More Incidents Involving Abandoned Foreclosure Pets

In Gwinnett County, Georgia, the Atlanta Journal Constitution recently ran a story on the increase in foreclosure pets in the area. A couple of excerpts:

• One abandoned dog Lt. Mary Lou Respess can't get out of her mind is a Chihuahua. He'd been tied up so long, said the Gwinnett County Animal Shelter manager, his collar had gotten embedded in his skin and had to be surgically removed. He's one of hundreds whose owners have left them behind.

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• Joey Brooks, one of two cruelty investigators with Gwinnett County Animal Control, said he's definitely getting more calls about abandoned pets — usually dogs. He responded to one call about two weeks ago, he said. The power was turned off and so was the water. But three labs were tied up in the back yard. Neighbors had been feeding the dogs in this "decent neighborhood in Duluth," he said, but there was already a real estate sign out front. "That's what's weird," Brooks said. "We'll come across ones where [For Sale] signs are already in the front yard, but pets are still tied up out back." [...] Even that's preferable, Brooks said, to finding former pets trapped inside houses, without food or water or any way to get outside to do their business.

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• [Homeowner] Steve Miller who lives outside Norcross in unincorporated Gwinnett, said the problem of abandoned dogs hit too close to home last week. On Friday, a pair he believes were left behind by a neighbor killed one of his cats. He'd been calling animal control all week, Miller said. But it wasn't until he reported the dogs had killed his cat Curly that an officer came out and caught one of the dogs, he said. The other dog hasn't been seen since.

For more, see More pets being abandoned after foreclosures.

For more on foreclosures and abandoned animals, see Foreclosures & Pets I and see Foreclosures & Pets II. petsII and foreclosures