We treat our pets as much loved members of the family. But would you give yours up for a warm place to sleep? That's the heart wrenching dilemma being forced upon those experiencing homelessness this winter, as only around ten percent of hostels allow pets. Charities are calling on the public so help can be made easier to access.
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00:00 It's so important that we keep these pets with their people. They're often the last
00:08 link that they might have to their former life before they became homeless. They can
00:12 be their only source of companionship and warmth and they're often looking after their
00:17 pets better than they're looking after themselves. We've seen that over and over again. So it's
00:22 very important that they're not marked down as voluntarily homeless because they've got
00:26 a companion.
00:27 Being asked to imagine someone experiencing homelessness may call forward the mental image
00:32 of a person accompanied by a dog. In fact, researchers found pets can be an important
00:37 stepping stone back to independent living, as well as providing vital services such as
00:41 medical and mental health care for the homeless. But out of the more than 2,000 homeless hostels
00:47 here in the UK, only around one in ten provide accommodation for both pet and owner.
00:52 I think the reason that hostels are not accepting pets or historically have not been accepting
00:58 pets is just they've probably had a bad experience. Something has happened and it's just going
01:03 to put them off or they're being told, the computer says no, we don't accept pets without
01:08 actually really looking into what the benefits would be of starting to accept pets but also
01:13 what can be done to help them to do so.
01:16 Latest data reveals there's been a 10% increase in the use of these hostels since 2022. But
01:22 with as many as one in four homeless people having a pet, thousands are being turned away
01:26 at the door. But now Street Vets and Tails.com have partnered to provide more shelters and
01:31 staff the training necessary to be accessible to more people.
01:35 So it's a full support service. So they'll come in and they'll provide training for the
01:39 hostel management and staff on how to accommodate dogs, troubleshooting, answering the kind
01:46 of frequently asked questions of what should I do if X, Y or Z occurs. They'll also provide
01:51 backup support. So free medical care is part of the service with Street Vet. So these dogs
01:56 will be vaccinated, microchipped, you know, flea and worm treatment given, any health
02:01 issues will be looked after. If the owner maybe needs medical care, you know, we can
02:08 offer a boarding service either with boarding kennels or veterinary clinics who are part
02:12 of the scheme as well.
02:14 As it stands, when an owner refuses to give up their pet for a room, they're marked as
02:17 voluntarily homeless. It's an issue many of us can sympathise with, putting ourselves
02:22 in another's shoes. 44% of us would prefer to sleep rough rather than relinquish our
02:28 beloved animals.
02:29 The difficulty, I mean, in terms of if they have a pet is to contact us. So we have obviously
02:34 outreaches in 18 locations across the UK, but we will also help people who are out of
02:40 area if they need support with their pet. In terms of sort of getting off the street
02:47 over the winter, the best thing really is to contact StreetLink, which they basically
02:53 will look to make sure that they locate that person and then try and get them off the street.
02:58 But if they have a pet, I'm not going to lie, it can be more difficult.