Making sure pets aren’t forgotten

[Are_grits_groceries]

Joni Taylor learned the hard way that pets suffer during hard times too. Now she's opened an Oregon food bank for the four-legged.
Joni Taylor's family was evicted from their home in Venice Beach when she was 15. They couldn't pay the mortgage and moved away, leaving the family's cats to fend for themselves.

It happened decades ago, but Taylor still remembers how she cried for months. She imagined the animals roaming the streets, confused and hungry. Every few days, she would go to the grocery store and head back to her old neighborhood with a supply of canned tuna and hope.

So when the unemployment rate began to skyrocket in Portland, Ore., in recent months, she knew what she had to do.
<snip>
Taylor and some friends called pet shops and animal food makers, asking: Could they spare a bag or two of dried dog food? Maybe a box of pet chews or puppy treats? Thousands of pounds of dried and canned food poured in.

In February, Taylor and her friends started a dog food bank in this Portland suburb, handing out a 30-day supply to anyone who showed up at their storage facility on the third Saturday of the month. No questions asked. They focused on dogs because there was already a local cat food bank.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-on-the-edge-pets11-2009apr11,0,378272.story?track=notottext

Angels everywhere...

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. K&R

:-)

[LWolf]

2. This is a wonderful thing.

Here on the other side of the mountains, horses are selling for cheap, being given away, and, in some cases, being abandoned on public land because their people can't feed them. I myself am struggling to keep my own horses, family members whose line has been in the family since 1945, in hay.

[mimitabby]

3. it's a great idea, but..

People are still abandoning their pets as they vacate homes and apartments.

[ThomCat]

4. It's a shame that so few apartments allow people to keep pets.

As people lose their homes and have to find apartments they find they have no choice but to find some place to give away their pets, or become homeless to keep them. Far too many people end up abandoning their pets because they can't or won't find a place to take them. :(

[glinda]

5. I wish the Prez would make a public announcement asking Landlords to please

try to help people who wish to keep their pets. I wish it would also apply to Vet clinics that they work payment planes also. I blame all of these parties in part for people giving up their pets.