Homeowners still being forced to give up pets

A story out of Wisconsin tells of more and more animals being surrendered to shelters because their owners are losing their homes.

The whole article from the Baraboo News Republic can be read here.

The Sauk County Humane Society has 60 more cats this year than at the same time last year. They are up to over 100 right now.

As a result of the high number of surrenders, the Sauk County Humane Society is now offering adult cats for $10 to adopters. All cats have their required vaccinations, and a litter box, scooper and bag of food is included with an adoption.

Humane Societies in other locations also have resorted to such unconventional promotions in an effort to get cats new homes. In Boise, Idaho, for example, about 200 cats were recently offered with their adoption fees waived in order to relieve the shelter from an influx of cats because of hard economic times.

I've been writing about this for a while now. When is it going to get better?

Foreclosure pets on the rise in Arizona

Sister Gannett paper the Arizona Republic has a front page story on how pets are affected by the foreclosure and subprime mortgage crisis.

Reporter Samantha Hauser writes:

Foreclosures in metropolitan Phoenix continued to rise in May, with 3,402 foreclosures filed, up more than 14 percent from April, according to the Information Market.

Shelters across the nation also are seeing an increase, according to the Humane Society of the United States, which has no affiliation with the Arizona Humane Society.

The problem is most acute where foreclosures are common and the general economy is struggling. States such as Arizona, California and Florida are being inundated with foreclosed homes, and subsequently, their animal shelters are being flooded with pets.

I've written about this several times in the past.

There are grants to help shelters that find themselves overwhelmed. But it's really going to take a turnaround in the economy to get things back to normal.