Foreclosed Pets
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So the bank foreclosed your mortgage and you need to move quickly. You've rented a trailer and loaded everything worth taking with you to your new rented home. The problem is that you have two cats, or a dog, or a guinea pig and your new landlord doesn't allow pets. So what do you do? Sadly, the solution much too often is that people in similar situations simply leave them behind. Surely, someone else will care for them, right?
In my corner of the world, Cecily Tippery, a real estate agent who is an angel sent from heaven, along with a few fellow agents, is doing her best to help out the abandoned dogs, turtles, cats, and kittens that have been left behind in the foreclosed homes in which she specializes. They feed them, pay for urgent health needs, and attempt to find homes for them.
An apparent quirk in the law, which considers pets as personal property, prohibits banks from removing them from homes until 18 days after a foreclosure sale. As a real estate broker in a former life, I know that foreclosure sales often take place long months after the occupants have left. The Contra Costa Times, a local newspaper, quotes Lt. Joe Decosta, an animal control official:
- "Part of the problem may be the legal definition of the animals as property."
"There's no clause for them being a living being," he said.
"If there's no water for them, no heat, no shelter, no food, something's suffering."
The sad truth is that animal abuse takes many forms. People who have lost their homes no doubt believe that the best thing they can do for pets they loved is to leave them behind in the hopes someone else will care for them. Unfortunately few communities have a Cecil Tippery willing to go the extra mile for these dogs, cats, and other pets, living beings who have been left behind like discarded furniture.
Comments
Thanks for highlightling this issue, Franny. People need to be motivated to find a humane and legal alternative for pets they decide they will not keep. Perhaps some or many figure someone else will take care for them, but some also probably don’t care and this isn’t the first or last animal they’ve left to fend for themselves.
For those not motivated by compassion for animals, they should be motivated by the desire to avoid the consequences of abandonment. Since there too often seems to be no consequences for abandoning pets, there’s not much motivation to be change.
As someone who rescues animals, I believe that abandoning animals should be a crime with consequences such as jail time or a large fine.
There is no excuse for anyone doing that when there are shelters and rescue groups that would gladly take an animal that was going to be left behind. I rescued a cat that my neighbor left behind when she moved and it was a year that he spent living and surviving on his own before I found out where he came from. If I thought it would do any good, I would have turned her in but unfortunantly, as you said, the law considers these live, loving beings as property, not family members. It is my opinion that people should have to be tested to see if they are fit to even own an animal and if so, there would be alot less stray and uncared for animals around today..
I agree there should be a law about moving and leaving your animals behind. I have been feeding “Sox” who was hanging around mynew residence. The local police officer informed me he used to belong to ” so and so ” and they moved and left him. If the police knew who the people were, why weren’t they contacted and sited for this???
I found a cat in my yard who was left by a former neighbor. I’m hoping this lovely male cat got out during the moving process and could not be found. His owners did not leave a forwarding address with the new owner of their nearby home nor with the vet whose number was on “Sam”’s collar. He got along with my 2 cats splendidly but I was concerned about his being the 3rd cat in my family. Through a friend from work, I was able to place him with a friend of that friend. They both now live happily in CA (having moved from MD); she gave me a big grateful hug for connecting her with this spry and charming kitty who found me and eventually found a new home. Sigh. He could easily have been killed by one of the strong-willed street cats that shared my alley. A talk to their vet; a trip to our no-kill shelter would have been better. I’m just relieved he found a good home. Perhaps some good info to real estate agents on making useful suggestions when a cat needs to be left behind would help ..?.
As a City Housing Inspector of 25 years, I have seen many pets left behind after the owners were evicted or moved. In one year alone I ended up rescuing 23 cats and kittens and, thankfully,finding homes for them. Now I have 3 “foster” cats that were left behind when their owner was taken to a cancer hospice and died. The cats remained at the property for months waiting for her to come back.Instead, the bank foreclosed on the house and threw everything out. I contacted the family but no one wanted the cats, so I have housed, fed and taken them to the vet for months. No rescue orgs. will help. They say they have all the cats they can take. I have a very busy life, my mother has Alzheimer’s,and I want these girls in good homes. Death is unavoidable and it leaves pets abandoned too, but purposely leaving a pet behind, I will never understand.
If it helps, I have posted an article on homebuying at About.com concerning this topic. I hope it’s OK I put a link in here to it.
I run a cat rescue in Lethbridge, AB., Canada, The Last Chance Cat Ranch. Many of the cats here were left behind, one in a closet for 4 days with no food and water, and he pulled all the fur off his stomach in stress; otheres left outside crying at doors to go back in the house…we need strict enforcement for this type of cruelty, albeit, this is Alberta, Canada and so m uch animal abuse that gets only a slap on the wrist! We need more advocates for our voiceless ones!
