As economy falters, more pets given away, abandoned

The Seattle Times (MCT) - With just $600 a month in disability payments to live on and mounting bills, Kurt Meehan faced a difficult choice: feed himself or feed his seven cats. His weekly trips to the Sultan food bank yielded little for his animal companions.

Workers at Pasado's Safe Haven, who rescued the cats earlier this week, said the pets seemed to be surviving on peanut butter and not much more.

"I had problems finding money for cat food," said Meehan, 48. "I had to make a decision to find help."

As the economy falters and layoffs and housing foreclosures rise, animal advocates say pets can be unseen victims. In the past few months, pets here have been found abandoned on the front porches of empty houses, pushed from cars on remote roads or in the case of some horses, left to starve in muddy fields.

The problem is worse in parts of the country with higher foreclosure rates, according to the American Humane Association. Allie Phillips, director of public policy for the organization, said more animals are being abandoned at shelters and more are being found _ alive and dead _ in foreclosed-upon homes in regions with high rates of defaults.

"Nationally, 20,000 homes a day are being foreclosed. About 50 percent have at least one pet, and many are being left behind. Do the math. It's a huge crisis," said Phillips.

Locally, shelters haven't been inundated with abandoned animals, but workers say more people admit to dropping off dogs and cats because they can no longer afford to keep them, or because they've been forced to move and either can't afford a pet deposit or can't find housing that accepts pets.

"We're seeing people surrendering well-loved, well-cared-for pets because they're being forced to downsize or are no longer able to provide care," said Brenda Barnette, CEO of the Seattle Humane Society. She said that just as food-bank donations are down, so are donations to the Humane Society's pet-food bank, which provides pet food to low-income seniors and AIDS patients.

"Our food-bank shelves are empty," she said.

Workers at Pasado's Safe Haven say the number of neglect and abandonment cases here started to rise in spring, as gas prices climbed above $4 a gallon. Angel Light, animal-cruelty investigator for the Monroe, Wash., rescue group, said people began to pay for gas with food money, and for groceries with what they had left, leaving some without enough for pet food and veterinary care.

A former animal-control officer in Sultan and Index, Wash., Light said she began to see stray dogs that witnesses said had been pushed from cars that then drove away. Last week in Granite Falls, Wash., a family evicted from a rental house left behind a dog, cat and chickens. Neighbors spotted the dog and cat on the porch, without food or water. They brought a blanket and fed them until Pasado's was finally contacted to pick the animals up.

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"We're getting more calls for abandoned animals," Light said.

Horses are also at risk for neglect and abandonment, animal advocates say, because the price of feed has nearly doubled in the past two years and the costs of boarding and grooming have also climbed.

"We're getting almost a call a day for horses who have been left at boarding facilities, left behind when a house is abandoned, or whose owners can no longer afford to keep them," said Jenny Edwards, founder of Hope for Horses, an equine-rescue organization between Monroe and Woodinville, Wash.

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Edwards pointed to the case of Jean Marie Elledge, who in October was sentenced to nine months in jail for allowing several horses to starve to death on her Carnation, Wash., farm. Edwards said many horse owners, such as Elledge, think they will be able to pay for their horses' upkeep by breeding and selling foals, and instead find themselves unable to pay for the animals' daily needs.

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Horses that might be able to survive on pasture grass in spring and summer, she said, begin showing signs of malnutrition in winter unless they're fed high-quality grain. The price of Timothy and orchard grass, two types of livestock feed, has climbed to more than $21 a bale, up from $11 a bale two years ago. Some horse owners, trying to keep costs down, feed their horses bedding straw, which has almost no nutritional value, she said.

Horses, donkeys and burros also need regular hoof care, which can cost between $35 and $100 per farrier visit, Edwards said.

"We know more animals are going to be neglected because of the economy," she said.

But not everyone abandons animals because of economic hard times. Hannah Evergreen, a Snohomish, Wash., veterinarian who specializes in the holistic care of large animals, said most of her clients will "eat ramen" rather than sacrifice their pets' well-being.

"They'll put their horses before themselves, in some cases," she said.

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But Evergreen said there has been a rise in the number of unwanted horses as the economy worsens and people struggle to pay for their animals' upkeep.

"It's harder to place horses and harder to find foster homes. People trying to downsize can't afford the expense," she said.

Pasado's Safe Haven has also recently investigated several cases of equine neglect. Among the most egregious were those of donkeys and burros hobbled because their hoofs had not been trimmed, possibly for years, said Light, the animal-cruelty investigator. She said hoofs should be trimmed every six to eight weeks.

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In Gold Bar, Wash., Kurt Meehan said he didn't have money to have his cats fixed, and then didn't have money for food as they multiplied. The cat urine and feces got out of control, exacerbating his own respiratory problems.

Earlier this week, as Pasado workers trapped and loaded his cats for transport, he said it was hard to lose his companions of many years.

"It hurts to see them go, but I've got to do something. I don't have the money for food."

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© 2008, The Seattle Times.