Shelters & pets suffering due to foreclosures

by Therese on December 19, 2008

You don’t have to look very hard these days to find stories of people leaving their pets behind in the homes they lose to foreclosure or shelters in dire need because donations have dropped off while their intake has increased. I scan pet news stories daily and it hurts to read story after story about pets suffering one way or another due to the current economic mess. There are simply too many to read!

Today, for example, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a story about the Georgia SPCA. They’re out of money. They’re not out of pets though – they have about 30 dogs and more than 60 cats.

Things are tough. Ask Curby.He’s facing eviction because the rent is three months in arrears. The doctors who worked on him need to be paid. He has to eat, too.Curby would tell you if he could, but he’s just a dog. He and scores more are in trouble because the Georgia SPCA is out of money.The no-kill shelter in Suwanee is in debt, said Rita Edwards, who manages the Buford Highway facility. Times are so tight that the shelter is asking anyone with a few dollars to consider giving it to Curby and his pals. The shelter houses about 30 dogs and more than 60 cats.

And then there’s this from the Boston Globe…

Count two barking dogs – a Jack Russell terrier named Shadow and a rat terrier named Precious – among the not-so-quiet victims of the recession. After six years of living together in a Dorchester apartment, they were surrendered to the Animal Rescue League of Boston last month after the woman who owned them lost her home to foreclosure. Now they share a chain-link kennel at the league’s South End shelter.In animal shelters around the area, the story is the same. With the worsening economy comes an increase in animals abandoned or surrendered by owners no longer able to care for them. The rescue league and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have begun to see people mention foreclosure as the reason they’re giving up their pets, and the MSPCA this year started to officially track it. The MSPCA reports a 45 percent increase in pets surrendered to its Boston shelter for economic or housing-related reasons – from 574 in the first 11 months of 2007 to 836 in the first 11 months of this year.

Now, stop think about your pets…the family members you love and share your life with. Can you imagine taking them to a shelter and walking away from them…forever? It’s a terrifying thought for sure, and makes me cry to think of the number of beloved pets who are now cooped up in kennels because their people lost their homes. And what makes it worse is knowing what many shelters do when they are overcrowded or can’t find homes for cats and dogs in their care.

The real point of this post isn’t just to stir up emotions and get everybody crying like I’m doing as I type this though! I’m going to ask…consider it begging if that helps…each of you to do something for a local shelter or rescue group. Money is the obvious gift, and always needed but it’s not the only thing animal shelters are in need of. They always need blankets, toys, food, old newspapers, collars, leashes, etc. Find your local shelter’s website and see what they need; many will post a list on the website. Chances are you have something in your house that you’re not using that a shelter or rescue group desperately needs.

If each person who reads this can give something, anything, we can all make a difference. It may be a small thing to us but to the pets in the shelters we’re giving to it could literally mean life or death. So please, please do something, no matter how small. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, some other holiday…or none of the above, please do something for the pets that desperately need help. Then do what I’m going to do right now…hug your pets and let them know how much you love them!

Technorati Tags: foreclosure pets, cats, dogs, animal shelters, pet rescue

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Fuzzy Logic December 20, 2008 at 5:07 pm: As someone who works in the mortgage industry, I know full well how many homes are up for foreclosure. In my 12 years in the business, I’ve never seen so many people buying “short sales” or foreclosure homes.. The previous 11 years, I may have seen one or two.. I’ve seen 6 just this past quarter.. and I”m only one person.

It’s sad, horrifying and a real tragedy.

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Verysupercool Sue December 21, 2008 at 12:37 am: I feel your passion, it’s sad, but you are so right. If everyone just did a “little” something we could make it a little better for these needy animals.

I’m hugging my boys extra tight tonight per your suggestion.

And next time I buy some tennis balls for my dogs, I’m buying some extra for the TLAC shelter near my house. They have that are their wish list.

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