A Florida animal shelter is the latest to team up with a national nonprofit crusading to provide homeless people with food for their pets.
The South Lake Animal League, a shelter in Groveland, works with the national organization Pets of the Homeless to gather dog and cat food donations from local businesses and nonprofits. The grub is delivered to food pantries and soup kitchens, where homeless people in the area can collect the items.
“In caring for the homeless man’s dog, they’re caring for the homeless man,” Doreen Barker, league president , told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.
Veterinarian offices and pet stores also have offered to serve as drop-off sites for the pet food.
Nationally, Pets of the Homeless has more than 350 sites that have collected more than 112 tons of pet food for the pets of homeless people.
“These pets have no voice and did not choose their owners,” Genevieve Frederick, Pets of the Homeless founder and president, told the Daily News. “They need pet food to remain healthy, not scraps of human food.”
According to the organization’s website, about 5 to 10% of homeless people have pets, although in some rural areas, the number can be as high as 25%.
“Some of these folks have become homeless during the recession and they will keep their pet even if it means living in a car or motel or on the street,” Frederick said. “Could you choose between a roof over your head or a pet that you have raised and relies on you for his life?”
Another nearby nonprofit, Doglando Foundation, is also operating under the philosophy that homeless people, like anyone else, deserve to have pets.
Founder Teena Patel, who also owns a dog-training facility in east Orange County, said she often pulls her car over when she sees a homeless person walking with a pet, to give them food.
That’s how she met Russell, a homeless man who residents know better as “Santa Claus,” and his dog, “Misdemeanor.”
“Just ’cause you’re homeless don’t mean you cannot have a pup,” Russell said in a video interview with Patel. “Look at this puppy,” he said, pointing to Misdemeanor, a pit bull mix. “He ain’t missed a meal. And he’ll never miss one.”
rmurray@nydailynews.com
