Today's depressing story: "Foreclosures slam doors on pets, too"

[Lobster Martini]

(LM: This is from USA Today.)

Foreclosures slam doors on pets, too

They're arriving by the thousands every month, homeless, hapless victims of foreclosure.

Family pets, their lives upended by the ravaged finances of their owners, are landing in animal shelters in large numbers in some parts of the country.

The precise numbers are unknown, because there is no nationwide standard for recording foreclosure pets and because many owners who surrender animals at shelters tell personnel only that they are "moving" and give no specifics.

But shelters that are experiencing an increase in pet intakes are almost without exception in areas where the foreclosure rate is high. Now there's growing concern that another, perhaps bigger wave of pet surrenders is in the offing, the result of the worsening economy and growing joblessness that will affect additional homeowners as well as renters.

"The fate of people's pets tracks with their own financial fate," says the ASPCA's Steve Zawistowski. He adds that although some shelters have been largely unaffected, "there are pockets" where so many homeowners are losing their homes that the number of pets relinquished to shelters, turned loose or abandoned is increasing dramatically. The pockets probably will spread with a deteriorating economy, he says.

<snip>

The Pennsylvania SPCA is waiving for foreclosure victims the fees associated with its "good-home guarantee" program, which promises the shelter will keep the pet as long as it takes to find a new home. "With everything else they're going through, (people who foreclose) should not have to worry that their animal will be euthanized," CEO Howard Nelson says. At least 10 families have taken advantage of the program in less than three months.

<snip>

The SPCA of Erie County, N.Y., is experiencing only a bump — about two a month — in foreclosure pets, says executive director Barbara Carr. But each is heartbreaking. She tells of a man who arrived at the shelter this month saying he had to give up his cat and two small dogs. When an employee walked outside to help him get the animals into the shelter, "she discovered that he had arrived in a U-Haul loaded with boxes and furniture. He had lost his home and had no place to go. The very last thing he did was surrender his animals."

<snip>

(Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-03-24-foreclosures-pets_N.htm?csp=1)

(LM: I am going to throw tennis balls to my terrier for a while, and then I will make sure that the check for the mortgage has been cashed.)

[OwnedByFerrets]

1. As if this wasnt bad enough.....

as I posted yesterday, this economic downturn will affect many citizens abilities to take their pets to the vet. If you can barely keep food on the table, pet care, even though a priority, gets placed lower on the ladder.

[jgraz]

2. Pet birds are really getting hit badly

The volunteer organization I work with has been scrambling (not always successfully) to get to the shelters before these birds are euthanized. Often the small birds (cockatiels, budgies and small conures) are killed immediately upon intake, while the larger birds are auctioned off.

We're also seeing an uptick in people finding loose birds around their neighborhoods. Often these birds are injured or starving and many don't survive. We think that struggling homeowners are just opening the cages and letting their birds fly out.

It's a pretty sad situation. :cry:

[Double T]

3. EVERYTHING has been given up for the wretched bastards on wall street and the criminal.............

corporations; the time for REVOLUTION and REBELLION will come. These innocent animals are family members that are NOW taking the HIT! This collective NATION is a damn disgrace.