Family Dog Victim During Ohio's Foreclosure Crisis

[OhioChick]

POSTED: 11:56 am EST December 24, 2007
UPDATED: 12:23 pm EST December 24, 2007

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The mortgage crisis unfolding around the country, particularly in hard-hit states like Ohio, often has an unpublicized victim: the family dog.

Nearly 20 percent of the 182 people who deposited dogs at the Franklin County Dog Shelter by the middle of December this year said they were being evicted.

"There's even a national term for it: 'foreclosure dogs,"' said Lisa Wahoff, the shelter's director. "We started seeing it more about 18 months ago, people writing 'foreclosure' or 'financial reasons' on their surrender forms."

The number of foreclosures filed in Franklin County is rising by about 2,200 a year. Last year, it jumped to 8,875.

Last week, the Franklin shelter recorded its own record number -- 360 dogs in a building meant to hold 250. About half were surrendered because of their owners' economic problems.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/14918762/detail.html

:(

[Skittles]

1. I just paid a 300 dollar non-refundable apartment deposit for a cat

it's very pricey keeping our beloved fur babies

[orleans]

2. it's very sad all the way around--for everyone (including the pets)

who don't understand what is happening--or why their people are saying goodbye or where their family has gone.

i can't really stand to think about it--it chokes me up

my dog was a shelter dog--her family got rid of her when she was nine months old--said they were moving and couldn't take her with (according to the shelter)

i have never met a nicer dog. she sang to me through the kennel cage and i said to her: "you can sing? that's beautiful. sing some more." and she did. i still adore her to this day (and she's been part of our family for years. and she still sings!)

but i think about how she must have felt, being separated from her family (i know they had a couple kids) and she is such a gentle soul, it breaks my heart when i imagine how she felt so long ago.

[SheilaT]

3. I used to do volunteer work

at a local animal shelter, and easily half of the cats and dogs we got were left off by people moving and unable to take the pet with them.

[lonestarnot]

4. I knew this was happening.

I had to put one of my old dogs down last week. :cry: I miss her, but I guess I should think about saving somebody at the shelter. Trouble with that is, compatibility with current residents here. The current dynamic of personalities is established (3 pooches) and if I disrupt it with a new pooch I could find myself with something I am not up to dealing with at the present time.