Paws Between Homes: Lawyers Help Pet Owners in Crisis
| Publication year | 2023 |
| Citation | Vol. 29 No. 3 Pg. 0040 |
| Pages | 0040 |
GBJ I Feature
Lawyers are helpers, first and foremost—and the beneficiaries of our help may be animals as well as humans.
BY COLE THALER
When Tiffany[1] called Paws Between Homes for help, she had just been served with a Fulton County dispossessory after falling one month behind in rent. She was renting an apartment on Atlanta's Westside where she lived with her dog, a shih-tzu named Rocky.
When Kay, a military veteran, called Paws Between Homes, she was living in a motel room with Charlie, a Pomeranian. Her landlord had sold the home she was renting, and she was waiting for housing help from the Veterans Administration.
And when Tracy called Paws Between Homes, she was living in her car with her dog, a mixed breed named Ladybug, and her cat, Cinder, after an argument led to her roommate demanding they leave.
All three women reached out in a desperate attempt to avoid surrendering their cherished pets to their local animal shelters. And, several months later, all three were able to reunite with their pets in new housing.
Founded in 2019 by attorneys and animal welfare professionals, Paws Between Homes is unique in Georgia: it is a licensed animal rescue that temporarily fosters pets for people facing eviction or other housing loss—with a side of legal assistance.
Since its inception, the rescue has placed more than 150 pets—including Rocky, Charlie, Ladybug and Cinder— into foster homes until their permanent guardians located new housing, an average of 90 days. The rescue provides veterinary care through its partnership with the Atlanta Humane Society and offers fosters all the food and supplies needed to care for the pet. This safety-net foster program exemplifies a growing trend in the animal welfare world: striving to keep pets and their people together through hardship by providing support and resources.
Lawyers are helpers, first and foremost—and the beneficiaries of our help may be animals as well as humans.
But even as more safety-net foster programs spring up, from Salt Lake City to Nashville and all around the country, Paws Between Homes stands alone in being founded and run in part by attorneys with expertise in landlord-tenant law.
Cole Thaler, the president of Paws Between Homes' Board of Directors, is a tenants' attorney at the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. Co-founder and Board...
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