I have 6 cats and 2 dogs, all have come from rescue groups or I have rescued them from the streets. I am about to take 2 more cats in because my friend, who owned them, died of cancer & her family doesn’t want them. I didn’t plan on a houseful(thank god we have $$ coming in and I don’t work so I can be home with the gang) but SOMEONE has to take in these loving, abandoned or abused pets. Why do people get animals if they know they’re going to just dump them if something happens such as foreclosure? We chose not to have children and NOT to buy a house we knew we couldn’t afford-it leaves us more to spend on the animals. You hear stories about little old “cat ladies”-well, if these idiots would spay/neuter their animals and care for them as a valued family member, there wouldn’t be an abandoned pet problem & people like me wouldn’t fill our homes with other people’s rejected animals.
This is beyond sad, brings me to tears. I can’t imagine leaving my boys behind to fend for themselves in any circumstances. I am blessed to have family who would take them in in a heartbeat, if the worst imaginable were to happen to me but the thought of this kind of neglect and abandonment makes me want to cry.
It makes me angry to read about these pets so callously left behind. 2 of my 3 cats were adopted by me after people presumably abandoned or dumped them in the condo development where I live. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that the same people who foolishly lose their homes would be so irresponsible and cruel as to leave a pet behind. I know there are people who have lost their homes due to understandable circumstances. But many of these people are foolish and uncaring enough to put themselves and their families in jeopardy… why should we be surprised that they treat pets in such a dismissive manner? As usual, there are a very few compassionate people trying to clean up the mess that these subhumans leave behind.
Thank you to all of you out there fighting for these innocent little creatures. There is a special place in heaven for all of us animal rescue ‘angels.’
I cried when I read about this. I am an animal lover and worry about them all the time, but honestly the thought had never occured to me that people would leave their animals behind like that! I have called the police regarding animals (I live in Los Angeles) and they will not come. They refer you to the over worked animal regulation dept and animals can die before they get around to taking any action. I have rescued many animals myself, and will continue to do so. What can I do to help the foreclosed animals? Thanks for writing! -Laura in Los Angeles
I am saddened that people view animals as disposal items. This mentality has always existed in our society. It has become more apparent now in these dreadfully hard economic times. I am compelled to write this because of a comment that I heard somebody make toward people who are finding themselves unable to pay their mortgage or who are finding it difficult to feed their animals during these days. The comment stated that a person has to be irresponsible in order to get themselves into this situation. My comment to this is WAKE UP! We are in the midst of an economic recession. Even people who have college degrees are making 1/3 less than they should be making, that is if they are lucky enough to find an underpaid job. People are losing their homes! Not because they are stupid or irresponsible, but because there are no jobs for the jobless and the available jobs don’t pay! It is easy to sit up on your pedestool where you obviously have some form of uninterrupted comfort and label everyone else irresponsible-unlike yourself, but be aware, that our economy will get worse before it gets better, and we can all easily find ourselves in the same situation. I especially love those comments about how obviously irrisponsible someone must be to get themselves into a situation- a clear indication of complete ignorance! Perhaps some of us less irresponsible mortgage payers could offer to become foster homes to our neighbors in need.
Hold on thar, baba-looey Sherri - Folks who bought homes at the peak of the real estate “bubble” simply were NOT THINKING! They thought that low, low arm mortgages would magically empower them to afford their new six figure palaces, without factoring in the old formula that one’s after-tax monthly income should be AT LEAST 4 times greater than their housing expenses. Anyway, god bless the “dumb” animals that have to suffer our “divine” conceit!
I believe people that are about to lose their home are not thinking straight and they forget about the pets! I cannot stand the thought of hundreds of animals being treated so horribly, at least take them to a shelter or a relative who can care for them! By not DOING NOTHING they are slowly KILLING a member of that family. Pets have feelings and are NOT just property, they are creatures of God which he created. My family always had dogs and they are very family oriented, they sleep with us and are spoiled, we love them dearly and if anything happened to my husband or I, we made provisions for them in our will. If you cant afford a pet you have no businss adopting one or spending the high cost of keeping a pet you need it for your mortagage. I am so sad and angered i cant express on this website the way i would like to.
