Andrea Rosebrock 
A little over a month ago I did a sad story on foreclosure pets and here’s yet another example of that horror of abandonment and neglect.
It seems that in Arizona, like so many place in the US, as foreclosure rates increase, so do the rates of pets abandoned by owners. There is no excuse… period!! No one has the right to inflict such a cruel torture on a companion animal. You took on the responsibility, damnit, follow-thru!
Real estate agents in Arizona said they’re walking into foreclosed homes and finding abandoned pets.
One agent found a pooch named Sophie and another dog ditched by their last owner.
“They were left in a back yard that was all dirt,” said Carrie Singer, a Phoenix-area real estate agent. “They were drinking water out of a paint bucket.”
The animals were discovered a few days ago at a foreclosed Phoenix home.
“That’s happening more often than I’d like to think,” Singer said.
Foreclosure fever is bringing out the worst in irresponsible animal owners who move without plans for their pets, Singer said.
A mortgage research company recently said the Phoenix-Mesa metro region has the 15th highest rate of foreclosure activity among the nation’s largest 100 metropolitan areas.
A study by RealtyTrac said during the three months ended September 30th, there were 18,328 total foreclosure filings in the Phoenix-Mesa areas.
Since most foreclosures take months, pet owners should have ample time to find a new place that takes animals, or at least take them to the Arizona Humane Society, agents said.
“I think sometimes people may be thinking they can pull themselves back out of it so they kind of wait until the last minute,” Singer said. “Then when it doesn’t end up happening, they kind of just leave.”
Singer and thousands of others from Tucson to Flagstaff have started an E-mail network of adoptive pet owners to battle the latest downside to the real estate slump. (NBC Sandiego)
There is just no reason for anyone to ever do this to an animal! There are public resources, there are rescues, there are people who will go out of their way to help. No pet even need be abandoned! This shows such a callousness, such a heartlessness, such a selfishness on the homeowner’s part. They took the responsibilty to care for their pet and this responsibility does not end just because of a hardship. We all deal with hardships in our life, some worse than others but why should the innocent and defenseless be forced to suffer?
I cannot even begin to describe how very angry this makes me!! No one has the right to inflict these horrors on any living creature!
I couldn’t agree more. The sad thing is that these same cold, cruel people will go out and get more puppies at the first available chance. They do not deserve to have an animal, infact we should all have to have a liscence to own one after we pass a test to see if we’re competent enough. It is a priviledge to share your home with another creature and should no longer be treated as a right.