Posted on 11/26/2008 5:36:28 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
Furry signs of a down-trending economy peer dolefully from every kennel at the Broward County Humane Society shelter in Florida and hundreds of others across the country.
This dog was abandoned when his family lost their home to foreclosure, officials say. 3 of 3 Bentley, a 3-year-old Lhasa apso, was given up by his owners because they just couldn't afford to keep him any more.
Tinkerbell, a sweet, docile house cat, was surrendered by her owners after they found out that they had lost their home.
With foreclosures disrupting life, from the family house down to the dog house, and as Americans toil through a tough economic landscape, some of their pets face an even bleaker future in the pound.
"People lose their homes and have to move to apartments that don't accept pets, so they give them up," says Cheryl McAuliffe, a spokeswoman for the Georgia State Humane Society.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
These people really don’t love those pets.
No kidding. It’s not that expensive. Clearly, money isn’t the motivator. I could find enough cans alongside the road to feed my dog, and i would, if that’s what it took, to keep him.
No kidding. Most pets can get by on human food leftovers if things really do get tough.
If these people aren't responsible enough to keep a home, they aren't responsible enough to keep a pet.
They just can't be bothered with any responsiblity and take the easiest route.
Get rid of the home, get rid of the pet, get rid of the kids, get rid of the wife etc
I certainly HOPE the owners explained the CHANGE to tinkerbell, and advised it to contact any Washington politician for a piece of the bailout dough.
the people in this article just don't want the headache.
“No kidding. It’s not that expensive. Clearly, money isn’t the motivator”
I agree, but the article did mention that they sometimes have to move into apartments that don’t accept pets, hence having to give them up.
Around here, there are farm and farmette foreclosures, and horses are starving as the grass goes into its winter hibernation and the owners are unable to pay for hay. Local rescue organizations are full of starved horses, which they try to save. Some owners are simply turning horses loose, hoping that they will find grass to eat somewhere, but more often the horses simply panic, run out onto the road, and get killed.
I was faced with a somewhat similar situation, and I managed to find an apartment that let me keep the dog. (I have my own house now, with a big yard for the boy) I’d live in my car before I got rid of my best friend.
you might have to look harder, and do more legwork, but there are always places that accept pets. Especially if said pet is a cat or small dog. More work if you have a pit bull I guess. Lazy is a better word for these people.
Being military we’ve lived in rented or base housing until less than 1 month ago (we are going to be here for more than the usual 3 years so we bought). We’ve always had at least one pet. We’ve never gone homeless due to a lack of rental properties allowing pets, and we’ve never dumped an animal at the pound. As a matter of fact, our cat came from the pound two bases ago.
We felt that we could easily handle a third cat (we've had three before) and that it would help out the shelter. We brought home a five year old cat who had been at the shelter for 18 months.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Stories like these coming from a leftist media outlet are most likely being written to touch people’s feelings that the cold hearted government needs to give money to these folks in foreclosed homes so they can keep their pets.
Never underestimate the power of a leftist to sway public opinion.
There are more and more apartments allowing renters to keep a pet - I pay a small ($15.00) surcharge for my cat.
If I had to live in my minivan till I got back up on my feet, I'd keep my cat.
Good for you!
I saved a little Chihuahua mix from certain death in the street. He has been at the vets waiting for a family for about 2 weeks. I got a call yesterday that he would be taken home by a family today. I hope it works out for all concerned.
My pound purrrrry sends yours her congratulations on getting out of the shelter! :)
I volunteer in rescue....and all across the country shelters are slammed with dogs and cats. We have never seen it this bad EVER! This national financial crisis has made a bad situation worse for these great companions!People are dumping their animals at shelters like crazy and so many animals are dying(keep in mind that at most kill shelters an owner turn in can be put down immediately). DOgs barely have 24 hours in most cases to get out alive and that is just not enough time to arrange a pull, vetting and transport with funding these days. Rescues have seen their donations down to all time lows and it will only get worse through the holidays. ....and come January, February, March and April you will see buyers remorse and shelters will be overwhelmed with Christmas puppies so the older dogs will have even less of a shot at survival!
