Foreclosure's filthy aftermath

As a dog lover this really pisses me off!

From MSN:

As foreclosures become more frequent, so do the stories of abandoned animals, insect infestations and deplorable living conditions.

By Maya Roney, BusinessWeek

The mortgage mess is getting even messier. Literally.

Malnourished and flea-ridden animals, feces-covered floors and urine-soaked furniture, piles of rotting garbage, swarms of diseased mosquitoes -- these are the horrors that may await the sheriff, property inspector, real-estate agent or passer-by making that first visit to a deserted home.

With foreclosure activity well above last year's levels and still on the rise in many parts of the country, nasty surprises like these have become more common. In April, there were 147,708 U.S. foreclosure filings -- default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- down 1% from the previous month but still 62% higher than a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac, an
online foreclosure marketplace based in Irvine, Calif.

"It's almost every day now that we see a (foreclosed) house in awful condition," says Scott Mitchell, the president of National Property Inspections, a company that provides home inspections and assessments in the Las Vegas area. "We've really noticed it increasing in the last month and a half."

RealtyTrac estimates that Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the country in April, with one filing per every 232 households.

Pets left for dead

Many animals are not so lucky. Pets are often silent sufferers during the foreclosure process. Homeowners in financial straits may make them a low priority to begin with, and when foreclosure leads to eviction, they are sometimes abandoned without food or water and left to breed uncontrollably.

In May alone, authorities found 23 abandoned animals in a house in Lake Carmel, N.Y.; 20 birds in a Lorain, Ohio, house; 24 horses on a Bixby, Okla., property; and more than 60 cats in a home in Cincinnati. All of these properties were in foreclosure, and most of the animals were injured, infected, dehydrated and starved nearly to death.

"There are a lot of hoarders and neglected animals and people who just don't realize how fast things can spin out of control," says animal rescue worker Gail Silver, who discovered the cat-filled home in Cincinnati.

If you're facing foreclosure and are unable to care for your animals, call a shelter such as the Best Friends Animal Society.

Spaying or neutering your pets will save you money in the long term because a female cat can have a litter of as many as seven kittens up to three times a year -- that's a lot of extra cat food. Spay/USA is a nationwide network and referral service for affordable spay and neuter services with a hot line (1-800-248-SPAY). Surgery at one of the clinics in the network averages $50, about half of the average cost in a vet's office.

"So many problems are very complex; this is a simple problem," says Spay/USA founder Esther Mechler. "And it's scary to think that with rising foreclosures, these animals will be some of the hidden victims."