SHAWNEE, Kan., Dec. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- This Giving Tuesday, Bayer proudly joins the many organizations and individuals giving back to create safer and stronger communities. Today, nine domestic violence shelters are receiving funding through Bayer's Grants Fur Families program. Now in its second year, the program provides life-saving support to domestic violence shelters that understand the critical role that pets can play for families. Each grant recipient will receive $10,000 from Bayer to create, maintain and enhance safe spaces for those fleeing mental, physical and emotional abuse with their pets.

Nearly half of abused women stay in an abusive relationship out of concern for the welfare of their beloved pet.¹   While there is a strong network of domestic violence shelters that are able to provide a safe place for survivors, there still remains a significant unmet need for these individuals to find shelter alongside with their pets. Faced with a lack of shelter, an abuse survivor is faced with an unthinkable choice: choose between remaining in an abusive relationship or leaving their pet, another member of their family, with their abuser.

To overcome some of these obstacles and help families seeking safety, L.I. Against Domestic Violence, one of the nine 2019 Grants Fur Families recipients, developed partnerships with animal shelters to ensure safe fostering of victims' pets while they stayed in their shelter.  "We knew we needed to do more to eliminate these barriers and find a way to keep families with pets together, especially following a traumatic event where separation often compounds the feelings of despair," says Colleen Merlo, Executive Director at L.I. Against Domestic Violence. "The funding provided by Bayer through the Grants Fur Families program will ultimately decrease the number of survivors that stay in or return to a dangerous situation due to lack of safety for their pet."  

Through Grants Fur Families, nine domestic violence shelters - including L.I. Against Domestic Violence – will be able to improve their existing pet-related facilities and services or offer pet-focused facilities for the first time:

• Advocates Against Domestic Abuse located in Minnesota
• Domestic Abuse Family Shelter, Inc. located in Mississippi
• Domestic Violence Association of Central Kansas, Inc. located in Kansas
• Domestic Violence Intervention Services located in Oklahoma
• Empower Yolo located in California
• L.I. Against Domestic Violence located in New York
• Ohio Guidestone located in Ohio
• Project Safe, Inc. located in Georgia
• Women and Children First – The Center Against Family Violence located in Arkansas

"Knowing that nine more organizations are able to save lives by keeping survivors with their pets means that communities are getting safer," says Lauren Dorsch, Deputy Director, Bayer Animal Health.  "Bayer is honored to work alongside these organizations to eliminate a choice that no one should have to make, producing better health outcomes for people and pets."

Over the past several years, Bayer has given over $500,000 to domestic violence shelters in more than 20 states in an effort to keep people and pets together, break the cycle of domestic violence and create stronger and healthier communities.

How can you help raise awareness?
Please help in celebrating the life-saving work being done by all domestic violence shelters and especially the nine Grants Fur Families recipients who are working to keep people and pets together.

You can act by:

• Following @Bayer4Pets on Instagram and Twitter and liking, sharing and tagging your friends and family with the content posted there to help more people understand the need for pet friendly domestic violence shelters.
• Using hashtags #GrantsFurFamilies and #GivingTuesday to congratulate the recipients on social media.
• Sharing this information with other domestic violence shelters in your community to increase applicants next year.

About Giving Tuesday
Launched in 2012, Giving Tuesday is a global movement demonstrating how collaborative action in communities has the power to create long-lasting change. The movement is fueled by the collective actions of generous individuals who desire to give back to causes and make generosity go viral. These contributions, in turn, strengthen social connections and create the potential for change to reach throughout the world.

Bayer: Science For A Better Life
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to benefit people by supporting efforts to overcome the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development, and the Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2018, the Group employed around 117,000 people and had sales of 39.6 billion euros. Capital expenditures amounted to 2.6 billion euros, R&D expenses to 5.2 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.us.

Contact:
Lauren Dorsch
Bayer Animal Health, Communications
Email: lauren.dorsch@bayer.com
Phone: 913-268-2747

Social Media Channels
- Twitter: @Bayer4Pets
- Instagram: @Bayer4Pets
- #GrantsFurFamilies, #GivingTuesday

Bayer® and the Bayer Cross® are registered trademarks of Bayer.

Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

¹ Source: http://www.rosebrooks.org/services/pet-shelter  

SOURCE Bayer

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