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Director Annie Goldson’s film centres on life and work at a secret pet shelter, allowing victims of family violence to seek safety while knowing their animals are being cared for.
On a rural property on the outskirts of Auckland, a small team prepares to feed up to 16 dogs, 22 cats, a couple of guinea pigs and a rabbit. The food is carefully measured and placed into named bowls lined up in neat rows; the animals, like pets everywhere, are happy to see dinner arriving.
Extra care needs to be taken with one dog, though. He’s throwing himself against the door of his enclosure, barking up a storm to equal the one brewing outside. The team is used to dogs like him, so they’ll tailor a bespoke care plan to manage this.
With its efficient routines and well-kept and spacious enclosures housed in purpose-built warm buildings, you could mistake this place for an upmarket pet boarding facility, but the sense of calm composure belies its purpose.
This is New Zealand’s first pet refuge, a charity offering sanctuary to animals from households where domestic violence has forced their owners to flee. Many of those, mostly women, have delayed leaving violent households because they feared for their pets if they did.
Pet Refuge, which takes creatures big and small from all over New Zealand, makes it possible for them to leave knowing that their pets will be safe. In the three years since opening, about 480 pets – from water dragons to donkeys and miniature horses – have found sanctuary there.
What makes it quite possibly a global first is that as well as the pets staying there until it’s safe to return to their owners, the refuge also pays for vet checks when an animal arrives and subsequent treatments. It also puts in place enrichment and behavioural development plans, so animals leave in better shape – mentally and physically – than they arrived.
Film-maker Annie Goldson tells Pet Refuge’s story in a 40-minute film in the Documentary Edge Festival, which opens in Christchurch this week. Pet Refuge: Duty of Care features abundant shots of peaceful rural vistas as well as cuddly animals, including a miniature horse unexpectedly born at the refuge.
The bucolic nature of it all might indicate that perhaps Goldson, one of NZ’s most acclaimed and awarded documentary film-makers, is taking a break from bringing the personal to hard-edged political stories shot in some of the world’s most troubled regions. In doing so, she has followed NZ war reporters in Afghanistan, attended war crimes’ trials for Cambodian hardmen, and examined the fall-out of brutal murders in Fiji.
But she saw the story of a “secret pet refuge” as one as political as others she’s filmed.
“I saw it in terms of a documentary idea, of being able to address what is a relatively dark and urgent social issue, which is our high rate of domestic violence,” says Goldson. “I thought it [the pet refuge] was a very Kiwi thing to set up. It’s not trying to solve domestic violence in its entirety, but it was a way of helping that makes a real difference given that so many victims of domestic violence won’t leave if it means leaving their animals behind.”
Documentaries that deal with domestic abuse aren’t popular with funders, she says. One told Goldson that people don’t like hearing about the subject, to which she says the kaupapa of documentaries is to address social issues.
And while she may have thought animals might broaden its appeal, another potential funder told her that made the project “too commercial” for them. She decided to go ahead anyway, working with a small team, including producer Alex Reed.
There was danger inherent in making Pet Refuge. “It was always important for us to explain that this would be an independent work. Although we do very much admire the work done here, we didn’t want to do a promotional piece,” says Goldson.
“So, I had the idea – and this was the most complicated thing of all – of trying to incorporate what you might call ‘case studies’ of stories about individuals and their animals. Then we would sort of put the story arc of them coming together [with their pet] again once everything settled down, housing was fine.
“For a lot of the women, their stories were gruelling, and it was just too dangerous for them to appear on camera. It was even too dangerous to indicate where the refuge is…”
Not even those whose pets go to the refuge know its location. For the duration of their pet’s stay – and one dog stayed for over a year – they’ll get regular updates and photos, but there’s no visiting allowed. It’s too upsetting for the animals, and it is a safeguard against an abusive partner discovering the refuge’s location, turning up and causing trouble.
With help from Pet Refuge’s case managers, Goldson found people to talk on camera but was careful not to reveal too many details about them or their locations.
“So many of the stories weren’t cut and dried and neat.”
Which is something Pet Refuge founder Julie Chapman knows well. Chapman is best-known for setting up, from her own garage in 2005, the charity KidsCan to help NZ youngsters experiencing hardship.
Interviewed by Stuff in 2018, Chapman said when it came to kids and poverty the shocking no longer shocked her. What she’s heard since starting Pet Refuge has, though.
“I had in my mind that I could expect to hear stories about pets being hit or kicked, or deprived of food, used as a means of coercion and control but the level of sadistic abuse and violence has surprised me. Pets that have been intentionally beaten; dogs, in particular, being totally traumatised by what they’ve seen…”
An animal lover since childhood, when she had cats, dogs and a $50 pony she rode at pony club, Chapman’s upbringing set her on her life’s path. She started KidsCan because her parents, Alice and Kenneth, instilled in her the belief that education equalled opportunity. When they died, within six months of each other, she decided to spend her inheritance on doing something for animals.
She didn’t know just what until a KidsCan colleague returned from a conference where they’d heard a representative from Women’s Refuge talking. That woman was explaining how provision needed to be made for family pets because many delay leaving if their animals are going to be unsafe.
“That was like a light-bulb moment,” says Chapman. “I’d been thinking about what to do to help animals and was like ‘this is it!’”
Reliant on funding partners and charitable donations, Chapman saw the film as a chance to raise awareness about another aspect of domestic violence and promote the work the pet refuge does 365 days a year.
“We’re a nation of cat and dog lovers, so I hope the film raises awareness – and I hope it inspires more people to donate.”
Chapman and Goldson say those who shared their stories are brave, and Goldson has been left full of admiration for the work done at the pet refuge.
“I just admired the sort of effort and commitment and the love of animals that I saw. It makes you think about how humankind has got this incredibly caring side, but there’s also the brutal side, which we see in family violence. We seem to have created an environment that seems spectacularly violent at times.”
She adds that while the film is not explicitly examining domestic violence, it’s implicit in asking “what is our duty of care” to the more vulnerable in our society, and that includes our pets.
Pets and family violence
New Zealand has the highest reported rate of family violence in the OECD. New Zealand also has the second highest rate of pet ownership globally.
Research has established that where women are at risk, animals are also at risk.
2018 Women’s Refuge research of women whose partners had abused or threatened to abuse their pets found:
- 22% of children witnessed pet abuse
- 23% had an animal killed by their partner
- 53% delayed leaving family violence out of fear for their pet’s safety
- 73% would have found it easier to leave if there was a shelter offering temporary accommodation for their pets
(Source: Pet Refuge).
Doc Edge Festival is on in Christchurch 19 - 30 June, Wellington 3 - 14 July, Auckland 3 - 14 July and then nationwide 15 - 31 July. Pet Refuge: Duty of Care screens as part of Shorts 5 collection. For more see https://docedge.nz/films/refuge-a-duty-to-care/
