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Frequently Asked Questions

A black and white photo of a person in a black hoodie and baseball cap, wearing glasses and smiling broadly while holding a small black and white dog in a harness. The person has visible tattoos on their hands. The setting appears to be near a lake or body of water, with a tree and a parked vehicle visible in the background.
  • Who is eligible for Beck's Place services?
    You may be eligible for our services if you are at or below 300% of the poverty line for your family size as established by the federal government. You must live or be receiving services from a human service provider in Snohomish County, WA.
  • Is Beck's Place a human services or animal welfare organization?
    Beck's Place is a human service organization that integrates animal welfare practices to remove pet related barriers to human health, safety, and security. Many human services are unable to accommodate the corresponding needs of pet family members. These pet-related barriers often mean that families are unable or unwilling to access services that would result in stability for both humans and pets. Beck's Place provides direct services and partners with other organizations to serve both humans and pets holistically so that families may access housing, safety, medical and other services and pets stay out of an overburdened shelter system and with their families - as they belong.
  • Is Beck's Place an animal rescue?
    No. Beck's Place is passionate about animals, the healing they bring to humans and the safety and welfare of all living beings. However, our mission is not to rescue and adopt animals. We provide animal services because we believe that families include pets. One of those pet services includes our Foster Boarding Program where we provide temporary shelter for pets when our clients are unable to as a result of housing, financial, medical, safety and/or legal constraints. Our goal is to to provide services and partner with others so that families can resolve those constraints, achieve stability and keep pets out of the shelter and with their families as they belong. We will, on occasion, receive a permanent surrender of a pet due to a client's death, illness, long-term incarceration and/or other reasons. In those cases we will work with our rescue partners to rehome the animal permanently.
  • Do you partner with other agencies and law enforcement?
    Yes! We rely on a number of partnerships including social service agencies, animal welfare and rescue organizations, law enforcement, animal control and veterinarians to both run our own programs and fill the gaps for services we don't directly provide.
  • Why do people have pets if they have limited financial resources or are without shelter?
    Living beings thrive and survive on connection. When there is a lack of connection not only is both a human and animal's physical and mental health compromised but isolation and despair set in. And when that happens destruction to self and/or others inevitably occurs. For some, the only connection they have is with their pet. Seniors may have lost their spouse and live far away from their children. Children may seek the safety and comfort of a pet in an unstable home environment. Domestic violence victims will protect their pet at the risk of their own safety. Families in poverty get a break from the struggle by the joy a pet brings to the home. These pets are deeply loved and cared for - often receiving more attention than in the average household. No matter how a family came to include a pet the reasons for keeping them are the same as those with more financial resources and housing options. Losing that connection is neither beneficial to the human, the pet, or the community. Keeping them together is not only is healthy for families but it provides relief to an overburdened rescue/shelter system already filled with animals that do not have a loving and caring home.
  • What is your position on spay/neuter?
    Beck's Place believes it is in the best interest of pets' health and welfare to be spayed/neutered. Pets that are spayed/neutered reduce the number of animals in shelters, prevent many serious health issues and enable families with limited resources to better save for the care of their pets. We do require that your pet be spayed or neutered to be eligible for our services. If you are applying to our Foster Boarding Program and your pet is not spayed or neutered you must consent to do so while they are in our care in order to be considered for the program.
  • Do you report animal abuse or neglect?
    Yes. While our focus is on keeping families together, inclusive of pets, while enabling them to access services to achieve stability it is never at the expense of the health and well-being of the pet. All clients sign a clause on the intake form that indicates that they are aware that Beck's Place will report any signs of animal cruelty or abuse to the proper authorities. If you witness animal abuse or neglect please report it to your local police department or animal control. We can not report any incidents which we have not personally witnessed.
  • Do you only help people with pets?
    Beck's Place exists to address the gaps in services for families with pets that are seeking stability. Therefore having a pet is a requirement for our programs and services. A family is defined as being at least one human and one pet. That said, given that we frequently work on the streets with homeless families we do provide basic needs resources to neighbors and friends of the homeless families we serve as we have items available.
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