"The Today Show" On Foreclosure Pets

NBC's Today Show reported a story last week on foreclosure pets, those animals that lose their homes as a result of the foreclosure problems of their owners. A few highlights:

• The Humane Society of Pitt County, N.C., said it has recently had a 100 percent increase in the number of animals brought in to the no-kill shelter.

• Owners dropped off 389 cats at the Central Valley Society for the Prevention for Cruelty to Animals in Fresno, Calif., in May. That’s a 60 percent rise over May 2007. With strays and abandoned cats added in, the agency said, at least 100 new cats a day are coming in, but only about 20 are adopted.

• And in Evansville, Ind., the Vanderburgh County Humane Society has literally run out of room. “Unfortunately, when we run out of cages, a lot of times we don’t have any other option but to euthanize, so it’s just a really hard time for us,” said Miranda Russell, spokeswoman for the agency.

• The story is the same at the Metro Animal Control shelter in Nashville, Tenn., which is so overcrowded that it is euthanizing 30 to 50 animals every day, six days a week. “It’s something we were expecting — above capacity because of foreclosures,” Animal Control Officer Billy Briggs said.

For more, see Foreclosures close the door on family pets (Shelters are seeing more strays as families abandon homes, cut costs).

For other posts on foreclosure pets, go here, go here, and go here. ForeclosurePetsAlpha