Hidden Victims Of Mortgage Crisis: Pets Abandoned By Their Owners

[Purveyor]

(01-29) 15:08 PST Stockton, Calif. (AP) --

The house was ravaged — its floors ripped, walls busted and lights smashed by owners who trashed their home before a bank foreclosed on it. Hidden in the wreckage was an abandoned member of the family: a starving pit bull.

The dog found by workers was too far gone to save — another example of how pets are becoming the newest victims of the nation's mortgage crisis as homeowners leave animals behind when they can no longer afford their property.

Pets "are getting dumped all over," said Traci Jennings, president of the Humane Society of Stanislaus County in northern California. "Farmers are finding dogs dumped on their grazing grounds, while house cats are showing up in wild cat colonies."

In one such colony in Modesto, two obviously tame cats watched alone from a distance as a group of feral cats devoured a pile of dry food Jennings offered.

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The abandoned pets are overwhelming animal shelters and drawing fury from bloggers, especially as photos of emaciated animals circulate on the Internet.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/29/national/a120945S88.DTL

[Winterblues]

1. An abandoned member of the family

America makes one proud....