Foreclosure Pets: Soaring Rate of Abandoned Animals Is the Latest Sign of a Deep Economic Crisis

[marmar]

Foreclosure Pets: Soaring Rate of Abandoned Animals Is the Latest Sign of a Deep Economic Crisis

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted April 28, 2009.

Abandoned animals and "foreclosure pets" are the innocent victims of our financial downward spiral.



Beginning last year and well into 2009, a disturbing media trend emerged, as local news outlets across the country began reporting different versions of the same sad tale: Dogs, cats and other animals were being found abandoned inside and outside of shuttered homes, the "silent victims," apparently, of the foreclosure crisis.

There were the three dogs found dead in Arkansas that had been locked inside pet carriers without food or water; the "emaciated" German shepherd left chained to a tree in the backyard of an abandoned home in Arizona (he was later euthanized); the starving pit bull in Stockton, Calif., discovered in the wreckage of a ruined house, whose owners had "trashed their home before a bank foreclosed on it." (One Animal Protective League officer in Cleveland calls this "part of the revenge process: They leave these animals to defecate in the house to destroy the furniture and to urinate on everything to make it difficult for the mortgage company to clean up.")

As more and more Americans have lost their homes to the wave of foreclosures that has swept the nation, a shocking portion of them, whether due to an inability or an unwillingess to find homes for their animals after being rendered homeless themselves, have simply left their pets behind.

"This has really become an epidemic," Allie Phillips, director of Public Policy at the American Humane Association told the Detroit News earlier this month. According to her estimates, with some 8,000 houses going into foreclosure every day, from 15,000 to 26,000 more animals are in danger of losing their homes daily.

Not all pets have been left to fend for themselves, of course. After all, most states consider it a crime abandon animals (although such anti-cruelty laws are not strictly enforced). But an untold number have been given up because the owners had no other choice. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/138634/foreclosure_pets%3A_soaring_rate_of_abandoned_animals_are_the_latest_sign_of_a_deep_economic_crisis/

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. Any body who leaves an animal behind to starve should be prosecuted

Having your home foreclosed on is no excuse to murder an animal.

[Lorien]

2. Absolutely. Animal cruelty laws "are not always strictly enforced" , then it's

time to change that. Come down on these assh*les and come down on them HARD. People need to know that this kind of crap isn't going to be tolerated-anywhere. As Gandhi said You can know a lot about a people by the way they treat their animals".

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. Yep, I think animal cruelty laws need to not only be enforced better but have stricter punishments

[MrsBrady]

4. agreed n/t

[bdamomma]

5. these kind of stories break my heart those poor animals.

:(

[adigal]

6. I do dog rescue, and it is terrible

Please, if you are considering a new pet, get in touch with a local rescue, and ask them about dogs/puppies from the south. I have 15 up here in NY right now, looking for homes.

[NNN0LHI]

7. I picked one up off the side of the road the end of December

Lab mix. About six months old. She was left sitting on the side of a road where the speed limit is 55 MPH like she was waiting for her previous owner to come back and pick her up. Looked like Scooby Doo sitting there. I put up flyer's around town with her picture and put ads in the local newspaper to try and find out who owned her but no one called. She is mine now.

She is the best dog I have ever had.

Don

[Dappleganger]

8. Not to mention the thousands of new backyard breeders

advertising their dogs on craigslist. It's absolutely disgusting this auction-block they have created and which CL chooses to ignore.

[LynneSin]

10. Let me guess - it's mostly Pit Bulls

I lived in an apartment where there were a ton of Pit Bulls - most of them for breeding. Our local shelters are overrun with pitbulls that have been abandoned. Personally I think anyone who wants to own a Pit Bull should be required to have those things neutered unless you've been licensed to breed them.

[Dappleganger]

12. Pit bulls and designer mutts, yep.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. I think everyone should be licensed to breed a dog

The US should adopt Germany's laws. Less stupid breeders, better animals.

[LynneSin]

9. I hope you all are reading the "Mutts" Comics this week - they're doing it on 'foreclosure pets'

Every few months Mutts will do a week of "Shelter Stories" where they talk about pets in shelters looking for homes and how they got there.

Starting Monday they've done it on "Foreclosure Pets"

http://www.seattlepi.com/fun/mutts.asp

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. A large part of the problem is that many places that rent, don't allow pets, so the displaced owners

can't take their animals with them. To abandon their pets, as mentioned in the OP is IMHO downright cruelty.

