“These aren’t just scroungy dogs on the side of the road,” Ms. Gambill said. “These are pets.”

Some owners told the shelter’s director, Beth Brewster, that they had to downsize to apartments that do not accept animals. Others said they were too busy cleaning the spill to properly care for them. Few people, however, are willing to admit that they cannot feed both family and pet.

“I think it’s the uncertainty of the future,” Ms. Brewster said. “It’s more logistics than it is poverty.”

In a proud parish where three dollar stores operate between shopping centers shuttered five years after Katrina, and where residents wait six hours for $100 food cards distributed weekly by Catholic Charities, the animal shelter’s statistics reflect the jarring anxiety of the oil-ravaged economy.

In June 2009, owners brought 17 pets in to the shelter; last month, owners relinquished more than 100 pets, Ms. Brewster said. To make room in the kennels, the sickest animals and those most unlikely to be adopted — primarily feral cats and aggressive dogs — have been euthanized, she said.

The situation is different than after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when owners abandoned their pets in haste, and later out of necessity when they themselves had no homes. Then, overcrowded shelters focused on rescue and reunion missions.