Safe Pets mean
Safe Families.

Initially established in 2017, SafePet Ontario became a registered charity in January 2022. To date, we have supported over 450 clients and their pets escape dangerous and harmful situations through our pet-safekeeping service. We are the only organization doing this work across Ontario, and the need is overwhelming.

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Our mission is rooted in academic research on "the link". Data shows that intimate partner violence, child abuse, animal abuse, and elder abuse, tend to co-occur in families. Abusers inflict violence or threats of violence on family pets as a way of punishing, controlling, and coercing their human victims. This causes inter-generational trauma: children see or hear their pet being abused, and the cycle of violence often continues as those children come of age.

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SafePet Ontario doesn't work alone to address these issues. Our organization works collaboratively with a network of like-minded organizations and care providers across the province to ensure comprehensive support for survivors.

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Even with this network of partners, the urgent truth is that the current need for our service is beyond what we can currently address.

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The number of victims of gender-based violence and human trafficking in Canada is increasing year over year, and the pandemic and inflationary crisis have only made these numbers escalate. Consequently, SafePet Ontario is seeing an unprecedented number of applications for our services.

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Safe pets mean safe families.

It's that simple.