Subprime crisis takes toll on pets

a sad article.

who are the idiots who do these things? they deserved to be hanged
not just lose their homes.

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Subprime crisis takes toll on pets

CHICAGO: Forget about the lost furnishings and finances, the most
pitiful victims of the subprime mortgage crisis rocking the United
States are the family pets.

Shelters across the country have seen sharp upticks in the number of
people giving up their pets in recent months because they have been
forced out of their homes.

And - more tragically - neighbours, police and foreclosure agents are
finding increasing numbers of pets left to fend for themselves in
abandoned homes. "We're finding too many animals who have starved to
death," said Stephanie Shain, director of outreach for the Human
Society of the United States.

While some people dump their pets on the street, others go so far as
to lock the animal in a closet where their cries for help are harder
to hear, she said. It can take weeks for an animal to starve to death
and desperate scratch and bite marks are usually found on doors and
windows.

"They will eat anything - furniture, or carpet or wallboard - to try
to ingest something," Shain said in a telephone interview. "It's a
very fearful and frantic and panicked situation for that animal to be
in."

While there are no national statistics tracking how many animals are
abandoned or dropped off at shelters, Shain said anecdotal evidence
has shown "huge spikes" in areas hardest-hit by the housing downturn
that shows no sign of easing.

Nearly two million families lost their homes to foreclosure in the
first 11 months of last year after failing to keep up with mortgage
payments, a hefty chunk of which were subprime loans.

The Humane Society recently instigated a public-awareness campaign to
offer tips on finding animal-friendly rental housing and remind people
that pets are much better off in a shelter. In one of the more
shocking stories, more than 60 cats were found abandoned in a
foreclosed home in Cincinnati last May, shortly after the foreclosure
rate began to spike nationally.

Twenty of those cats are still being fostered while awaiting a
permanent home, according to Foreclosurecats.org, a group which
launched art projects to help finance the cost of caring for the
kitties. Most are not as lucky. Shelters across the country are
habitually overcrowded and underfunded. Even animals which stand a
good chance of being adopted are often euthanized in order to free up
much-needed space.

wrote:

a sad article.

who are the idiots who do these things? they deserved to be hanged
not just lose their homes.

Nearly two million families lost their homes to foreclosure in the
first 11 months of last year after failing to keep up with mortgage
payments, a hefty chunk of which were subprime loans.

The problem with pets is mainly generated by the huge foreclosure rate.
And for this we have to give thank to the greedy financial elites, bankers,
Wall Street, Mr. Greenspan, Mr. Bush and the (former) Republican majority.

Hints:
- Look at the number of sub prime mortgages offered BEFORE and AFTER the
bankruptcy laws were made harder. Sub-primes took flight AFTER the laws
were made tougher.
- BEFORE hardening the laws, going over credit limit automatically froze
your credit card until you payed and explained. AFTER, the credit line was
automatically extended.

The credit industry pushed for this law in order to have freedom to behave
irresponsible knowingly that the law is going to allow them to take away
some risk from their own shoulders and push the extra risk on the shoulder
of consumers. And in their greed for a quick buck, the lending industry did
just that.
Corrupted neocons, play as the money masters sing to them. Therefore, once
having a president and majority in congress from their gang, they
automatically did the best they could to provide more power to their
masters.


Back to pets issue.

The housing lenders, landlords, share a lot of the blame for the big number
of pets dropped to shelters. Most of apartment complexes does not lend you
if you have more than a cat or a small dog. This is their screwed policy.
Only a law to prevent landlords to deny housing for a large dogs owners can
solve the issue. And we need such a law fast !!!

As far as for people locking pets in houses to starve/dehydrate to death,
that should be prosecuted by law. Something like this it is completely
irresponsible, and they should not be allowed to adopt another pet.
Dropping a pet at a shelter should always be an option.

--
The world of the future will be fully democratic or will not be at all.

Democracy Highlander

On Jan 26, 7:34*pm, wrote:

a sad article.

who are the idiots who do these things? *they deserved to be hanged
not just lose their homes.

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Subprime crisis takes toll on pets

CHICAGO: Forget about the lost furnishings and finances, the most
pitiful victims of the subprime mortgage crisis rocking the United
States are the family pets.

Shelters across the country have seen sharp upticks in the number of
people giving up their pets in recent months because they have been
forced out of their homes....

The sub-prime crisis is also a symptom of human overpopulation. People
pretend that wealth can be infinite in a finite world, not seeing that
it's a pyramid scheme. It's unrealistic to expect everyone to afford
mini mansions or even modest houses, with land constantly being
depleted. Also consider water supplies, crop acreage, roads and
infrastructure needed to sustain perpetual growth. It has to come from
somewhere and that somewhere keeps shrinking. You can't live on a
frontier when it's mostly gone.

There's much talk of "pet overpopulation" but the real population
crisis is human, with a 75 MILLION world annual gain, 3 MILLION of
which is added to America each year. These people take up space and
they clamor for more stuff all the time. The idea that a constantly
growing population can maintain a high standard of living defies
mathematics and natural laws. Money and credit just delay the
inevitable crash.

E.A.

http://enough_already.tripod.com/

Economic growth: the endless replacement of nature with people.

As Licensed Realtor and a dog owner, I am both involved in and affected by
this issue.

Here in the middle-west - considered fly by country, Ohio, we are the second
largest foreclosure state in the country - only behind Michigan.

Having personally run into abandoned animals in properties, it's one of the
sorriest things you can imagine. A miserable animal, waiting patiently for
its people to come home. Driven by hunger, often madness claims them and
it's no time at all before a dog or cat's feral nature takes over.
Heartbreaking. Truly heartbreaking.

As for the subprime issue. I can tell you it affects everyone, regardless of
your politics.

Mortgages backed securities are uninsured investments. Sold off in bundles
to investors, it is their collapse that has contributed in no small part to
the recent drop on Wall Street and throughout the world.

Finger pointers abound, but the truth of it is that with deregulation of
banking, the rise of mortgage companies who could sell a botique of loan
products, along with prospective home owners desiring
bigger...bigger...bigger...(and couldn't qualify for it), you have the mess
you see today.

With loans long sold off from their originators and in the hands of
portfolio managers, government intervention may be a partial answer.

As in most financial crises situations, the vunerable suffer; here in this
case, abandoned animals. Unfortunately, with owners long gone, it is
difficult to prosecute who you haven't caught. That leaves the "clean up"
to the animal lovers.

With a houseful of castaways ourselves, we shake our heads and say:
"there's always dog..."

(the)duckster