Vet P.O.V. Miami’s Camillus House and it’s pet project: caring for homeless people’s pets

July 17th, 2007  

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Heres why I like this idea:

A homeless person with a pet that they have claimed as their own gives them a sense of diginity and comfort. While its been said that many homeless "choose" to be homeless, there are still so many others who would love to have control of the world that spun them upside down. For this type of individual, being able to provide for a helpless aniimal could mean the world. Why should they be less entitled to this sense of self-worth?

As a pet owner who is fortunate enough to have a roof over her head, there are times when money gets tight. Despite how tight the money gets, my cats always get their bowl filled with 3 blends of cat food and every once in a while a "gourmet" can of wet cat food. When everything else goes wrong, the day at work is hell, or I'm not doing great in one of my classes, I always come home to 2 cats that love and adore me --- and definitely depend on me. I get great pride out of being able to give them what they need to not only survive but to live long, healthy, and happy lives. Again, more things go right in my life than go wrong. Flip that statement around for a homeless person and its easy to see how important caring for their precious pet might be the only reason they wake up in the morning.

For both owners with or without a place to rest their head at night, pets can MEAN so much more than chattel property.

As an example, I have 3 ferel cats that come to my back deck for food every morning. Between 6-7 AM. There is a white one, a black one, and a small striped one. The black one is the only one that isn't afraid of me. It has taken a year for the white one to come within 10 feet of me. I normally put the food out, have a cup of coffee and a smoke, and sit down to watch them. What do they mean for me other than an additional responsibility? What do they bring me other than backache from lifting the 20+ pounds of discount food? They mean peace and tranquility a sense of justice in a cruel world. Unless I know that all got their fair share and each one hasn't taken more food then his share, I don't feel right about the day and often find myself putting more food out for the white cat who seems to play the part of the bullied cat. While I didn't acquire these strays intentionally, I don't think my life would be the same without our morning breakfast visits. I know that no matter what, I have to get up by 7 a.m. or there are going to be some very hungry cats who have to go somewhere less safe for their daily meal.

I just can't imagine how these same positive feelings are reaching our homeless. I think they are. :)

Thanks for the topic!

Wendy July 17th, 2007 09:51:00 AM

It reminds me of the people in New Orleans right before Katrina hit. Many of them refused to evacuate because they couldn't bring their pets with them. Pets are part of the family, and that needs to be recognized and dealth with.

zandperl July 17th, 2007 02:13:00 PM

All you have to do is look at the picture with this particular blog and you understand what a pet means to a homeless person.

On the Katrina Front, I would have to agree. I would be hard pressed to leave my pets in my house as it was filling up with water. I'd leave my wallet, important papers, cash, credit cards, jewelry, and electronics before I climbed onto my rooftop without my cats.

Wendy July 17th, 2007 05:34:00 PM

It's not exactly the same thing, but here in Vegas the women's shelter opened an adjacent pet facility about a year ago. They realized that a lot of women weren't leaving abusive situations because they didn't want to leave their pets behind, and so now women coming to the shelter can bring their pets with them. The pets are in a separate building, so people with allergies or fears of animals don't have to be near them, but the pet owners can go to the pet center and feed their pets each day, walk them, spend time with them, etc. I thought it was a wonderful idea, and it's certainly been embraced and supported by the local community. To some people, battered women are a more sympathetic group than the homeless, however, so I can see that doing this in a homeless shelter would be a harder sell.

In the long run, I don't any downside to providing these services for the homeless. Pets may give some people a sense of love/family that they don't otherwise have, and that might encourage them to get back on their feet. And those animals need to go somewhere... why burden a city facility with them, when they have owners who love them and want to keep them? It's kinder to both the human and their pet.

Leigh-Ann July 17th, 2007 08:08:00 PM

That is a brilliant perspective.

It is amazing what human beings value and what they cannot live with out. The womens shelter is a great story and tells how dearly we hold our pets while others don't see them as a necessity of life.

