I live in Georgia. Georgia is currently 2nd in the nation in personal bankruptcies, and 7th in home foreclosures.
So the bank foreclosed your mortgage and you need to move quickly. You’ve rented a trailer and loaded everything worth taking with you to your new rented home. The problem is that you have two cats, or a dog, or a guinea pig and your new landlord doesn’t allow pets. So what do you do? Sadly, the solution much too often is that people in similar situations simply leave them behind. Surely, someone else will care for them, right?
Right?
Nope. We now have a new phrase in our lexicon: foreclosure pets.
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
The house was ravaged — its floors ripped, walls busted and lights smashed by owners who trashed their home before a bank foreclosed on it. Hidden in the wreckage was an abandoned member of the family: a starving pit bull.
The dog found by workers was too far gone to save — another example of how pets are becoming the newest victims of the nation’s mortgage crisis as homeowners leave animals behind when they can no longer afford their property.
The first people to enter an abandoned house, such as property inspectors and real estate brokers, have discovered dogs tied to trees in backyards, cats in garages, and turtles, rabbits and lizards in children’s bedrooms.
The problem is exacerbated because most people grappling with foreclosure are returning to rental housing or moving in with relatives — two situations where it can be difficult or impossible to bring pets.
Foreclosures often are an undesirable result arising from one or more of the following:
- Unemployment. They were laid-off, fired or quit job.
- An inability to continue working due to medical conditions.
- Incapacitation. Drug or alcohol addictions.
- Excessive debt and mounting bill obligations.
- Squabbles with co-owner or pending divorce.
- Job transfer to another state.
Although the pet didn’t cause any of the above events it is they that often bear the brunt of pain by being left behind to fend for themselves.
Sometimes people view themselves as victims of circumstances beyond their control. They feel helpless and are often depressed. Depression causes people to be indifferent to others, themselves and their obligations, namely their pets. Sadly, something has to give.
But pets are living beings, and there’s more than a few of us that really believe they have souls and emotions. Don’t let the truly innocent suffer needlessly. They feel hurt and pain and loneliness and always give back to us far more then they ever ask.
Kristy Knecht moved out of her house and left two dogs, a German Shepherd and a Belgian Malinois locked up in the house for months. She said she’s toss some food into the house occasionally but never went in. By the time Animal Control made it on the scene, the German Shepherd had died and the Belgian Malinois, Neeko, has survived only by eating the corpse of the dead dog. Even then, the once 80 lb dog had dwindled to only 30 lbs and was no more than skin and bones. Neeko is still recovering and will be for month yet but this cruel neglect. Aurora animal investigators are recommending felony animal cruelty charges.
Another? All that remains of the black Lab are the claw marks across the cement floor and down the door of the basement. Those scratches tell the story of Jack’s last days as he starved to death in a St. Clair Shores home, abandoned for more than a month by his owner. Sopoliga had bought the home on Rosedale from his grandfather but never made a mortgage payment. Instead of settling up with the bank, Margolis said, Sopoliga abandoned the house, leaving his belongings inside. That included the dog.
Since most foreclosures take months, pet owners should have ample time to find a new place that takes animals. If you are facing foreclosure and cannot care for your pets, or if you know someone has left a pet behind, call your local animal shelter or humane society. There are also rescue organizations of all sorts. There is no need for their suffering - they are suffering enough already by being separated from their owners.
foreclosure, foreclosure pets, pet, animal cruelty, animal shelter, humane society
