Foreclosures can mean abandonment, death for pets

It's happening everywhere. People are finding it harder and harder to make their mortgage payments. Some of them sell their homes and have to rent or move in with family. Others play it out until the bitter end, and are evicted when their homes go into foreclosure. Either way, they are often unable to take their pets with them.

The owner of PetHobbyist.com adopted his brother's dog Joey when he and his family couldn't find a place to buy or rent that allowed pets when they had to put their house on the market. Shelters in particularly foreclosure-heavy areas like Stockton, CA, are struggling with the numbers of animals coming in their doors. And all too often, home inspectors and loan company representatives are finding unhappy surprises when they enter repossessed homes:

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.

Pets "are getting dumped all over," said Traci Jennings, president of the Humane Society of Stanislaus County in northern California. "Farmers are finding dogs dumped on their grazing grounds, while house cats are showing up in wild cat colonies."

In one such colony in Modesto, two obviously tame cats watched alone from a distance as a group of feral cats devoured a pile of dry food Jennings offered.

"These are obviously abandoned cats," Jennings said. "They're not afraid of people, and they stay away from the feral cats because they're ostracized by them."

The abandoned pets are overwhelming animal shelters and drawing fury from bloggers, especially as photos of emaciated animals circulate on the Internet.

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.