If you can...please donate either time, a ride,money, toys, beds, food or a foster home for a dog or cat. Sometimes all a rescue needs to save a dogs life is just a night in someones home while transport is arranged. And adopting a dog from a shelter is very inexpensive!
Saving one dog will not change the world... But, surely, for that one dog the world will change forever!
God Bless you and your wife for saving a life.
Happy Thanksgiving!
“Tinkerbell, a sweet, docile house cat, was surrendered by her owners after they found out that they had lost their home.”
Well, except for keeping Tinkerbell, this is still the best thing to do. She could be thrown from a car, or off a bridge, or find herself on a spit ... just saying.
This all has to do with personal responsibility. The same people who took out mortgages that they couldn't afford and will burden the rest of us with them, aren't even responsible enough to drive to a shelter to drop off their pets. What kind of ass clown leaves a dog chained in the backyard? I agree with the PP about donating time or money to this cause. Frankly, I think many of these animals are more deserving of my money then their owners.
Ain't that the truth! - Leaving a pet chained up to starve is about as low as you can go. At least the cats and dogs that get dumped out in the woods have a chance to hunt for food before they become food.
Well met. Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours.
Bingo! You nailed it in your post.
Re: DOgs barely have 24 hours in most cases to get out alive
Man, I hate reading stories like this.
Both my fiance and myself want a dog badly, but we both work and bike on weekends and are afraid that we won’t have the time to devote to the animal. We really want one but I understand the time and effort of having a pet.....it is almost like having a child. You need to spend time with them and walk them everyday.
Re: Stories like these coming from a leftist media outlet are most likely being written to touch people’s feelings that the cold hearted government needs to give money to these folks in foreclosed homes so they can keep their pets.
Or the fact that shelters are overflowing as per post #18.
Bless you and the Mrs. Those mature cats have a much harder time getting adopted and are just as loving as a mammal can be.
We have a larger than average Malti-poo. I call it our Malti-dane. I keep telling my wife that we need to keep it becuase if things get really tough he contains a weeks worth of protien just waiting to be harvested.
People don’t understand just how many unexpected ramifications the downturn will have. Abandoned pets, domestic violence, divorce, crime, murder and, ultimately, what ended the GD - war.
>>Saving one dog will not change the world... But, surely, for that one dog the world will change forever!<<
Yes, but they are really not that bright. They cannot fully appreciate it.
There is a reason they are called “dumb animals”. Some are smarter than others, I grant you, but if you want to see REAL intelligence and self-awareness, train a human child. You can teach them to do almost ANYTHING!
Right now I am petless. Can’t change that til spring. My dog had to move in with my son and family. All my cats and dogs down through the years have been throwaways. I have a friend that has three rescue dogs right now. She and hubby have had other rescue dogs. One sadly had to be returned, but in this case is not adoptable but will not be put down.
She collects supplies to take to her rescue shelter- old towels, birthday money spent on supplies needed-
She also donates supplies to her local vet.
The rescue places I know about are privately funded and use volunteer workers.
Pick an hour or two a week/month and volunteer- lots of need. Some people just spend time playing with the animals.
Happy Holidays!
Re-Yes, but they are really not that bright. They cannot fully appreciate it.
There is a reason they are called “dumb animals”. Some are smarter than others, I grant you, but if you want to see REAL intelligence and self-awareness, train a human child. You can teach them to do almost ANYTHING!
I think you missed my point entirely!
I was just trying to say that changing the world for an animal, although not a bad thing, is not as productive as changing the world for a human being, which is created in God’s image, is self aware, and spiritual.
We raised 3 adopted children and at the same time nurtured dozens and dozen of pets. Do you think that doing one keeps people from doing the other?
There are skid row bums in Los Angeles, living on the streets, who manage to feed their dogs on a daily basis — and lots of people are using the “losing our home” excuse as a reason to turn in their animals to shelters and rescue groups without incurring the wrath. In L.A., the shelters generally ask no questions and are not judgmental, but rescue groups make people feel like criminals for turning animals in — perhaps this housing crisis has softened these zealots’ views?
Things may be different elsewhere, but here in CA there are laws forcing property owners to accept animals in their rental units, just as they have for a long time forced owners to accept children.
