By Caroline McBride
Cats and dogs across the country may be feeling the effects of recent economic woes.
Due to both a rise in unemployment and the high costs of owning a pet, many families are abandoning their animals.
Shelters and animal rescue groups in Massachusetts are struggling with the increased number of strays, while it is estimated that donations have decreased by around 25% since 2008. Most clinics noticed the number of stray animals entering the clinics nearly doubled, while the number of adoptions was cut in half. These factors make it difficult to care for the animals.
“Since about 2008, when the economy really took a turn for the worst, our adoption clinics noted an increase in the amount of people listing ‘foreclosure’ as the reason for turning over their pets to us,” Jennifer Wooliscroft, Spokesman for the Animal Rescue League of Boston said.
The Animal Rescue League turned to social media to save money and seek donations.
“We realized that mailing letters to past clients and supporters in order to seek donations can be expensive,” Wooliscroft said. “We tried to save money by enhancing our website and making use of social media to encourage donations.”
It is difficult to correlate the increase in pet abandonments and the economy because not all these animals wind up in animal shelters.
“The ARL has noticed a lot more cruel abandonments during last winter,” Wooliscroft said. “We found many dogs out on the coldest days of the year and it was clear that they had been starving.”
Sue DiMeo, President of PAWS (Protection of Animals in Wakefield Society), said that the number of abandoned pets increased in recent years.
“Many of the cats we have found are very friendly, which points to the fact that they were once indoor cats and were not born into the wild,” DiMeo said. “They don’t know how to fend for themselves outdoors.”
DiMeo said PAWS tries to find the owners of these pets, in case they were lost and not abandoned.
“Most of the time we never find the animals’ families,” DiMeo said.
PAWS is a foster network, where the animals are kept with a foster family, not in a shelter, until they are adopted.
“This system is nice because the animals are not caged and get to be in a normal environment,” DiMeo said. “We only have so many foster families in our network, and each home can only take so many pets.”
Kathleen Durham, a volunteer at various local animal shelters, sees firsthand how the economy effects the animals.
“There’s been a dramatic increase in the number of stray pets being found and brought into the shelters,” Durham, the Stonehill College student said. “People aren’t able to afford to care for their pets so they’re throwing them out on the street.”
Durham, a pet owner, admits owning a cat or dog can be expensive.
“My family has two dogs and a cat,” Durham said. “Between the food, grooming and veterinary costs, owning pets isn’t cheap.”
Molly Kalla, a sophomore at Stonehill, said pet costs can add up.
“It’s so crazy how a normal appointment for pets can so quickly cost up to $1,000,” Kalla said. “It must be so expensive for animal shelters to take care of all the animals so they rely heavily on donations and volunteers.”
Since families cannot afford the pets that they have, it is no surprise that adoptions and donations have been scarce.
“Last year we had the lowest number of adoptions in quite a while,” DiMeo said. “We were finding a lot of strays and very few people were willing to take them in.”
Many shelters in the area encourage spaying and neutering outdoor pets, in hopes of decreasing the stray population. February 28 is World Spay Day. For more information visit the Animal Rescue League website at http://home.arlboston.org/.
No comments:
Post a Comment