I saw this happen with a friend who rescued cats, too. She had neighbors who bought a purebred Dachshund when the mom had a teenager but no little babies to love. Then mom got pregnant and had a real baby to love and ignored the Dachshund. Then the teenager bought a $400 purebred dog that became the family baby as the human baby was approaching the age of 5/6. The family got evicted and they packed everything but the Dachshund. My friend came home from a business trip to prepare for a temporary assignment out of state. It was 2 days after she got home that she realized that the Dachshund was abandoned. She always loved the little guy, but she’d always been a cat person with her 5 rescued cats. She ran out got a dog crate and some dog supplies and adopted that Dachshund that day. She had to packup her car with 5 cats and now a dog, a pet she’d never had before.
She learned quickly about the Dachshund and she grew to love him as the special little guy that he was. One thing that she loved about the dog was all the other dog people in the apartment complex were friendly and all recognized her because of that sweet little Dachshund. He really was a wonderful dog, I know because I was his babysitter when his new “mom” went out of town back home.
Me, my cats have all been rescued and I’ve had them for about 9 years now. We had one other cat for 1.5 years after he’d been abandoned in my town, which is way out in the rural part of the county. He was very loved and he ended up moving in with a coworker who had just lost her beloved pet. That male cat is getting all the love and attention he couldn’t get in my household, also my one female is the Alpha queen and never let him forget it.
The way that people treat their pets is a sure sign of what level of humanity that they have. I’ve known people who “owned” their pets versus people like me who have pets. The mentality is something that will take many many years.
This quote from Mahatma Gandhi says so much–”The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
I was in a situation where I was laid off my job and had to move out of my condo. The cat I had at the time was a 12 year old cat that was abandoned the year previously by his former owners in the same condo complex who left him behind when they moved. Bagheera, a big beautiful 27 lb black cat that looked like a panther, showed up at my doorstep one night and decided he was going to adopt me. I fed him, then eventually he wanted to come in and be an indoor kitty again. When I too was in the same situation where I had to move out because I could no longer afford to stay, there was no way I was going to put Bagheera through another abandonment situation again! I packed my stuff, put Bagheera in his carrier and packed his stuff with mine, and we moved out and took our chances together. I ended up moving into my elderly mother’s house because she needed assisted care after my father passed away. I told her that the conditions for me moving in to help her were that Bagheera was also coming with me. If he was not allowed, she had to hire her help. She agreed, and Bagheera got to live the rest of his life in a happy and comfortable home. He was almost 17 years old when he passed away in my arms. Even my mother missed him very much. One year later, I adopted another cat, Misty, from absolutely horrible living conditions, and Misty has been with me now for two years, happy and healthy. If you love your pets, you can still make do even in difficult situations. I had some money saved for a rainy day, which is what I always do, so that my pet is also taken care of if something happens. I can’t judge people who have lost their homes because I have been in that situation myself and my heart goes out to them. However, with so much uncertainty in life, it is always good to have something saved and have a plan in case something happens.
It’s not just the homeowners. I rented at a large apartment complex. The owners shut down half of it to renovate, and walking through that half of the complex - it was filled with starving cats not used to fending for themselves outside. It was heart-wrenching. People obviously left them behind. Perhaps many of them felt heartbroken and guilty for doing so. But, really, I don’t see that as a good excuse.
My parents live on a country road and we often ended up with stray, discarded pets as people drove “into the country” and “set them free.” Then we had to pay the cost for animal control to come and collect them, as they gravitate to buildings and people and our family already had just the number of pets we could lovingly support.
Anyone who abandons their pet to starve should suffer the same treatment themselves. There are open-admission shelters that will take people’s pets and at least give them something of a chance at life, rather than slowly dying of starvation and dehydration. There is NO excuse for abandoning a pet with no way to fend for itself.
Comment to Sherri: Yes I feel for the difficulty people who THROUGH NO FAUL OF THEIR OWN are suddenly without without a paycheck, and are faced with foreclosure. However, that is not a reason to fail to be RESPONSIBLE for the property (pets are included in the category of property) they have. But, as Petey-the Pet points out, many of these people did not thoroughly investigate what an ARM means and are now whining. Personally, my 4 toy poodles (rescued, by the way) are not pets…they are part of the family! There is no way I would abandon a human family memeber OR a four-legged family member.
BTW- Petey-the Pup is right on with his comment.
My husband and I can no longer afford to keep the apartment we are currently in due to outrageous medical bills and my disablility. We have found homes for all our pets except one. Now we have to move in May and it’s looking desperate. I have had our cat up for adoption, in every local paper, asked neighbors, friends, etc… and no one can take him in. This has been going on for months. I have contacted the Humane Society and animal shelters in our area as last resort and even they will not, or can not, take him. What is my husband and I suppose to do? Live on the street? I have done everything humanly possible for our cat and am getting no help at all. Unfortunately the only housing that we can afford, and have found in this area, does not allow for pets. We took in all of our pets as rescues and where are others when we need help. NO WHERE!