Kitty Power Charity Spotlight: The Shade Tree

As recently announced (in this blog) Better Kitty now donates 2% of income to charities in a program called: “Kitty Power”.

Our Kitty Power Charity for the February 2017 donation is The Shade Tree of Las Vegas NV. We selected The Shade Tree because they provide short- and long-term shelter for homeless or abused women, their children, and their companion animals (pets). Our contribution is specifically for their “Noah’s Animal House” in-house pet-boarding program.

Why should a women’s shelter include services for their pets? For some homeless women dogs are critical protectors on the streets. And for many abused women their pets are their sole source of support and comfort. So many women will not accept shelter services unless these animal family members will also be safe.

What choice would you make if asked to make your companion animals homeless so you could get a home? To make this choice even harder, abusers often use threats or even actual harm to pets as a method of control. The thought of leaving a loved animal in the care of an abuser can make leaving feel impossible.

Some shelters, such as The Shade Tree, have faced this issue and now include companion animals in their programs. By supporting this program, in this one shelter, we hope to encourage all women’s shelters to include such care in their programs. We believe shelters which treat pets as an important part of women’s families will result in better outcomes for women.

Companion animals are beloved members of families and deserve to remain with their people, even in times of trouble. Especially in times of trouble!