Staff and students from three of our Schools have joined forces on a community project that will see pets given a safe home in domestic violence situations.
Jo Jones, programme co-ordinator for the NZ Certificate in Animal Care in our School of Environmental and Animal Sciences, has been working with Pet Refuge over the past six months to design and construct boxes for cats whose owners have been the victims of domestic violence, and need to leave their homes. Pet Refuge says that research they’ve conducted with Women’s Refuge has shown that 73% of women would have left their domestic situation sooner, if there had been somewhere for their pet to go.
The Seven Sharp cameraman captures the ‘cat condos’ in production
Jo, who has 14 animals of her own at home, worked with the Schools of Architecture and Trades & Services to design and construct a model of the ‘cat condo’ which was tested and approved by Pet Refuge before it was put into production. Jo and her team of 15 students have constructed 30 cat condos for Pet Refuge, under the guidance of Brett Orams and Neill McCulloch from Architecture, and Brett Andreassen and Glenna Taulilo-Makaea from Trades and Services.
Watch the Seven Sharp clip
You can read more about Jo here and scroll for more photos.
Jo Jones being interviewed by the Seven Sharp team
Cats making themselves at home in the cat condos
Jo speaks to TVNZ reporter Caroline Robinson
A completed cat condo