Preventing people from abandoning pets - WDTN.com

MIAMISBURG, Ohio (WDTN) - Through his loud meows, Seth the cat has a story to tell.

It's one of how he and another cat, Isis, were abandoned by their owner.

"We weren't even open until two in the afternoon and I pulled up at 11:30 and there were two cats in carriers outside in the heat," says Robyn McGeorge, owner of Robyn's Nest Animal Rescue in Miamisburg.

Sadly, the find isn't that surprising for Robyn.

She says at least a few times a month former pets are left outside her animal rescue.

So she put a sign outside her shelter letting people know not to leave behind their animals.

"It's very frustrating," Robyn says. "We only have so much space, so much money and so much time to care for the animals we have."

2 NEWS took a closer look into the problem and found many area shelters have a hard time taking in unwanted pets.

We called the three major shelters in the area.

At SICSA we're told the wait for them to take in your pet is six weeks.

At the Humane Society there's also a wait list along with 200 animals in foster care.

Only the Animal Resource Center has open spots, about 45, but the center doesn't guarantee adoption and in some cases may euthanize animals.

Robyn says the best way to fix this problem is to not get rid of your pet in the first place.

"Life happens," Robyn says. "People get divorced. People have babies. But you still have to make room to handle the pets in your life as well. You've taken them on as a responsibility. You need to continue caring for them."

But if you just can't take care of your pet any longer, all of the shelters tell me the last thing you should do is abandon them.

They say not only is it illegal, you could face a fine or jail time, but it makes it harder for those animals like Seth to find new homes.

"It's just not the responsible way to handle it," Robyn says.

Robyn will try to find homes for Seth and Isis.

Another issue we found is that all of the shelters have a fee of about $20-$50 to cover at least a little bit of the cost of taking in your pet, but they say they will negotiate that in cases where you truly don't have the money.

Source: http://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/local/montgomery/preventing-people-from-abandoning-pets

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