Home for Life has several community outreach programs designed to give back to the community, and about a quarter of their animals participate in them.

One program, Peace Creatures, teaches peaceful conflict resolution to families of domestic abuse. The pets visit the support group sessions at Tubman Family Alliance's three shelters and the Women of Nations Shelter in St. Paul.

"The animals warm everybody up and [it] helps them talk," said Randy Schubring, director of communications and public affairs at Tubman Family Alliance. "It really opens up children to talk about abuse they may have seen themselves or suffered," he said.

Lisa LaVerdiere of Home for Life said that many children victimized by domestic violence don't understand boundaries, so Peace Creatures teaches them to have empathy toward other living things and understand when an animal is happy, sad, hungry, thirsty or suffering.

"The animals are healed in spirit, body and mind and give back to people who are hurting and at risk," LaVerdiere said.

Home for Life's staff usually bring abused or injured animals who can teach important life lessons to children with behavioral or emotional disorders. For instance, one of the shelter dogs is a Siberian husky that broke his back but can still run around despite the wheelchair he uses for his back legs.

"It taught them that even if you have a disability, you can still do what you want to do, just like that husky still runs around," said Sheri Kornmann, a Tubman Family Alliance youth advocate.

Tamara Taylor, director of Youth and Family Services at Tubman Family Alliance, said the animals are healing for the children because many of them had to leave their pets behind when they went to the shelter.

"It's a good outlet for them to hear about the animals and to bring back memories of their old pets," Taylor said.

Hilary Dickinson is a University of Minnesota journalism student on assignment for the Star Tribune.