Dogs Trust > Ways We Help > Outreach > Freedom Project > The Links Group >
Dogs Trust works closely with The Links Group, a coalition set up in 2001 to promote the links between child abuse, animal abuse and domestic violence. Other members of The Links Group include BVNA, NSPCC, Refuge, PDSA and RSPCA.
The group have produced a leaflet for professionals working with children, families or animals called ‘Understanding the links - child abuse, animal abuse and domestic violence - Information for Professionals’.
Dogs Trust Freedom Project is part of the Links sub-group on pet fostering, along with six other fostering services for women fleeing domestic violence across the UK. The sub-group was set up to develop fostering services to aid vulnerable adults, children and animals to escape domestic violent situations and to raise awareness of the protection and welfare of children & animals in violent domestic situations.
The Links Group will be running their inaugural conference on 16th May to raise awareness of the links, to communicate the latest research findings, to share information and best practice, to provide a discussion forum relating to child abuse, animal abuse and domestic violence and to encourage closer working relationships between all organisations working in their field. For full details, including the conference programme, please download here. 
If you are visiting this site as a victim of domestic violence please click here to see how to delete traces of your visit to this page.
Our office is open Monday to Friday from 9.00 to 5.00pm but there is an answer machine to leave messages out of hours.
If you are and have not already obtained advice you should phone the 24 hour National Domestic Violence Helpline on:
Dogs in homes with domestic violence are often targets of abuse. In several recent studies of women entering refuges for protection against domestic violence, nearly half reported that their pets had been threatened, injured, or killed by their partners. Dogs Trust is a member of the The LINKS Group, a coalition to develop understanding of the link between domestic violence and mistreatment of animals as well as the problems faced by victims of domestic violence.