[Lyric]

13. This wouldn't be such a problem if rental landlords were more lenient about pets.

It's damned near impossible to find a rental that allows pets these days. I am in this situation myself. Our mobile home has been seriously damaged, and although we're making do for now, we HAVE to move at the end of this summer. We have a beautiful, well-trained Golden Retriever, though, and he's been part of our family since he was nine weeks old. He just turned four years old on April 18th.

We've been searching and searching, but we can't find apartment that will allow us to have our dog. Even the "pet friendly" rentals have weight limits for dogs, and Toby weighs 90-odd pounds.

We are in a near panic about what the hell we're going to do when the time comes. I think I'll die of the pain if I have to take him to a shelter. We didn't expect the damage to our home due to weather in the past year, but there's nothing we can do. It's too expensive to fix on a trailer this old (70's model) and it's a hazard for our child. We HAVE to move. There's no way we can hide a dog of this size, so we are currently scrambling to try and find a landlord who is at least willing to consider an exception to the No Dogs Over 50 lbs policy.

In the meantime, I am one enormous ball of anxiety over it.

:(

[Dappleganger]

14. Part of that problem...

insurance rates for LL's skyrocket when renters bring in certain breeds of dogs, PLUS many (not all of course) renters with pets absolutely trash the dwelling leading to thousands of dollars of damage and down rental time.

[Lyric]

15. Pet deposits would help with the damage aspect, as does insurance coverage

but like you, I also blame insurance companies. It isn't even always the breed of the dog that matters these days, but the weight. For example, we had a very regretful potential landlord (she has a duplex for rent) tell us that she'd be glad to make an exception for a dog like Toby, except that her homeowner's insurance on that house forbids ANY dogs over 50 lbs, regardless of breed.

She said this is very, very common for insurance these days.

I think there should be such a thing as "pet liability insurance" for renters that works like automobile liability insurance. You pay a premium every month, and if your pet causes damage to the unit, your insurance picks up the tab for repair/cleaning. This would also reduce the number of shady landlords who lie about he extent of "damages" in order to avoid repaying pet deposits to responsible pet owners, as I seriously doubt that an insurance company would just take a landlord's word for it without doing a damage appraisal themselves.

If we had THAT, the landlords could require that pet owners carry the liability insurance instead of just banning pets altogether.

[Dappleganger]

16. Pet liability insurance is a great idea

You sound like the ideal renter--anyone would be lucky to have you!

Unfortunately, most renters don't even carry renter's insurance so I doubt that pet liability insurance would make it big.

[Lyric]

17. I dunno--if they knew that paying twenty bucks a month or so

for liability insurance is all they'd have to do to keep Fido or Fluffy, they very well might! I suspect the market for this sort of thing would be vastly increasing right now, as former homeowners who have beloved pets are seeking rental housing in droves.

I know that *I'd* do it if I had that option. I'd gladly pay a reasonable pet deposit and a small premium each month in order to keep my baby with me. LyricKid is going to be devastated if we have to let him go. :(

[Dappleganger]

18. She looks just like my Sunshine...

lost her 3 years ago to cancer at the age of 13. A very dark golden with a heart to match, she was like Nana of Peter Pan and would go insane if the kids dared to go outside of our yard. My babies would crawl over her, pull her ears, steal her food, nap with her and never a flinch. I still miss her like crazy. :(

[Lorien]

20. I'm surrounded by rentals and have visited them many times. They have

ALWAYS had renters with pets in them and I have never ONCE seen one get "trashed" because of a pet! The house with five kids was pretty trashed, the one with a teenage girl who threw huge tantrums was trashed-b ut NOT the ones occupied by owners with a few cats and dogs.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

23. More states need to adopt NJ & CT's laws

It is illegal for insurance companies to discriminate on breed.

[Lorien]

19. That's true in a lot of places. It's insane that landlords would keep that rule

especially during a down economy. I have rentals all around me and all-with one exception-allow pets. The one that's the exception frequently has "for rent" signs in front of it. ALL of my neighbors have pets except for those in the frequently unrented apartments.A cat rescue place that I've been talking with says that they are getting animals back that they adopted out years ago because of foreclosure and the unavailability of pet accepting rentals. One family came in with a beautiful Maine Coon mix. They cried as they passed her back to the rescue, but they could find no other way. It's insane; pets do no more damage (and usually none at all) to property than do children or a drunken spouse, but you rarely see "no kids allowed" on rentals outside of senior communities.

[demmiblue]

21. Maybe a fellow DUer can temporarily take-in Toby until you are able...

to find a place that allows an 'over-sized' pet.

Personally, I think that the weight limit is a stupid standard. Most 'big' dogs seem to be good citizens in terms of noise and behavior... especially a Golden Retriever.

You have resources here. Perhaps the 'Pets Group' can help you out.