George Wolf
Jul 9,2008
In: Foreclosure Victims

Foreclosure Pets

The terms Foreclosure Pets is of new coinage – it has been tagged to those unfortunate domesticated animals that have been become victims of the reigning foreclosure crisis. It is no fault of the pets – it’s the fault of the human society in which they had laid their trust, love and faith.

Animal societies have noticed that the number of pets left at shelters have been steadily increasing in those areas where foreclosures are most intense.

Most of the animal shelter societies are run on donations. With the economy going through a slump the donations have started to dwindle while the number of shelter seekers have increased. This has put the shelter organizations under great strain. They are full to the capacity and can only keep waiting list.

There are two types of shelters – one resorting to mercy killing and the other refusing to do so. But sometimes it is unavoidable and perhaps all for the best. The older pets are riddled with disease and funds for treatments are not there. Those who want to adopt usually take the younger dogs and cats.

The numbers of those who want to adopt pets have also declined with the economy taking its toll. It has become a hard choice – whom to feed, the human child of the pet. So with donations and adoptions on the decrease the animal shelters are in a fix. Despite these constraints the animal shelters do not give out pets free to those who want to adopt. They charge a certain fee because they want to test if the applicant can afford to keep the animal. In some cases a second dog or cat is given free to the person who pays for one.

The neighbours and the bank’s agents who arrive to fix up the house are the first ones to come across the hapless pets. It is not everybody that takes the trouble to seek out a shelter for the animal. Some are just left to roam and survive. Thin, emaciated and half dead cats and dogs are often picked up from the streets. Other owners rushing off forget the pets and keep them inside the closed house or worse – chained. They die a slow painful death if timely help does not arrive. One family discarded their tired sofa with their pet tied to it in a dump. Another elderly couple unable to live with foreclosure shot themselves after shooting their three dogs.

It is not just dogs and cats but also farm animals like horses and sheep. One inspector found a domesticated pig left behind

The problem does not get solved for the animal with the provision of food and shelter. Pets are very sensitive. They pine for their previous owners and slump into a state of depression. Their sighs give out the wrong vibrations to a greedy selfish society that do not pause to think of the trees and animals that share this planet with us. Nature hates a vacuum. Snakes, frogs and mosquitoes are quietly creeping in to add to the foreclosure mayhem.