Forelcosures Leave Few Options For Animal Owners

July 25th, 2008

Foreclosures are leaving few options for animal owners. Each foreclosure pet has a different tragic tale to tell.

Max is a pooch who does not know or understand that he is going to lose his friends and home. Seven years ago he was picked up from the streets and ever since lived in style with the Strohmeyers in their Southwest Side home. But last week the house was foreclosed upon. Within three months the Strohmeyers will have to find a new shelter. It might not welcome Max the pooch.

In Pima County in this year alone there are 8,000 families hit by foreclosures. Many have pets – pets they can no longer afford to keep. Either funds will not permit or new landlords will not allow pets.

Like Max there are many others anxious to be adopted. Apart from Max the Strohmeyers have seven dogs plus thirteen goats. These goats have three kids. It will be next to impossible to find a place for twenty odd animals. The advertisements either outright says that no pets are allowed or grudgingly will agree to one or two at the most.

Local shelters are struggling with the number of pets dropped off on their doorsteps. One was a majestic blue-eyed husky. It was found abandoned on the porch of an empty house, reported Sheena Stewart of the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. The neighbours rescued it.

Cruelty towards animal and leaving it neglected without food and water are against the laws of the land and attracts a heavy penalty and or jail – sometimes both. Tammi Barrick of Foundation for Animals in Risk (FAIR) said that it is not merely a matter of food and water. There are questions of extreme heat and rains as well as dangers from coyote attack. The domestic animals cannot fight back the wild ones.

About 34,000 animals were abandoned at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona and Pima Animal Care Center during the fiscal year of 2007 that closed on 30th June.

FAIR has observed that many previously adopted animals are returning back to them recently. Everything points to the economic meltdown. It is heart wrenching to see these pets being uprooted from families with whom they have been staying for nearly a decade. There is no direct statement that the animals are coming because of foreclosures but one can make conjectures and infer.