Photo by Sarandy Westfall on Unsplash
Now this is a REALLY good idea!
It’s common knowledge that when there is domestic violence in a home, family pets can bear the brunt of the abuse too.
BestyBnB is a startup providing crisis care and safety net programs to help animal welfare and social service agencies secure safe, temporary homes for pets during their owners’ time of crisis. It works is by placing pets in foster homes where they can safely stay until their owner is ready for their return (and they have a 100% return rate).
Founders, Andy Bond and Matthew Krentz recall their “ lightbulb aha moment” “when they came up with this novel and very necessary platform to help pets. In their own words, here’s the background story:
“In May of 2019, we first learned of the BARRIERS Pets can present to people seeking help and safety. This was first through the lens of Domestic Violence. We were listening to our local NPR affiliate and heard an interview with the Director of Grants and Housing at the largest domestic violence agency in the State of Kansas. The statistics we learned were SHOCKING:
- Over 50% of callers, who dial a 24-hour emergency hotline in need of immediate help, ended up hanging up the phone and declining life-saving services the moment they found out they could not bring their pet with them.
- As the interview continued, we learned that there are approximately 2,800 + Domestic Violence Agencies across the United States, and at that time, less than 5 % of those locations could accommodate pets.
- Of the callers who decided to get help and were forced to make a choice to leave their pet behind, 70% of those pets were abused, or worse, in retaliation.
We had never heard of this crisis before, but it made perfect sense. Our families would never leave any of our pets behind. And no pet owner should ever be forced to make a choice between their health and safety and abandoning or surrendering their pet to a shelter.
Consequently, we came up with the idea of using technology to do something about it, sharing out vision with domestic violence agencies who wholeheartedly endorsed the idea.
Next, we traveled across the country meeting with leadership at human social service agencies and with animal welfare experts to learn more about these barriers. Through this learning tour, where we gathered requirements to better understand the breadth and depth of this crisis, we became experts in pet advocacy and that’s how BestyBnB was born. Soon after, we leveraged our skills and experience building very large and highly secure technical platforms so that every Human Social Services and Animal Welfare Agency could create a crisis care safety net pet program through BestyBnB.
In the last few months, BestyBnB has enabled its agency partners to provide over 4,000 SAFE NIGHTS for Clients’ Pets with a 100% return-to-owner rate. Currently, BestyBnB accounts have been set up at 36 Agencies in 13 states.”
Their ideas were further boosted when Bond and Krentz were invited to join the Leap Venture Studio pet care startup accelerator as their first ever company of impact. They were also awarded the 2023 Human Animal Bond Research Institute’s Innovation Award for Pet-Inclusive Infrastructure.
Their website succinctly spells out how it works and how anyone who loves pets can get involved.
Here is a brief breakdown.
Meet the co-founders and check out their website. This is a gamechanger for pets and their people in domestic violence situations.
