Foreclosure Pets Crowding Animal Shelters Facing Euthanasia

March 2nd, 2009

The times are desperate. With the housing crisis surging more foreclosure pets are crowding into animal shelters facing the probability of euthanasia. The increase in animals and decrease in those seeking to adopt pets leaves very little options open for those managing the overcrowded shelters.

Lee County in Florida is leading in foreclosures. So too are the number of pet owners screaming for help. One shelter has a record of 80% killing. As middle class Americans are losing the ground under their feet thanks to foreclosures they are having to give up their pets. This has put tremendous pressure on animal shelters across the country.

One lady came crying because for her the choice of feeding either her dog or her child was a difficult one. Finally she came to Shari Johannes the owner of Dog Pack Rescue – a shelter in Kingston, which does not indulge in euthanasia. They try to keep the pets until someone adopts them. Johannes keeps about 180 dogs on five acres of land. It is full to capacity and she refuses further entrants even though people are begging tearfully. When the no-kill shelters refuse the animals the foreclosure victims have no alternative but to take their foreclosure pets to those shelters that kill them when time and space runs out.

Georgia ranked sixth in the national foreclosure numbers in May. The animal shelter organizations from here reported that during the first half of the year the number of abandoned pets had greatly increased. Henry County Animal Care and Control in McDonough Georgia reported a spike of 71% in animals seeking shelter during the first four months of the current year in comparison to the previous year of 2007. Clayton County there was an increase in 22% pets seeking shelter during the first part of this year compared to 2007.

Other areas with high foreclosure rates reported similar increases in number of abandoned animals said Wayne Pacelle who is the chief executive and president of Humane Society of the United States. He noted with alarm that although the number of pets seeking shelter has increased donations and offers for adductions have sharply decreased. The Humane Society has of late started a foreclosure fund that offers grants to the tune of $5,000 to $2,000 to assist the non-profit animal rescue teams who are weathering the crisis. So far there have been 133 applications. Grants have been sanctioned to 11 groups.