The Soaring Rate of Abandoned Animals Is the Latest Sign of a Deep Economic Crisis

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted April 28, 2009.

According to a survey by the American Pet Products Association, the average annual cost of owning a dog is roughly $1,400, while the average cost of a cat is about $1,000. In an article published in December, the Associated Press told the story of one New York woman who decided to euthanize her 15-year-old cat after discovering, days after losing her her job, that he would need "thousands of dollars in treatment and medications costing $65 a month to live." ("It was horrible," she said. "It killed us.")

In an economic downturn, says Arzoumanian, "people make a decison to stop spending certain kinds of money because they can't." In New York,
no stranger to rising unemployment or the foreclosure crisis, already-crowded city shelters are overburdened.

"The shelter just last week took in a dog through Animal Care and Control who had been locked into an apartment with her puppies,"Arzoumanian says. "She was basically starving -- she came in practically a skeleton -- so skinny it's hard to tell what kind of dog she was." As for the puppies, "they certainly acted as if they had been starving. When we fed them they were like little piranhas."

As is the case with any local rescue agencies with limited space, there are only so many animals Sean Casey can hold at once. Fortunately, adoptions seem to be holding steady for the moment. (That morning, a 3-month-old pit bull mix named Rose was taken home.)

"The odd thing seems to be that while there may be more animals coming through, so far it doesn't seem as if adoptions have dropped off," Arzoumanian said. "I don't know what's happening at the city shelter level, but so far, I don't think that adoptions have dropped off. But with more animals coming through, there are going to be more animals euthanized."

In fact, according to Betsy Saul, co-founder of Petfinder.com, which recently conducted a survey seeking information from its network of shelters and rescue groups, "approximately 37 percent of shelters and rescue groups have seen a decrease in pet adoptions over the past year."

According to Saul, who recently summarized the survey's findings on the Huffington Post, 84 percent of Petfinder.com animal shelters and rescue groups are receiving more pets in need due to the overall economic foreclosures and/or job losses.

"And sadly," she reported, "74 percent said that they have seen an increase in pets being given away or abandoned since this time last year due to these economic trials."

Roughly half of the shelters and rescue groups cited general financial difficulty as the No. 1 reason for people surrendering their pets. Sixteen percent cited foreclosures as the primary reason.

With pet surrenders and abandonment reaching emergency proportions, some organizations are taking action. Last June, the Houston-based organization No Paws Left Behind -- whose home page currently urges visitors facing foreclosure to create a "paw alert" by clicking on shelter and pet foster home icons --  started a grant program to assist local animal shelters.

And the Humane Society of the United States started a grant program last April to provide funds for nonprofit shelters and rescue groups following "reports about increases in animals being abandoned -- and particularly being given up in the face of a growing number of foreclosures." Last year, the Humane Society gave away some $80,000 in grants.

In the meantime, animal rescue workers are urging people not to leave pets behind, regardless of the circumstance.

"If you have to relinquish your pet, and you're not able to rehome them yourselves, never abandon the pet," a spokesperson for the Michigan Humane Society Never told the Associated Press. "Never leave them behind outdoors or in a closed home. It's never the right choice."

See more stories tagged with: pets, recession, economic crisis, humane society, dogs, cats, foreclosure pets, animal shelters, no paws left behind, sean casey animal rescue, aspca, stephen zawistowski, american society for the , betsy saul, petfinder.com, viviane arzoumanian, subprime mortage crisis, jacki lugg

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