After domestic violence counselors expressed the need to protect pets from the abuse that their owners fled, the Rancho Coastal Humane Society in Encinitas stepped up to offer a solution: the Animal Safehouse Program.

The program is unique in Southern California and one of just five in the state, said director Christine Hartline. Only about 70 programs like it exist in the nation.

Hartline said the program offers mostly foster-care services for pets while their owners move from shelters to transitional housing to getting back on their feet.

It also offers services such as medical care and vaccinations at no cost.

The Animal Safehouse Program was the third of its kind in the nation when it was created in 1997. While most of its clients are from San Diego County, the safehouse has also served pet owners from Los Angeles County, Orange County, Arizona and Nevada.

Hartline said the intent was to take care of family pets while eliminating a leverage point that an abuser might use to keep the victim at home.

"The goal is to help victims remove the barrier that is causing them to stay in the situation," she said. "A lot of the people will stay in the situation because they don't want their animals to be abused or killed."

Hartline said it is estimated that up to 40 percent of victims would stay just to ensure their pets' safety.

The need is recognized as being so great that Sen. Sheila Kuehl, of the 23rd District, has sponsored a bill that, if passed, would allow criminal and family courts to include pets in a domestic violence protective order.

At the local safehouse, there are currently seven pets in the program -- three dogs and four cats.

"We are able to take any kind of animal and give them medical care," she said.

The humane society relies on donations, grants, volunteers and foster families to provide the program's services.

The foster families take care of the animals for an average of three months while victims transition to other housing.

That so many victims of domestic violence stay to protect their pets comes as no surprise to Yvonne, a local woman who said her well-being and that of her pets were threatened by her husband. Yvonne said she was hesitant to leave him because of the pets.

"Both of them had been through everything with me," she said. "I felt like I owed it to them."

Eventually, the woman, whose last name was withheld by the North County Times because she is a victim of domestic violence, said a counselor told her about the pet safehouse program and then worked with Hartline to make the arrangements.

While her cat is now at home, she said her dog has lived with a foster family for two years. Yvonne said she plans to take her dog back as soon as she can.

She said believes the program is vital for people like her, especially since "animals do suffer in these situations, because they are victims as well."

For information, go to www.rchumanesociety.org or contact Hartline at chartline@rchumanesociety.org