FYI Pets: Silent Victims of Foreclosure

[Why Syzygy]

Pets: Silent Victims of Foreclosure
ABC Nightline 03/13/2008

Watch here >
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/

They featured animals and shelters in the Dayton area. Very sad. Thank you if you are in a position to help. I would definitely take the feature dog :cry:

[AngryOldDem]

1. Channel 7 in Dayton did a story about that.

I can't watch stuff like that...I get teared up at those pet food commercials showing dogs in the kennel wondering why their families dropped them off. :cry:

Sometimes at the shelter (rarely, but it has happened) we've had people show up with dogs or other pets in their car. But unless it's a assistance-type animal, they can't come in. (That has never happened in my experience, but I think we would have to take a seeing-eye dog, or some such.) Sometimes people have opted to stay with their dogs in their cars rather than come in themselves for the night, or give up their dogs to the animal shelter. Sad, yet poignant, in a way.

What could eventually happen would be that people will just turn their pets loose. Loose pets, many of them, form packs, and packs... really do NOT want to go there. No doubt about it (if anybody had any) society is decaying.

[MeDeMax]

2. ditto

I don't handle watching animals suffer very well.

I see them as unfortunate victims of a business cycle that taps into people's wallet and humanity.

The breeders make big bucks breeding pure breeds, the pet stores make big bucks selling puppies & kittens, the families visit the pet stores and get sucked into taking on a financial commitment they can't afford & the vet bills add up pretty fast when your animal gets sick.

If families would plan for some time before getting a pet, as opposed to impulse buying, there would be less exploitation of the poor creatures, imho.

[OhioBlue]

3. I have 2 cats that keep coming to my door

for food. I think someone dropped them both off along side the road. We live in a very rural area with a couple Amish farms just down the road. The "conventional wisdom" :sarcasm: in "my parts" is that if you drop your cat off near an Amish farm, they will be okay. Well, the one cat is skin and bones, the other now has 2 huge sores on its head. I already have 2 cats in the house which, I wish I didn't b/c of my small, small house and now having the baby.

Anyway, the 2 strays look so sad, like they can't understand why they can't come in and curl up on our lap, be petted and purr away.

[Kukesa]

4. Amish farms? Hmmm . . . interesting.

I took a class in Amish Culture at University of Dayton and learned that the Amish make lots of money in puppy breeding farms.

Any info on that, OhioBlue?

[OhioBlue]

6. I'm not aware of any Amish puppy farms

around me. Most of the Amish around me farm, have saw mills, do carpentry work, make baskets & rockers, furniture, baked goods - that kind of stuff.

[AngryOldDem]

5. I actually adopted a cat that was hanging out at the shelter

Sweet, sweet little Tortie that was pregnant when we first noticed her. We got her a cardboard box for shelter, and we were even present at the birth (!!!) and watched her raise her two little kitties. The kittens were taken, and then she was by herself and just perfectly lost without them. Shortly before Halloween, before the weather turned cold, I came down one night with a carrier and took her home. She has been literally fat and happy ever since.

We think that she was once a housecat, given her docile disposition, who was just let loose.

[OhioBlue]

7. I guess I should try harder to find them homes.

I've just been focused on trying to find my own cats new homes. They were my babies before the baby.... But our home is so small and with the baby getting ready to crawl, it just makes me so nervous. Plus, no matter how often I vacuum, there will be cat hair all over everything soon. They shed really bad in the Spring.

[AngryOldDem]

8. If they're sick, then I would call the pound.

As hard as that sounds, you really shouldn't take any chances on taking them in.

God only knows what the sore is on the one's head, and the other could be diseased (worms, etc.). So sad.

[Kolesar]

9. We got our first cat at the animal shelter three weeks ago

Someone dropped her off a week earlier because they were moving. I would miss this cat if I lost her. She's a velcro cat.
:loveya: Chloe :loveya: 7 pound, 19 months old
edit: Kittie pic would not work from freeservers.com!

[AngryOldDem]

10. Find some way to post a pic....

I'd love to see her!

[Kukesa]

11. Me, too. Find a way, please. n/t

[MeDeMax]

12. skydrive & imageshack

http://skydrive.live.com

http://imageshack.us/

I don't know if you will get spammed by imageshack, but Microsoft offers 5 gig of free space on skydrive and you can organize it into shared and non-shared space.

[Kolesar]

13. The freeservers site stopped me from "remote linking" the images

They want to direct users to their site (which makes sense, since they are paying for it). How does imageshack and skydrive accomodate "remote linking"?

[MeDeMax]

14. I don't have first hand experience with imageshack

but skydrive allows you to create a public folder within your allocated 5 Gigabytes and any image/file in there is accessible via a URL.

And it is free because they are trying to offer myspace / facebook / blogger / google services all in one spot and gain market share.

[ThatsMyBarack]

15. Channel 7 in Chicago did a story on that.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/media?id=6056158

I'd gladly take the feature kitty. :cry: