We’re very proud to announce a new partnership with the amazing team at the Rainbow Paws Program! We have recently awarded them a $10,000 grant to help fund their Hotel Bookings program, providing emergency pet boarding for vulnerable members of the community.
The Rainbow Paws program was established in 2016 when it was identified that there was a lack of services available to Canberrans who were struggling to meet the needs of their beloved pets. When an individual is experiencing homelessness, medical or mental health issues or crisis events such as domestic and family violence, they will often discover human service providers are stretched to breaking point. The Rainbow Paws Program was created to provide support for pets and their people during hard times, and help to reduce the stress on owners, human services providers and the pets.
The Hotel Bookings Program provides emergency pet boarding at local kennels for the pets of people who are temporarily unable to care for their animals. This can be due to the pet owners experiencing homelessness, entering a refuge after escaping family and domestic violence, or entering hospital for treatment with no support network to care for their beloved pets.
In Canberra, there is only one homelessness service for women that will consider pets, leaving many pets and their owners in unsafe situations or clients choosing to sleep rough or decline medical treatment to remain with their pet. The Rainbow Paws Program is regularly approached regarding this program from services such as the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, RSPCA ACT, Onelink and social workers within ACT Health and at various refuges.
Sadly, pet owners who are in these vulnerable situations, may have to make the heartbreaking decision to surrender their beloved pet in order to seek assistance for themselves. With local pounds facing increasing numbers of surrendered pets and rescues unable to save all of them, euthanasia of healthy pets is far too frequent. By offering emergency boarding for the pets of people facing tough times, it increases the opportunity to save an animal being surrendered (and possibly euthanised) and helps to keep people and their pets together.
You can find out more about the program here:
https://rainbowpaws.org/hotel-bookings/
We’re very much looking forward to hearing about some of the dogs and their families that this program will assist!
