Ken White, President, Peninsula Humane Society;

“Two topics which each, separately, invite a strong and often highly emotional response, put the phrase “homeless people” and “pets” into the same sentence and it’s likely a controversial if not explosive conversation will follow. And if that’s explosive, instead of the same sentence try putting them into the same broken down van or homeless encampment.

There are those who will say that homeless people should not have pets. But they will have pets. There are those who will say that people should not be homeless. But there will be homeless people. This is the real world.

And as someone who works in that real world, I have seen abuse and neglect of the pets of wealthy and impoverished alike, just as I’ve seen wonderfully loving and supportive relationships between animals and people on every rung of the economic ladder. One issue, of course, is that economics can and often do contribute to an inability to provide what can be costly services.”