Abuse in foster homes

Abuse in foster homes

by Brenda Cruz
Tracy Klentworth couldn’t believe she was going to have a little one in the house again after all these years. She wondered for a moment if she had the patience to do this and then quickly chased the thought away.

Instead she filled her mind with the extensive plans she had for the new family member. Here we go again, thought Tracy with a smile. Afternoons at the park, visits to McDonalds, bedtime stories, positive praise and hugs and kisses all day long, a new reason to drive an SUV again – a new reason to live.

Knowing Harvey has had such a hard life thus far, what with all the abuse and neglect he’s endured, Tracy was bent and determined to make his experience in her Pleasanton, California home as pleasant and loving as possible for whatever period of time that may be. And who knows, thought Tracy – maybe it can turn out to be permanent.

Jerry Klentworth, Tracy’s husband of twenty plus years, spat and sputtered up to the curb in his rickety old Volvo with the new little visitor in the passenger seat. Harvey spotted Tracy in the driveway and pushed his nose against the window to get a closer look. The three of them had spent quite a bit of time together before this arrangement was planned. Most people could tell right away they were all familiar and seemed to like each other a lot.

When Jerry opened the passenger door, Harvey ran to Tracy, jumped up on her and planted a saliva-dripping wet one on her cheek with his slice of bologna-sized tongue.

"Harvey – you’re home," cheered Tracy, hugging her new four-legged hound dog house guest as he hopped up and down on his hind legs.

The celebration lasted a good few minutes before the new family made their way into the house to begin the adjustment process.

Harvey, a one-year-old bloodhound, had been at the Fairmont County Animal Shelter for three weeks before the Klentworth’s came to visit and offered to foster him. According to the shelter, many people come with incredibly large hearts to rescue pets from their previously abusive or neglectful lives and when they do get placed with a loving family, they often have elaborate welcoming parties.

Children in the foster care system should be so lucky, some would say.

Humans care a lot about the welfare of animals, most would agree. Few things seem to rile people up more than when the rights of animals are violated…or when animals are mistreated, abused or neglected, pulling at the heart strings of humans in a profound way. Possibly more profound than for abused or neglected children? Some would answer yes.

In California, there are 100,000 children currently in foster care. The system was designed to provide safe and nurturing havens for abused or neglected children who have been removed from their homes for their safety. Yet more often, in foster care, they are put in even more dangerous and compromising situations when they are thrust into a system that is flawed.. According to the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, children are twice as likely to die in a foster home than the general population. That is only the beginning of a long list of what many would agree to be sobering statistics regarding foster care abuse.

Hank Orenstein, director of the Child Welfare Project within the Office of Public Advocate, speaks loudly about the system’s flaws, particularly in the key areas of the screening process. He says many foster parents who end up not having the children’s best interest at heart could possibly be in it for the money. He adds that foster parenting is very stressful and yet people are not required to be psychologically tested to ascertain what pushes their buttons. He also points out that harmful family members are not always screened and this could be a potential danger to the child.

"But the screening process is only as good as its screener," Orenstein says. "In areas where caseloads are heaviest like New York or California, the quality of the screening process diminishes, often at the expense of the children’s safety."

Paige Bennett is the director of pet placement at the Fairmont Animal Shelter in San Leandro, CA. She talks about the fostering process, which she oversees and just how particular she is in choosing her families. Individuals must fill out an application, have a background check against possible former animal abuse and must endure Paige’s scrutinizing visit to their home to ascertain if it is the proper environment for a particular animal.

"I don’t just throw any dog into any situation," Bennett said. "I go to someone’s home looking for the environment that a certain breed or dog of a certain personality will need. Small dogs shouldn’t be with other dogs, for the most part, large dogs need large spaces, nervous dogs need active people, stuff like that. When the fit is right, I’ll know it. I ask a ton of questions. You have to. The dog’s life is at stake."

And perhaps some could conclude that is what’s missing in the foster care system for children. Paige’s. People who take a personal interest in and genuinely care about those children who need fostering. People willing to go the extra mile in a careful placement process and the critical regular follow-up necessary to ensure ongoing safety of the children.

Bennett’s work at the shelter, by the way, is volunteer.

There are other problems in the foster care system for children. Just ask Regina Louise, foster care system survivor, children’s advocate and author of the book, "Somebody’s Someone." In her book, she chronicles her life in the foster care system, which began when she was a toddler and lasted all the way through to her 18th birthday.

During that time, she experienced a great deal of abuse and neglect at the hands of foster parents. But perhaps most harmful to her, she feels, was the fact that she was placed into 30 different homes while in the system. She so wanted someone to claim her as their own but in all those years, it never happened. She never felt like she belonged anywhere and developed grave distrust and cynicism.

"With every home I entered, I felt less and less like it was going to work," Louise said. "It just wasn’t ever going to work."

The Fairmont Animal Shelter has a goal of each animal experiencing only two homes tops, before adoption - no hopping from foster home to foster home.

"Most of these animals have been abused or neglected and they really have some trust issues," Bennett explains. "Spreading them around to a new caretaker every couple of weeks could be really harmful as they never really feel like they belong somewhere. That’s why the placement process is so intense because we want to have a good chance of the relationship working out for as long-term as need be, and maybe even hopefully see a successful adoption."

Sounds like child protection agencies could learn a lot from animal protection agencies. The foster child system certainly has the right idea – they might just need a little more passion and compassion behind it. Perhaps soliciting volunteers in that overworked system wouldn’t be a bad idea as they would more likely be in it for the heart, not the paycheck.

It’s been six months since Harvey crossed the welcoming threshold of the Klentworths. The smiling family pulls up into their driveway in the fairly new Jeep Liberty this warm, beaming afternoon. One might expect to see Harvey hanging out the window catching a breeze, but instead you see Tracy carefully opening the backseat door and unstrapping Harvey from his doggie car seat.

Harvey lops down from the vehicle, looking longingly at his master - or is he looking longingly at the fast food bag she’s carrying? Oh right, it’s Friday – dog park at 3:00, McDonalds dinner at 5:00, play date with the perky poodle down the street at 6:30.

The cover on the spare tire on the back of the Jeep reads, "Life is Good." Harvey would likely second that, only he might add, "when you have a family who loves you."

Children in the foster care system should be so lucky, some would say.


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