I'm guessing that most "Mutts" readers would live on the street with their animals before they'd surrender a dog or cat to a shelter.

I saw this report on the news the other night and it literally brought tears to my eyes. I think this is the worst tragedy in animal welfare since Hurricane Katrina. Yet unlike Katrina, it's much more of a silent killer because at least for Katrina there were nationwide efforts to help the abandoned animals. I wish there was a way to help good families keep their pets so it doesn't come down to this. I can't imagine how horrible they must feel - to not only lose your home, but also lose your best friend.

Before you drop any animal off at a "private" shelter please do your homework. Contact local police depts. and other branches of law enforcement to check on the background of the people who run them. Also check with animal control. In many states there have been a number of questionable individuals claiming to be rescues that have had some serious questions of care and fraud raised.
It would be a good practice for news reporters to follow as well.

Mary-

I would. Luckily I have pet-friendly family that would take both of us in :)

People shouldn't have to give the dogs up, either. We have started promoting a sort of half-baked idea that it's "harmful" to the dog if the human has a reversal of fortune. We've completely lost track of the idea that for thousands of years, dogs have stood by their humans through bad times and good. It's part of what endears them to us. Good dogs have shared the company of kings and beggars, and we should never lose sight of that. I'm going to try to post a link. I don't know who the photographer is, so I can't give an attribution. But see if you can look at this photo and remain unaffected by it. Could you take that dog away from that man?

Carey--

Me too. Amie will never return to the shelter. I get sad just thinking about the two weeks she spent there before I adopted her.

I am also very wealthy--real wealth--since I have family and friends who love me and my dog and would help us in an emergency. I wish everyone were so lucky.

I wonder if there are some pet-loving entrepreneurs out there who could provide long-term boarding for the pets of people who have lost their homes? I really would live in my car or on the street before I'd take Amie to a shelter, but I know I couldn't do that if I had children to care for. There are horrible dilemmas for people in this economy. Still, I think it would be a better example for children if parents sold everything to be able to keep the family pet or lived in a less-desirable rental for the same reason. I've always thought that families who treated pets like disposable objects were providing terrible examples to children. (If the kids are inconvenient, do they get dumped somewhere?)

Again, Amie and I are lucky to live around people who consider dogs a part of the family.

Great photograph, Anne.

Sort of related: A while back, the Meals on Wheels program in my city was asking for pet food donations since volunteer drivers observed that elderly customers were sharing their small meals with their pets. I was impressed that the Meals on Wheels Program held the right attitude about the pets. I can't think of anyone who needs a pet more than someone with limited access to the outside world, or, in the case of the man in the photograph, with limited access to the warmth of the world.