"Foreclosure dogs" are filling local animal shelters. - video, NBC Nightly News

[Bozita]

Shelter dogs being presented as 'sale' items. Listen to the dialogue. "We got this ???? for only $200. They normally sell for $600-$1,000."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29814553#29814553

[Mojorabbit]

1. We just took in a beagle

six months old from a family going through financial trouble. We have a five month old Kind Shepherd and really did not want another puppy just now. We also have two other dogs. It is really sad.

[aquart]

2. I'm glad you can take them.

[Muttocracy]

3. Ugh - that dialog is disturbing.

And now more purebreds directly taking the place of mutts in shelters.

My friend just adopted a 10yo purebred who was left behind in a move. They'd had her since she was a young puppy. Sad times.

[ACTION BASTARD]

11. jesus fucking christ. How can people do that to their little buddies?

[LisaL]

13. Because they got nowhere to live?

Hah? Did you watch the link?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. Some friends have taken in five abandoned horses recently

Some friends out in Riverside County have taken in five abandoned horses.

They found one of them abandoned while riding themselves practically dead from dehydration, they poured all the bottled water they had brought for themselves into her and she followed them home. Another was dumped on Interstate 10 outside of Indigo, a CHP officer they knew asked them for assistance. A realtor found two more abandoned at a foreclosed McMansion with a stable and their latest edition was found wandering around outside Ontario.

The one they found in the desert has made a full recovery and is the perfect riding horse, she is going to be a friends daughters birthday gift in a few weeks. Unfortunately without their paperwork it will be almost impossible to find them homes through conventional means.

[Bozita]

5. Wow! That's a story deserving of its own thread.

Thanks.

[northernlights]

7. if they know their breeds

more and more breed organizations are using dna for registration. That way they can be identified and re-papered if they fall on hard times.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

9. they said it wasn't worth the trouble,

They have decided not to look for homes outside their immediate circle of friends, other than the one that is going to be wrapped in a pink bow shortly they plan on keeping them so it doesn't really matter.

They live for horses, they have the space and they have the resources to care for all of them.

[OneGrassRoot]

14. What wonderful friends....wonderful people. n/t

[slampoet]

15. We had a sheep show up one day on our farm when i was a kid. We searched for the owners but......

...never did find them even after four years of looking. It really is difficult to find the owners sometimes.


We later said we figured the darn thing fell off a truck.

[Medusa]

6. There are all-breed rescues that will take these dogs

and there are no-kill shelters and rescue groups. THere is no excuse for living your pet to die without food, water, shelter, etc. I guess these people think it's better than leaving them at a shelter to be euthanized but there are alternatives. And if you can afford to give to a rescue group or no-kill shelter, please, please, please do so.

[northernlights]

8. I recently pulled a youngster

a couple days from being gassed.

Most people don't realize that in many town pounds, surrenders are the first to be killed. Especially in the south, their beloved companions will face a frightening, slow and painful death by gas. And in the midwest, they seem to face something referred to as "heartstick." I don't *want* to know what that is.

Petfinder.com forums have rescue and transport pages. Dogs are routinely pulled from shelters in Ohio and Michigan, and from all the southern states, by local rescues. There are professional rescue transports that run I-95 from Florida to NH for about $100-125, and volunteer rescue transports that move dogs in "legs" usually on weekends.

And there are no-kill shelters and dog breed rescues that will foster your dog until they can re-home him or her. Please, please if you are in trouble, look for those first.

[Ex Lurker]

10. "beloved companions?"

if they were beloved companions they wouldn't end up in the pound. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but these are throwaways because they're no longer convenient. You can't convince me that all--or even most, or even a significant minority--of those people have no other choice but to abandon their animals. I don't have enough faith in my fellow humans to give them the benefit of the doubt on this. I've seen too many dogs abandoned during normal times to believe that things have changed so drastically in an economic downturn.

[bain_sidhe]

16. The difference is, now we have both

The jerks are still doing what jerks do - giving up a dog (or cat) because they became inconvenient, or grew up, or don't match the decor after remodling... and now, we have added to that population the dogs that truly were loved, and whose families truly have no choice... i.e., they're living on the street or with relatives who won't take in their dog/cat along with them.

It's not that it's one or the other. It's that it's both, now.

I just started fostering this year, and my heart breaks every time I see another dog listed as on a "euth list" because I'm at my limit, here. Because on top of so many more coming in, so many fewer are going out to "forever" homes. (I put "forever" in quotes, because these days, you just don't know. So many people are one job away from homelessness.)

**edited for clarity**

[LisaL]

12. You are nitpicking.

The piece was on how people who want to adopt a dog have a lot more choices now because of all the "foreclosure dogs." I don't see anything disturbing about the dialog.

[daleo]

17. "Foreclosure Dogs"

It sounds like a movie title about the recession.