NORFOLK, Va. – October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and talk show host Tamron Hall is taking action to spread awareness. For the award-winning journalist, the mission is personal. Hall lost her sister to domestic violence in 2004.
“I, a few years ago, started to openly talk about my sister and her years of suffering in a home where domestic violence existed,” said Hall during an interview with News 3 This Morning’s Jessica Larche. “Over time, I felt with this platform, why my voice, that it was my responsibility to share that story.”
Larche shared her own family’s experience with domestic violence with Hall. Earlier this year, Larche’s younger cousin, Erica Tate, was murdered by the father of her four children. Tate’s mother, Shari Larche, is now raising her daughter’s four young boys.
“This affects so many people. Your neighbors. Your co-workers,” Hall tearfully said. “This is not something that happens in another neighborhood or to someone else’s family. It’s in all of our families.”
Hall is using her voice to shed light on a lesser-known obstacle to victims escaping. Many survivors delay leaving their abuser because they can’t take their pets with them. According to statistics shared by the Tamron Hall Show, only 15 percent of domestic violence shelters in the U.S. allow pets.
ThePurple Leash Project, powered by Purina and RedRover, provides resources to make domestic violence shelters pet-friendly, allowing pets and people to escape abuse and heal together.
“To think that someone has to decide, do I leave my pet, which is my family member, behind? Or do I stay?” Hall said.
Visit RedRover’s resource directory for survivors and advocates that lists pet-friendly programs across the U.S. and Canada: SafePlaceForPets.org.
If you need help right away, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 and ask to be directed to resources in your neighborhood, or find a shelter and emergencyhelp near you. For Hampton Roads residents, you can contact the Samaritan House or click here for a list of resources by region.
More coverage on domestic abuse:
Man arrested for domestic abuse over 20 years ago now advocates for others to get help
News 3 investigates how perpetrators use religion and spirituality as a form of abuse
'I had nothing in my name': An investigation into aspects of financial abuse
