SAGE Transition House on the North Shore accepts pets - we have had a "welcome pet" policy for about 18 months and so far it has worked well. We do have pet guidelines including keeping dogs on leash in the common areas of the house and yard (we often have up to 18 women and kids in, right now we have 11 small kids so it can get pretty crazy), humans must take responsibility for animal not the staff, etc. If anyone wants a copy of our guidelines, waiver etc. please call me at the office 604-987-0366. Women needing shelter because of abuse with or without pets can call the Sage crisis line, 604-987-3374.
We have had several dogs (from a Doberman to a tiny terrier), cats, a rabbit, birds, hairless rats and hamsters come in. About the SPCA I tried several times to "link" up with West Van to see if we cd. arrange to have some shelter for animals if we were full or for some reason we couldn't accept a pet but I didn't get any calls back, also tried the District Animal Shelter but no luck there either. If anyone is willing to occaisionaly foster a pet for us for short periods of time we would love to hear from you. We are willing to pay shelter costs and have also provided some vet care which was needed - Cap Vet Hosp. helped us out here. We hear terrible stories of pet abuse and threats to their lives - often women won't leave because they can't take their pet(s)- the Link project is on paper only in most of the province - but there are about four other transition houses in BC that take pets. I think SAGE is the only one in the lower mainland but several other houses are considering taking pets.

Maureen Gabriel, North Shore Crisis Services Society