Shelters dealing with tide of pets displaced by foreclosures

FORT WORTH, Texas _ When a homeowner has to leave his home because of foreclosure, often his pet is left behind.

Now services are emerging to help pets navigate the mortgage crisis fallout.

Houston-based No Paws Left Behind offers a database of shelters financially distressed homeowners can call to give their pet a home. The Humane Society of the United States now offers grant money to shelters to help them deal with the swell of pets displaced by foreclosure.

Moving is the primary reason people give when they drop off pets at the shelter, said Peggy Brown Aguilar, shelter manager at the Humane Society shelter on East Lancaster Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas. She doesn't know how many of those are foreclosures, but the shelter gets between 150 and 200 animals a day. At least some are brought in because of the rising number of pet owners losing their homes.

"They have been kicked out, and they leave the animals," Aguilar said.

She said the economy and the city ban on chaining pets in the back yard also has an effect.

Cheryl Lang, president of Houston-based Integrated Mortgage Solutions, has seen the effects of the foreclosure problem through her contractors, who inspect foreclosures across the country. Integrated Mortgage Solutions inspects and fixes 100,000 homes a month for banks after they are sold back to the bank at a foreclosure auction.

Lang was moved about 10 weeks ago when she saw photos of dogs in Arkansas that were abandoned in a kennel in a home back yard.

"That's when we jumped into action," she said.

Foreclosures present a peculiar problem for pet rescue because pets are considered property. There may be legal issues with taking a pet from a property, Lang said.

This spring, the national Humane Society organization based in Washington started giving up to $2,000 per shelter specifically for dealing with foreclosure problems.

It is far better for displaced homeowners to give their pets to a shelter where they will have a chance than leave them with the house, Lang said.

"Please, please don't abandon them," spokeswoman Nancy Peterson said. "Take them to the shelter. That is why we gave the shelters some extra money."

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© 2008, Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.