People are not the only ones feeling the harsh effects of home foreclosures. Pets are also victims — they lose their families, are abandoned or neglected or are left at shelters.

Many animal shelters across the nation report that they are seeing numerous animals being surrendered because of economic reasons, including foreclosure.

A spokesman for The Animal Welfare League in Chicago said, “We’re probably getting 25 [animals] a week coming to us for those reasons. It’s probably increased a lot in the past six to seven months.”

As people are foreclosing on their house and moving into an apartment, some people give up their pets because apartments may not be pet-friendly or it costs more to have a pet in an apartment with pet rent or additional pet deposits.

Some of these pets end up in shelters and some of these are neglected and left at the foreclosed home.

Officials around the nation have reported finding all types of pets being left at foreclosed houses and farms. In one case, 63 cats were left at a home in Cincinnati.

Stephanie Shain of the Humane Society of the United States said, “This isn’t the first time we’ve seen people abandoning their pets; it’s a problem throughout the year, when people move and can’t take their pets. But with this increase in foreclosures, we’re going to see more of it. Far too often, those animals die in those homes, and it’s a better scenario to get them to a shelter so that their last days are not spent alone, trying to eat wallboard or whatever they can find.”

But for some pets, even though they have been abandoned, they find a happy ending when they are adopted or when their owners take them back from foster care after their financial situation is in a better state.

The 63 cats (two of them pictured here) that were found abandoned in Cincinnati have also found a happy ending. Many of the cats have found new homes. One of the people who took in two of the cats even created a web site, foreclosurecats.org, to provide updates on the cats and to also raise funds by selling artwork to pay for the cats’ veterinary bills and expenses.

Source: Chicago Tribune



(Thanks Lynne and Julie)