Home foreclosures leave more and more dogs homeless

Posted on Mar 7, 2008 By Julia Szabo Comments (1)

As noted here in January, the nationwide mortgage crisis has victimized thousands of family dogs, and continues to victimize many more.  

From Minnesota to Massachusetts, pets are left behind on abandoned properties to fend for themselves. The luckier ones are taken by their owners to animal shelters. "Luckier" is relative: animal shelters are seriously overburdened, so dogs have at best a 50 percent chance of being killed just for lack of cage space.  

Animal shelter staff have witnessed heartbreaking scenes of separation; the trauma of losing home and family is especially hard on senior dogs. Compounding the tragedy is the sad fact that seniors are often the last to be adopted (if they make it out of the shelter at all).  

In Boston, a widow was devastated to surrender her seven gentle huskies. "Those dogs were her life," the assistant manager of the Animal Rescue League of Boston told The Boston Globe. "She lost her husband, her house, and then her beloved dogs."  

In the last three months, about 30 animals were surrendered to the Animal Rescue League of Boston by families facing foreclosure. Over at the Brockton branch of the MSPCA, it's estimated that six "foreclosure dogs" came in this month.  

But one East Coast shelter has devised a creative solution to the dilemma of "foreclosure dogs." Doreen Currier, director of the Worcester Animal Rescue League, instituted a policy permitting foreclosure pets to remain in the shelter at no cost for 90 days while their owners seek pet-friendly housing. If the owners can't find homes that will allow pets, the animals go up for adoption. Once a pet has been adopted into a new home, the previous owner has no claim to the pet.  

As Currier told the Globe, "We'd much rather see [dogs] go home to their owners, where they belong."  

Now more than ever, your local animal shelter needs your help - please consider fostering a foreclosure pet to free up cage space so there's room for one more.

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