Bad Economy Equals Abandoned Pets

(by Patricia Mazzei/Miami Herald) Nowhere might the rise of abandoned pets, victims of the slumping economy, be more evident than in the southwest corners of Miami-Dade County. They wake before dawn on Saturdays and Sundays, pack their traps and doggie-treat bait and head to the avocado grove, thick with sawgrass and mud, dumped tires and an old toilet. It is the puppy roundup. The task for these canine rescuers: to hide in the bushes and, using hand signals and treats, lure the feral puppies covered in fleas and ticks. If things go well, they grab them and take them to foster homes to clean, train and vaccinate until they're ready for adoption. If not, they try again the next day. ''It's like a military operation,'' said Pamela Gray, who runs a Doberman pinscher shelter in Homestead and played lookout from a step ladder in her yard during a recent trapping attempt.

Miami-Dade County's animal services department has always taken in thousands of animals a year -- more than 34,000 in 2008, according to Dr. Sara Pizano, the department's director. But as the tanking economy has forced more people out of their jobs and homes, more pets are being left behind. ''We are now receiving weekly calls from police having us go into foreclosed homes with them because pets have been abandoned,'' Pizano said. "That's not something that happened a year or two ago.'' And she said the problem is worse in rural South Miami-Dade, which for years has been the spot where people dumped their unwanted dogs, cats and even horses, thinking they could be turned loose in the fields that line the fringes of the Everglades.

That has left harried dog rescuers from Palmetto Bay to Homestead struggling to cope with the abandoned animals. ''We're seeing more now than ever in the Redland, in Homestead, all kinds of rural areas,'' said Dee Chess of Friends Forever Rescue in Palmetto Bay. "And it's not just big dogs anymore.'' It's also the puppies and their mothers. Sometimes just one or the other; as unlicensed or accidental breeders find fewer buyers for their litters. ''People can just reach over the fence, drop a litter of pups and drive away,'' said Barbara St. Aubin of Homestead, who recently started her This is the Dog! rescue. "I've had nurseries call me, `We've found six, eight puppies here, can you help?''' The answer: Not always.

Shelters are full, and people are reluctant to turn the dogs over to county Animal Services, where they will get put down if they are not adopted.
So many dogs linger in the wild, coming out mostly at sunrise and sundown, the veteran strays focused on hunting for food, the rookies looking slightly lost trying to evade semis and pickup trucks to cross the streets. Some, like the ones in the avocado grove, have formed packs, the result of generations of strays reproducing and fending for themselves. Most just wander the streets and plant nurseries, looking for workers to throw leftovers their way.

Neighbors are used to it, telling stories of dogs that arrived at their doorsteps, hungry and lonely, eventually to become beloved pets.
There's the dog Patricia Fisher's neighbor found abandoned with a box of toys and a blanket. The one with bloodied paws, now christened Slinky; that found its way to the house of Sgt. James Hutton of Miami-Dade police's agricultural patrol. And Solar, whom Dianne Alexander lassoed in the middle of an intersection as the emaciated dog with chain marks and cigarette burns tried to eat the asphalt. ''It gets to the point. . .if you see a dog on the side of the road and he isn't starving and he's not in trouble and he seems to know what he's doing, you leave him alone,'' Alexander said.

County law allows people to own four dogs in a residential property less than an acre and up to eight dogs in two acres or more. Many folks in South Miami-Dade are already at their limit. The solution, as always, would be for people to register, identify, and spay or neuter their pets. Would-be pet owners should also know what they're getting into; from how big their puppy will become to knowing how to select the right pet from a reputable breeder. And, of course, people should stop thinking that domesticated animals will thrive in the rustic edges of the county. 'They say, "Oh, these people have property. They've got room for them,' '' Fisher said. "People down here are animal lovers, but it becomes overwhelming, and you feel so terrible when you have to pass one up.''

Commentary: Two culprits that avoid any criticism in this article are the Puppy Mills that often just throw out the dogs that get too big and too old, and the fact that the people who have lost their homes to foreclosures then have to move to an apartment, and the leasing laws in Florida allow owners to ban pets and most apartments do not accept pets. So people who lose their homes and have to move to an apartment often do not have any choice and must give up their dog one way or another. It is not that easy to find a willing friend or neighbor to take over the care and maintenance of a full grown older dog. This is all very sad for the dogs, they are Man's (and Women's) Best Friends, and yet they end up on the scrap heap of society in every city in every part of the USA. There really needs to be some kind of permit process in order for people to own dogs. Dogs should not just be as disposable as a used diaper.