Wendy July 17th, 2007 10:00:00 PM

I've somehow gotten involved with an animal welfare group here in SA that is part-funded by IFAW, so it's a reputable, stable group. They do 90% of their work in what are locally known as squatter camps - mostly unemployed people drawn to cities to find work (but who don't), who invade vacant urban areas by force, and who, according to SA law, after 96 hours, cannot be evicted without a court order and alternative housing (other than under very rare circumstances such as the land being unsafe - JHB, as an ex gold mining area does have places that are likely to either collapse into sinkholes, or that are so poisoned by cyanide from gold-mine tailings that living there is fatal...).

Most squatters build shacks out of whatever materials they can scavenge, and the cheapest of building materials - mostly sheets of corrugated iron. No electricity. If they are "lucky", and the settlement becomes a 'recognised' one, the government might provide a few taps and some communal toilets and showers. No sewers. No roads. No lighting. Mudslides and quagmires when it rains.

These are the places that CLAW (Community-Led Animal Welfare) works, by running informal free clinics from the back of a pick-up. Emphasis on deworming, defleaing and sterilisation. They will collect and return animals for the last of these, and will provide hospitalisation for any serious illnesses. The clinics rely on a paid team of 3 or 4 people, who have the skills to walk around and persuade people to bring their animals across to the van to be treated, and to handle the admin side - generally accompanied by volunteer vets, who often come from all over the world to do some community service work. They also try to assist the community in any way possible - providing food packs, 2nd hand clothing,educational projects and entertainment for the children, and ultimately, aim to have the people who live there managing the project, hence the name.

The most striking thing though, is how many of the poorest people have pets, and how many of them are in reasonably good condition. The publicity tends to focus on the cases of cruelty, or starvation. Granted, there are very few fat animals in most squatter camps, but somehow, people who don't know where their own next meal is coming from, are finding a little bit extra for their pets. They are sharing what food they have, what shelter they have, and a whole lot of love.

Dr Khuly, if Camillus House's project keeps going, I urge you to volunteer your services as a vet, even if it's only for a couple of hours a month. I know you do a lot of extra work already, but working with the poorest of the poor, and seeing how much dignity caring for a pet can gift a man who has nothing else with.....it really is worth it.

I was at Joe Slovo settlement (sideline: there are at least 4 informal 'Slovo' settlements in and around JHB alone, a sardonic reference to ANC and Communist Party hero Joe Slovo, who as his first act as Minister of Housing in the ANC majority government back in 1994, swore blind that no-one would ever be homeless under the "government of the people"....and 13 years later there are more people living below the breadline than ever before) a few weeks ago to fetch a cat who needed ongoing vet treatment, and I had a torn bag of cat food that was supposed to be dropped off somewhere else. The kids there know my pickup now, and quite a few come running to see if I have any wildlife with me - if I do, and it's feasible, I will show them the tortoise or snake or iguana, things many of the younger kids have never seen in books or real-life, and I can try to tell them a bit about the animals. A formally dressed (translation : had been job-hunting) elderly man came over to me, and when he saw the torn bag of cat-food, he asked if it would be possible for him to have a cup or two. I tried to explain that I had to take it somewhere else, and he asked for just a little bit - eventually I thought to myself that I could buy another bag for the other cat ( it was only about $8 for 4 kg's), and I said he could take the whole bag, if he shared it with other people whose cats were also hungry. This old man drew himself up, and said to me 'thank you. I am poor, but today my cat is rich'.

Something like that? Priceless....

P.S. Any young vets or senior vet students interested in a working holiday, where you'll get a whole new world of experience....contact CLAW via IFAW, and come on over. It's not a once off disaster here like a hurricane (although I'm not downplaying how truly awful some of those have been) - we have people, and animals, who'd regard US refugee housing as the height of luxury, and who are stunned when someone from another country takes a few weeks off to work here.

jcat July 25th, 2007 03:33:00 PM

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