Shelters, rescue groups work to save abandoned pets

By Cydney Cappello

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 | 10:21 a.m.

In the haste of leaving a home that has been foreclosed upon, families inevitably leave something behind. Unfortunately for man’s best friend, sometimes the family dog is who has to stay.

“We’re getting an increase (in pets dropped off), but it's difficult to tell because they don’t want to tell us that their house is being foreclosed on. People will bring their animal in and tell us it’s a stray, but then tell us the name of the dog,” Jim Seitz, co-director of operations for the Animal Foundation, said.

Lied Animal Shelter, run by the Animal Foundation, takes in more animals than any other shelter than the United States; however, it’s hard to tell just how many pets are left homeless. In 2007, the Las Vegas shelter impounded more than 17,000 dogs. As of August, 13,000 dogs had been dropped off at the shelter.

Dr. Gary Weddle, Henderson Animal Control Shelter administrator, said that overall, fewer animals have been impounded this year compared to last year. However, 80 more dogs have been dropped off (while there have been 66 fewer cats).

“Very few just turn (their dogs) loose in the street. They’ll leave them in the back yard or in the house or the apartment if they get evicted, but a great majority of the people are very stand-up and drop the pet off at a local shelter,” he said. The Henderson shelter does not require people to give a reason for dropping off animals.

Dogs left in garages and backyards are handled by rescue operations, like VegasK9Rescue, an organization that combines the efforts of all the breed-specific rescue stations in the valley. Jocelyn Arter, Las Vegas Weimaraner Club & Rescue president, began the VegasK9Rescue so the different groups could work together to save dogs.

“I got an e-mail that two Weimaraners needed saved so we went to pick them up because they were getting evicted right then and there from foreclosure,” she said. “They were renting and the owners were being foreclosed on.”

Sometimes, pets that are left behind are not spayed or neutered, which is problematic in terms of controlling the population of strays.

“You can’t adopt your way out, so you’ve got to lessen how many are being born,” Harold Vosko, co-founder of Heaven Can Wait, said. Heaven Can Wait is a no-kill animal shelter in Las Vegas.

“What happens with rescue groups all over the country, probably about 90 percent of money goes to rescue and 10 percent goes to spay and neuter,” he said. “We’ve got to change that paradigm where more money needs to go to spay and neuter, need to be more proactive than reactive.”

He also said that people can help alleviate the problem of pet over-population by adopting their pets from shelters or rescue groups instead of from a breeder or pet store because shelter dogs will already be spayed or neutered, micro-chipped and vaccinated.

Many shelters will take the animals back if an owner cannot take care of it anymore. A dog has a 50-50 chance of getting out of the shelter, Vosko said.