Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Standing in the kitchen at the homeless shelter playing with her braided hair, Janae is too young to fully understand why the two dogs she's grown to love can't sleep inside with her.
The 6-year-old looks forward to her family finding a home of their own so the boxers, Chance and Jessie, don't have to sleep outside in her parents' truck.
"We love them. They are our pets. We can't let them go," she said.
The 94-bed shelter, which opened at Segrave and North streets in October, has a dilemma that other more established homeless, domestic violence and family shelters also are facing -- what do to with a family's pets?
The shelter, like others in the area, doesn't allow animals because of health, safety and lack of space. The rule has caused some people to turn down shelter in order to stay with their animals while others find friends or family to care for them temporarily, staff at local shelters say.
The local homeless coalition wants to start a fund to raise money for kennel space when a family goes to an area shelter or treatment program and doesn't want to give up their pets.
"Homeless people shouldn't be forced to choose between getting treatment or shelter and giving up an animal that they love," said Lindsay Roberts, executive director of the Volusia/Flagler County Coalition for the Homeless. "That animal may be the only thing in the world that person has."
Linda Callaghan, executive director of the Homeless Assistance Corp., which operates the new homeless shelter, said maybe area kennels would donate space per month or families with big yards would consider adopting a pet for a short period.
"It's a big issue even going back to (Hurricane) Katrina when people wouldn't leave because they didn't want to desert their animals," Callaghan said. "There's a powerful bond between people and their pets."
Curtis Craig, owner of All God's Creatures kennel in Port Orange, said he'd be willing to work with shelters to temporarily house pets for a discount.
"It's a shame how these poor animals get displaced like this," Craig said.
While some of the shelters refer families to the Halifax Humane Society, officials there said they don't have the room to hold the animals temporarily because they took in more than 16,000 animals last year. Animals dropped off are put up for adoption as long as the animal is healthy and there is room, said Michelle Pari, community relations director for the humane society. Otherwise, the animals would be put to sleep.
Doris Wadd, acting operations manager for the Neighborhood Center of West Volusia, said she tells families outright, "If you really love your animal, you will take it to a no-kill shelter where it can get a new home. Being on the street is not a good place for anybody."
The Neighborhood Center helped find temporary shelter for a family from Tennessee, but they couldn't keep their pet iguana -- now staying with a relative.
"I don't know what we would have done if we didn't have family," said Sasha Carl, 19. "We couldn't afford to keep him or we'd get kicked out."
Janae's mom, Sherry, 33, who did not want her family's last name used, didn't have that option and couldn't give up the dogs, who "are very protective and are part of the family."
The dogs have been with her and her husband, who came here from Georgia, for more than a year before their youngest of four children were born.
"They've grown up together," she said . "The kids are very attached."
Reference:news-journalonline
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