Home Foreclosures Leave Dogs Homeless

The rise in property foreclosures is resulting in bargain prices for those looking to buy a home, but those bargains come at a devastating cost to the family pets who are increasingly left behind to fend for themselves.
 
As reported by Associated Press, pets are becoming the newest victims of the nation's mortgage crisis. Inspectors and real estate brokers who enter abandoned properties are discovering dogs tied to trees or left in garages.
 
The phenomenon of "foreclosure pets" has victimized many family dogs, such as the starving pit bull found hidden in the wreckage of a house the foreclosed homeowners had trashed by ripping the floors and busting the walls.
 
Pets "are getting dumped all over," said Traci Jennings of the Humane Society of Stanislaus County in northern California. "Farmers are finding dogs dumped on their grazing grounds." The abandoned animals are flooding animal shelters, which are now operating at maximum capacity. The increase in adoptable dogs comes at a time when fewer people are adopting, which sadly results in higher euthanasia rates.
 
Kathy Potter of the San Joaquin Animal Shelter in Stockton, Calif., said of pet owners who face foreclosure, "They're usually breaking down on the phone. I'm quite direct with them that there's a 50-50 chance the animals might be put down."
 
Many desperate homeowners are calling animal shelters as a last resort, when they learn that rescue groups have no room for more pets. But animal-welfare organizations are urging homeowners to make every effort not to wait until the eleventh hour, and to make emergency plans for the family pet as early as possible.
 
"It is difficult and heartbreaking to lose a pet as a result of economic hardship," said ASPCA President Ed Sayres. "But pet parents may take comfort in knowing that their pet will be better off, if they plan ahead."
 
As for the very real risk that the dog could wind up killed, "They may be euthanized at a shelter," allowed Stephanie Shain of the Humane Society of the United States. "But they'll be fed and have water and have a humane death, as opposed to spending the last days of their lives eating carpet or wallboard."  

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