ORLANDO, Fla. — Hundreds of people and their four-legged friends gathered in Baldwin Park Saturday to help Harbor House raise money for domestic violence victims.
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Saturday’s event, Paws for Peace, was held at Blue Jacket Park and raised money for a serious cause.
“At our emergency shelter site we have a kennel so that people coming in from a domestic violence situation and they need to leave, they can come in with their dog, cat, bird; whatever pet they have,” said Harbor House CEO, Michelle Sperzel.
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The money raised Saturday will go toward operating that kennel. Sperzel stated it’s more than just a safe place for pets and added the kennel breaks down a barrier that prevent people in domestic violence situations from leaving their abuser.
“50% of people delay leaving because they don’t want to leave their animal behind,” Sperzel said.
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Sperzel said today’s donations are needed more that ever, since the event wasn’t held last year because of the pandemic.
“We saw a lot of people come in with their animals basically a normal year we have about 19 animals come in we had almost 40 animals come in with different people,” Sperzel said.