Would you take shelter from the weather & leave your pet out in the cold?
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A shelter in the Belgian city of Liege has opened its doors to dogs this winter to persuade their homeless owners to come in from the freezing cold.
The city's social welfare agency has agreed to house about eight homeless people with their pets at a local soccer club when it is freezing outside.
Michel Faway, secretary-general of the agency, said the programme started because many homeless people refused to come inside without their dogs no matter how cold it got.
"They have to come to the night shelter in Liege first as we obviously can't have 40 of them," he said. "They are then transported by bus to the space."
The project has been a success. All eight beds have been filled on the nights when the service was offered.
Faway hopes to see the scheme expand to other cities.
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Nope! Like me,it has arthritis!
NO!! Are you kidding me? No, never. That's an irresponsible jerk. We lost power for days and we went to stay with family. Our pets went with us. It was the only way. When we did stay then we made sure we did what we could to keep them warm. Animals know what the cold is.
Why bother having a pet if you are going to treat it so meanly?
The homeless issue that Caitlin brought up - there is more to the eye here. There are many stray animals. At least someone is attempting to care for them. To me it's not a black and white issue. Certainly there are many homeless people (one is too many) that mistreat animals but I know there are some that do the best they can and if it weren't for them then who knows what would happen.
Becoming homeless scares me - I would keep my pets with me. I would do everything I could for them. They would help me get through it should it ever happen. Now if I could get them in a better situation then I would - no question. I would be sure that it was a great situation. No chance.
This is the norm in York. A lot of our homeless people have dogs and the local shelters take them overnight as well. It makes me feel really sad when i see them, so many people without anyone but their dog to love and be loved by - what happened to bring them to this? So many young men around the ages of my sons with nothing or no-one. We have a policy of not giving them money directly in York, they're not allowed to beg but you can take clothing etc to the shelter. A couple of years ago hubby wasn't best pleased to see one of them wearing a quite distinctive leather jacket he'd had for over 20 years but neither did nor could wear anymore! Made me laugh!
No. My dog goes where I go.
I've had to sleep in my car with my puppy once when he was barking and waking up the whole house. And another time I had to stay out in Tornado Warning with the dog trying to get him into my shelter. *I didn't know dogs don't like going into large holes in the ground* I taught him after that and now he faithfully and fearlessly goes with me. He's an excellent guard dog too.
That's nice that they did that for both the dogs and the homeless. It's nice that people really care. Thank you for posting this article :)
I would no more leave a pet out in the cold than I would a child.
Well done to that shelter for offering to take the pets along with the owners...pity that there aren't more willing to do the same.
If I even became homeless, I would take my pets to the animal shelter
That is great news Faith, I would be similar I expect although I would only have my fish to bring with me as the cats would have barged their way in themselves and the fish like it cold!:)
Oh that's a nice story, God love them, my dog won't go out the bk for a pee when its raining, lol :)
I completely agree :). I wouldnt leave my poor dog in the cold :) x x x xx
no way its like leaving your child out side