There is really no excuse here for not taking an animal (one animal per unit is permitted, if not more) into an apartment/other rental unless that pet owner simply does not want to continue owning the pet and paying for its care.
In Los Angeles County (at the least) it is a FELONY to tie an animal to a tree and abandon it for someone else to find. Of course, the trick is to find and arrest the people who do this.
Don’t forget....God made all creatures.....including the dog.......and they make wonderful loving companions to many......they offer something very special too...unconditional love. You can have the worst day ever and come home to your dogs and they will wag their tails and be so happy to see you.....not every human is that way....
Happy Thanksgiving.....
Amen.
Considering what is put in most pet food these days, left overs are probably better for the pet anyway!
The little dog I saved from sure death in the traffic was picked up today by his new family. I hope all goes well.
Another person who saw my e mail called wanting the dog late this afternoon. I think I am going to take this 2nd person to the SPCA and see if she can find one she likes there.
“Do you think that doing one keeps people from doing the other?” Absolutely.
Why didn’t you adopt six kids instead?
Don’t worry, I am just kidding. But I’m serious about the point. Time and money are limited commodities. When you expend either on one thing, you are taking it away from something else.
One person is literally more valuable than all the pets in the world, for the one person was designed for communion with God. The animals are natural resources, and one of their “resource values” is as companions to the flesh we occupy while we spend our short time on this planet. They die and become plant/worm food. For humans though, only the body we occupy dies.
>>...they offer something very special too...unconditional love.<<
Unconditional yes, but love?
>>You can have the worst day ever and come home to your dogs and they will wag their tails and be so happy to see you.....not every human is that way....<<
That is because humans are much more complex - and made in the image of God, yet sinners. People love “lap dogs”, but they don’t respect a human that is a “lap dog”. There is a reason for that.
Yes love!
I will presume you don’t care much for dogs.....probably better off for them.
Of course I place more value on human life than I do animal life, that is not even in question.
I ask God to send me children (I didn’t specify a number) and he sent me 3, if he had wanted me to raise more he would have sent them. I would have been open to them. I have animals for my own pleasure and they bring me great joy. I have picked up strays all my life.
>>I will presume you don’t care much for dogs.....probably better off for them.<<
I like ‘em a lot. But I know what love is. I also know what fondness is, what “like” is.
But I also like squirrels. I trained them to climb up my body, sit on my shoulder and take an almond from my finger. I like them. I don’t love them because they are not human.
I like trees too. I like nature, but I don’t love it. I love the CREATOR of nature, but not nature itself.
There is a line from the movie “Big fish” where the son suspects a woman had an affair with his father years ago. The woman said (I quote the best I can), “To your father there were two women in the world: Your mother; and the rest of them.”
I revert to what I said to some animal rights activists in front of a fir shop back in 1991: “Nature is divided into two groups: Man, and everything else. Only man is made in the image of God. Only man has the capability to love because that love comes from God. Animals can reasonably “mimic” love which is why we domesticate the more “predictable” ones, most “cuddly” ones.
Fact is, it “feels” like love. But for me, it is like a movie. I can cry at the end of a chick flick because I can suspend disbelief. I know it isn’t real, and just actors crying crocodile tears, and a good script. But suspended disbelief allows me to “feel it as though it were real”.
I do the same with animals. I cuddled and played with our Malti-poo ten minutes before writing this. It was great and it “feels” like human affection the animal is giving me. But that is because I can suspend disbelief as when watching the movie. If I really needed protein right now I would have no qualms about killing and gutting Hami and cooking him up.
I spent enough time on a farm when a child to have a realistic grasp of the difference between an animal and a man.
People who only experience pets, zoos and “Bambi” have no clue about what motivates animals. Everything is about why. Everything! Fact is, animals can do the same “loving” things as humans, but for entirely different reasons.
It aint love, any more than “sweet nothings” programed into, and proclaimed by a computer are love. Its conditioning and instinct.
Frankly, much (but not all) of what we call “love” exhibited by humans isn’t love either.
Love is an action, and even then only when the action is rooted in specific selfless motives. Since animals are not self aware, “selfless” or even “selfish” do not apply. Therefore “love” does not apply as a definition for animals or their actions, any more than “thoughtful” applies to your computer telling you what time it is.
I really like playing with Hami though...
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