Sociologist does about-face on homeless people with pets

Ten years ago, Leslie Irvine was on her high horse when it came to homeless people keeping companion animals.

“I remember going up to a guy and saying, ‘You shouldn’t have a pet. What do you think you’re doing?’” recalls Irvine, associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder.

But Irvine began to think differently while working at an animal shelter. She remembers when the guardian of an expensive, purebred basenji let his dog languish after she was brought in as a stray.

“At the same time a homeless guy came in in tears over his lost dog. He came in every day and put signs up all over town,” Irvine says. “I began to wonder, ‘Who is the better guardian or owner? The guy who spent a lot of money and couldn’t give a (damn) or the man who is devoting 24/7 to find his lost dog?’”

So she leapt at the opportunity when Boulder’s Lynne Rienner Publishers approached her in 2010 to write a book about homeless people and their pets.

“The editors knew my other work and I was sort of in between projects. This was new terrain for me, but I did some preliminary interviews … and the stories of homeless people and their animals really gripped me,” says Irvine, author of “If You Tame Me: Understanding Our Connection with Animals” (Temple University Press, 2004) and “Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters” (Temple University Press, 2009).

Now, after more than two years of research and writing, “My Dog Always Eats First: Homeless People and Their Animals” will be published by Rienner in February.

Irvine interviewed 75 homeless people on the street and at veterinary clinics in five cities — Boulder, Miami, San Francisco, Sacramento and Berkeley, Calif. — about how their animals (mostly dogs, with a few cats) fit into their lives. The resulting stories demonstrate how companion animals can help homeless guardians maintain a positive self-identity and connection.

The vast majority of people Irvine met took such good care of their animals that they would literally make sure their companions ate before, and as well as, they did. They describe their pets as friends, family and even redeemers.

Irvine spoke to Tommy while he waited in line at a veterinary clinic at a homeless center with his dog Monty. Tommy and Monty had been together since staff at a church had suggested the puppy would make a good companion. Since then, Tommy had credited his canine friend with helping him out of depression, in part by serving as a conduit to social interaction.

“(H)e’s like my best friend because being homeless, you don’t really have friends unless you’re drinking and doing drugs and all,” Tommy told Irvine. But Monty is “just adorable to other people. They just come up, and it makes me feel better because I have a mental illness also, where I don’t like to be around people.”

Caring for animal companions can help establish a sense of “moral identity.” On the street, homeless people are routinely subjected to insults and abuse — “Get a job!” or cursing — but the fact that they care for and are responsible for another living being gives them a different story. Some come to see themselves as better guardians than people who leave pets at home alone for eight or 12 hours a day.

And what of the common sentiment that keeping an animal on the street is inherently insufficient or even cruel?

“Animal control officers in San Francisco and (Boulder) get far more complaints about cruelty and improper care from people who have houses than people who are homeless,” Irvine notes. “It may seem like many homeless people shouldn’t have animals, but many domiciled people shouldn’t, either.”

Irvine’s research has numerous practical policy implications. For example, public housing policies discriminate against homeless pet guardians, often requiring them to choose between housing and their animals. That may be precisely backwards, Irvine says.

“I speculate that homeless people who are responsible pet guardians would be more successful tenants than the average homeless person. … Taking care of animals on the street for years involves great responsibility and I think they would make great renters,” she says. “If I had pixie dust and a lot of money, I’d love to have a pilot program for homeless pet owners.”