It seems like every day there’s a news story written about the way some families facing foreclosure on their homes are dealing with their pets. Animal shelters and other pet care and rescue facilities are doing their best to handle the huge influx of pets being surrendered because their owners have reached the point they can’t financially care for them anymore. Some of these facilities are bursting at the seams and I’ve heard some have had to turn pets away because they just cannot take in any more.

Thank goodness there are new rescues being founded that are dedicated to foreclosure pet rescue. Thank goodness there are families that care enough about their pets that if they absolutely must leave them behind, they don’t just leave them behind to fend for themselves but instead take them to some kind of shelter or rescue or perhaps turn them over to a loving friend or family member who they have no doubt will properly care for them. I can only imagine the devastating heartache these caring pet owners go through and hope against all hope that we will never be faced with such a decision.

Our hearts go out to these people and the pets they leave behind. At least some of these pets will be lucky enough to be adopted by someone who will love and provide for them. The rest will be humanely euthanized. Dead is dead, but at least euthanasia will prevent the suffering that those pets left to fend for themselves will be forced to endure before they die a painful, lonely death while they wait patiently for the family who supposedly loved them to come back and save them from their newfound life of horror!

What we simply cannot understand no matter how hard we try … are the people that do just leave their pets behind! They desert them in empty houses, chain or tie them to trees and other things, take them out into the country and dump them and who knows what other heartless cruelty they may think of next. How in the world can these people be or have ever been considered to be a loving pet owner? Surely it doesn’t work like the flip of a coin. One day they love and care for their pets, the next day their pets are no better than the trash that goes out to the curb? There isn’t an acceptable reason, purpose, excuse or justification for what you did.

How could anyone ignore the fact that abandoning a pet like this is one of the highest forms of animal cruelty? I don’t believe for one minute that there’s an explanation anywhere in the world that makes sense nor should it be tolerated or understood and never ever should it excuse what they did! Anyone who abandons a pet, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The jury who convicts you should care about you as much as the pet you so cruelly abandoned and left to die.

You might say “You have no right to judge me unless you walk in my shoes.” Am I unfairly judging you? I don’t believe so. I absolutely know that if I were in your shoes there is absolutely no way I could ever do this to my pet! No matter how bad it gets, there are always choices and abandoning your pet is not and should not be one of them. Don’t ever fall into the belief that a pet who has lived it’s life in a home with a family will be able to fend for itself if you just leave it behind. If you absolutely can’t find temporary housing for it until you get back on your feet again, this warm furry critter that has loved and been loved by your family deserves so much better!

If you’re a family facing foreclosure, please surrender your pet to a family member, friend or rescue organization. Don’t just abandon your pet.