Tucker nonprofit Ahimsa House helps people and pets escape violence

Ahimsa House, a Tucker-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the link between family violence and animal abuse, is finding the need for its services expanding substantially.

Executive Director Myra Rasnick said the organization’s mission for the last 20 years has been to provide safe harbor throughout the state of Georgia for people and their pets who are escaping violence. So far, more than 2,100 people have reached safety and about 4,000 animals have been placed in emergency housing.

In addition to placement services, Ahimsa House (which means “nonviolence” in Sanskrit) offers veterinary care, pet-related safety planning, pet deposits for rental housing, pet food and supplies, emergency hotel stays and ride-share transportation.

The best part of the job, Rasnick said, is reuniting a pet with its owner. She recalled one particular event while she was working as a program manager that brought her to tears.

“We were reuniting a golden retriever with a woman and her three-year-old son and the dog was so happy, running up to the car,” Rasnick said. “The woman was crying, and the son was too. The dog jumped up in the car and licked the tears off the boy’s face.”

Rasnick said the reunification of the dog and its owners that day solidified her belief in the importance of the human-animal connection.

“People who are in crisis will call us because they are more worried about their pets than they do themselves,” she said. “Being able to help them is a feel-good job.”

Today, Ahimsa House and its seven full-time staffers rely on a network of veterinarians, boarding facilities, foster homes, and other partners and volunteers to serve all of Georgia’s 159 counties.

In 2023, the non-profit set a record for assisting 198 people and 365 pets (including its first pig), taking 3,875 crisis calls, performing 633 animal transports, paying 96 pet deposits, and covering expenses for 520 veterinarian visits, according to statistics provided by Ahimsa House staff.

Rasnick said the care of a single pet averages about $400. They can be housed for up to 60 days, although that isn’t a hard deadline.

Its website contains poignant stories of crisis and pet/owner unification. “Frances” (not her real name), who was beaten by her boyfriend with a baseball bat after he came home drunk, suffered multiple life-threatening injuries.

“Frances crawled through the woods and across barbed wire to get to the street. When she saw a car coming, our client stood in the middle of the street until the car came to a stop inches from her broken body,” the story continued. “She made it to the hospital and survived her attack despite sustaining permanent injuries and her heart stopping multiple times that night.”

Ahimsa House foster cared for Frances’ pets while she healed and got established in a safe location. Even though she had to move far away to escape her abuser, Ahimsa reunited her with the pets.

The organization has received a growing number of requests for services each year and the limited number of volunteer foster homes and funding for animal care has forced it to curtail the clients they can serve. Today, that number totals about 40 humans and their pets, which can number up to eight per client.

Ahimsa House’s Direct Services Program is funded in part by the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, the LuluMa Foundation, Second Life Atlanta, the Atlanta Humane Society, as well as private donations.

Rasnick said, although there are many needs, the greatest one is for “true” foster homes. Most of the pets are boarded at veterinarians’ offices or boarding facilities. Only 13% of the pets under Ahimsa’s care are housed at personal homes.

To learn more about the organization and its needs, visit ahimsahouse.org .

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