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Foreclosure crisis hits household pets hard, too
Counties seeing more abandoned animals in homes
Friday, Sept. 4, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL
Rocky, a 3-year-old schnauzer mix, had been at the Calvert Animal Welfare League shelter for two weeks Aug. 22, recovering from dehydration and starvation. Rocky was left tied up to a fence in front of an abandoned house in Prince George's County and a concerned citizen picked him up after a week of seeing him there and brought him to the shelter.
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The housing crisis has been hard enough on human residents who struggle to make payments or have to find new places to live. But man's best friend and other pets often need new homes as well and can lose their lives if they don't find them.
Worst of all, while these cases are rare, some families simply abandon a once-beloved pet in a shuttered home to die a slow death of dehydration and starvation if not found in time.
Early this year, Calvert County Animal Control Officer Tim Lewis was called to a home in the White Sands community in Lusby after evicted homeowners left a Rottweiler penned up outside in a kennel. While the dog's owner, who was out of the area, said in a telephone conversation with Lewis that his sister was caring for the dog, neighbors and real estate agents reported the animal was often without food and water. In the end, the man signed the dog over to the county, which had the animal put down after it lunged at caretakers.
Isolation and neglect had likely made the dog aggressive, Lewis said.
"It was a sad story all around. It doesn't matter how you looked at it, it was sad. It was a dog that could have been great and they just threw him in a kennel," he said. While recent campaigns have focused on not chaining dogs outside, kennels can be even more damaging because the dog has less freedom of movement. "It was really sad. What happened is I'm sure they didn't do much with him and it got aggressive. That's what happens with people too if you leave them alone too long."
Recently he has talked to residents concerned about "fish and cats, turtles and dogs. I think we had a fish a ways back. Sadly enough, you'd think people would be kinder. Wouldn't they think, ‘I have a fish in a tank, I have a dog out back,' and take them with them?" he said.
Jean Stuller, director of operations at the Charles County Humane Society, said the group's Waldorf shelter has seen fewer people coming in seeking to adopt animals, presumably for financial reasons. The group keeps some animals for the long term but those it cannot house go to Tri-County Animal Shelter in Hughesville where they might be put down, she said.
"[Recently] we had two cats turned into us because the owners were living in cars. We've had more animals turned in to us with that reason, that owners had lost their homes. … I do see adoptions are down quite a bit and that's probably because of the crisis," she said.
Barbara Whipkey, president of St. Mary's Animal Welfare League, said her group took in a filthy and terrified terrier mix found in an empty home in Lexington Park about two years ago after tenants moved out.
Maggie went on to be adopted but such stories do not always end so well. Late last year, a Glen Burnie cat was found dehydrated and emaciated in a home two months after its residents were evicted. Diagnosed with liver failure as a result of the deprivation, Calvert Animal Welfare League had the cat, named Thomas, put down days after getting him, according to Jodie Watts, feline manager for the group.
"I think my guess is that, in [the owners'] mind, they assume that someone will come in, find the animal take care of them," Whipkey said. "I'm not sure whether they believe that's a better ending than taking them to the county shelter, which is definitely not the case — the county shelter is a much better place to take them. They're going to be fed and watered. Leaving them there in the home is not a good situation. I don't know if its embarrassment at turning them in; I'm not sure if it's [because they think] the county shelter is a death sentence, which is not the case at all. I really don't know what goes through their mind."
Real estate agent Darlene Silvestro found Thomas while showing the house to clients. She remembered him as affectionate — and very thirsty — and brought the cat back to Prince Frederick in her car with her clients. She was disgusted that he was abandoned and surprised that other agents had not seen him.
"Throwaway pets. That's what you ought to call it. That's what they're doing," she said.
Michele Rockhill of St. Leonard is an agent with Long & Foster in Prince Frederick, the same place Silvestro works.
Rockhill is active with local animal welfare groups. She said she has not personally encountered clients having to give up their pets, but knows it is a problem because no-kill shelters throughout the region have hit capacity.
She is fostering a 7-year-old dog for the Calvert County Humane Society that was dumped in a neighborhood while suffering from "massive ear infections."
"The reason that I got this most recent dog, [whom] I call Angus, is because every foster home was full and that's the way it is for CAWL, for the Humane Society, for PAWS for Animals, Best Friends — whatever group it is, they're overflowing. It's a shame but that's what happens. And many times people don't want to give up animals, but if they've lost their home and [are] moving into rentals that don't accept pets, what do you do?" she said.
Patuxent Animal Welfare League, a network of foster homes serving Southern Maryland and Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties, is out of room for new animals because adoptions have slowed drastically, according to cat manager Mary Baldwin.
"Last year we had a cat given to us suddenly because of a foreclosure. We've had another cat whose owner lost her job and had to move in with friends and couldn't take the cat with her. … The recession, depression, whatever you call it has made it difficult for people who want to adopt a pet to be able to afford the adoption fee. Hence the adoptions have slowed down quite a bit, especially for adults," she said.
Calvert County Animal Control Supervisor Craig Dichter said he has not noticed more cases than normal.
"It's the deputies that [do] the evictions People have not been calling us to pick up the animals.
Surprisingly it's been very, very rare," he said. Occasionally an animal might be left behind in a house, but only briefly as the owners tend to return for them when they can.
"Surprisingly, I guess. We've been pretty lucky over here in this county," Dichter said.
