Who helps the pets of those experiencing homelessness? · Pawrenthood Episode #7 · StreetVet Takeover

um yeah do you say it hurn people are like that that was crazy situation going to be very far back well Street Vet we work with Street Vet in the UK as one of our charity partners and they provide veteranary assistance support to houseless people's pets on the street I love that that's amazing so cool and Jade was the one who started it all she saw there was a need went out there and now there's this huge project of just her and her team's Vision which is incredible current statistics suggest that around 320,000 people in the UK are experiencing homelessness right now of these people it's estimated that one in four have a pet Street Vet is dedicated not only to helping take care of these pets but also to clearing up any miscon perceptions many people have about their owners today we're talking to Jade one of Street vet's Founders my name is Jade stat um I'm a vet I qualified from Glasgow vet scho I started a charity by pure accident um as you do actually I think probably quite a lot of people do they don't intend to set out to do that so you started the street that I did um myself and another vet um called Sam Joseph who I had never met um but we had both randomly called ourselves Street bit um because it's not exactly the most original name let's be honest it kind of says what it does in the tent type thing and yeah so I didn't know him he didn't know me we saw each other on Facebook I'd been going out with a backpack on uh he'd been doing the same what we were trying to do was way bigger than us so we decided that we would kind of join forces um and see what the profession thought of what we were trying to do and yeah just quite overwhelmed with the response that we got what's started as two people with backpacks has certainly grown today the charity has over 600 vet and vet nurse volunteers they spend their free time taking the practice to the pavement in over 17 locations across the UK where do most homeless people get their dogs from yeah it's a it's a common misconception we get a lot of the public who make assumptions that they're getting the dogs to increase sympathy with the public and maybe get more donations that kind of thing but um yeah actually most of the people that we treat they had their dogs before they became homeless so the home they're part of their homeless story there may be part of the reason they actually are homeless because they can't find somewhere with r never considered that no no me neither me neither so I do sometimes when I do talks about this I I put up a slide with six of our dogs on it and actually tell the story behind each dog um because they're so varied but they're also not what anyone expects so like one of the dogs um Belle her owner fished her out of a canal in a plastic bag you know so he says I rescued her she rescued me what would you say to people who have the opinion that homeless people shouldn't have pets yeah it's it's a really common one sadly um you know I've been on the streets with clients and people of walk passing you know are you coming to take that dog away from them they obviously they don't know what they're doing they can't look after themselves why have they got a pet my response to that is what do what do dogs needs you know they need to be fed they need to have water they need to have exercise they need to have company well these dogs have company 24/7 I think it's a very narrow Viewpoint and the people that see it have probably had absolutely no interaction with somebody homeless and a pet to even know what they do um or how they look after them owning a pet when you're homeless is there obviously are benefits but there are also massive barriers like it makes their life so much harder and I think that that's something that people don't realize you know they're actually sacrificing getting into a lot of soup kitchens but also the biggest one is is they can't get into a hostel cuz less than 10% of hostals will take them with their dogs and I can pretty much guarantee you that none of our clients will leave their dog that's right just 10% of UK hostel projects will currently accept pets however research has shown that fewer than 7% of the people experiencing homelessness would give up their dog in exch change for housing through what you do do you think that helping homeless people's pets shows them that care and then inspires them to take care of themselves more I think that there's a massive connection between them keeping themselves sober keeping themselves out of trouble and trying to better their life because of their pain cuz it gives them a purpose it gives them a sense of responsibility so had we had a dog that I met in Grandam um and this dog he was the sheep dog the so the owner had lost his farm and him and the dog were now homeless and um I went to see it because he'd been told or he thought the dog had cancer so I went to see it um on the street and it had two swellings either side of its back end um and he said he' taken it to a vet and the vet said oh we can't do anything it's cancer um I don't know if they examin the dog I have no idea I examin the dog and I was like okay the good news is your dog does not have cancer I said but what your dog does have is something surgical that we need to fix fairly urgently so I contacted a particular amazing specialist called Nick bacon um who used to actually go out and do Street Vet in the street and I told him about this dog and he was like okay find a clinic I'll come and he you know he drove like this is somebody who does like you know he crazy thousand like crazy surgeries you know and so we opened a practice on a Sunday I went in in a nurse went in another vet went in Nick bacon traveled from across you know to come and do this dog and I remember when we took the dog in for the surgery and the owner just around was like I can't actually believe that all of you people are doing this for me he was just like you know like I can't he just yeah he felt like seen you know and important and you know valued and both him and the dog are off the street and now back working um on a farm and he's a sheep dog again amazing you know but that just shows you like people just need other people to believe in them sometimes pets can be a Lifeline for a person who's homeless and Street Vets work to make the right care available is only becoming more and more essential we're so proud to be supporters of Street Vet here at manyet if you'd also like to help head to their website to find out more donate and see what volunteering opportunities are available