Pets in Purple – Highlighting the Intersectionality of Domestic Violence and Pets

By: Kristen Hall, Branch House CCR Specialist

If an emergency occurred in your home that forced you to flee, would you leave your pet behind? More than likely, no. So why should those escaping domestic violence be expected to do the same?

As of 2025, with approximately 66% of households within the United States owning a pet and intimate partner violence impacting over 12 million households annually, the odds of pets being present in the homes where domestic violence is occurring are highly likely.

Animals and pets can often be a barrier to those seeking to flee a domestic violence situation. Pets can often be used as a form of emotional control that the abuser has over the victim. Threats of harm or actual harm to the animal can often prevent victims from leaving their abusive partner. This manipulation, coupled with the lack of resources available to the individual while leaving, can often prolong their decision to seek safety.

Statistics show that one in three women and one in four men experience some form of domestic violence during their lifetime, but currently, only 19% of domestic violence shelters accept pets. That is why having resources, services, and referrals available to survivors leaving with animals is a crucial tool that needs to be made available to survivors. Programs such as Red Rover and Purina’s Purple Leash Project can utilize grant funding to assist local emergency shelters in addressing the financial burdens that accompany victims leaving their unsafe home with an animal—helping to ensure that ALL members of the family remain safe.

Ensuring that all members of the home can escape, both two-legged and four-legged alike, can help empower victims to seek shelter and begin their journey toward healing, something pets are often instrumental in. Animals can provide survivors with a sense of safety and well-being once they are no longer in an active crisis, and they can have long-term benefits in the recovery process.

Throughout October, Branch House will be sharing community pet photos to highlight this often-overlooked connection between survivors and their animal companions.