shelters in the United States now have on-site pet programming.
“Communal living is very stressful. It’s like living in a dorm, and you’re already stressed. It’s just really nice for them to have a kind of decompression space with their pet,” Donnelly said. The suites “really are designed to preserve dignity and just look like a home.”
The new shelter will cost $7.2 million and is on track to be finished by the end of July or early August, according to Medea. The program has raised about $6.2 million so far and still is accepting donations for the project on its website.
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
