Monday, December 22, 2008

Financial Crisis Is Causing People To Abandon Their Dogs

The increase in requests for re-homing is attributed to the financial crisis. Owners either have to move to dog-unfriendly accommodation or can no longer afford to care for the animal after losing their job. "Moving as a result of the credit crunch is the number one factor for giving up a dog," explains Moore. "People also ring up to say they can't afford to look after their dog anymore, because they've been made redundant." On top of overcrowding, animal rescue charities face another problem; they rely on charity donations and are likely to suffer in those terms. "The expected increase in unemployment and decrease of disposable income is going to affect the donations," says Moore. Another concern for dog charities is that animals are given as Christmas presents. Unfortunately some of these dogs turn up at the re-homing center in the New Year as unwanted gifts.

The current worldwide financial crisis is the fault of government meddling with the free markets. This would have never happened if we hadn't created these ridiculous incentives to create no-money-down, no income verification, sub-prime loans. Whose brilliant idea was that? Banking is banking. We messed with the system, and gave lenders incentives and mandates to toss out good banking practices, and now look where that has gotten us. A mess. This is why you see articles here condemning government over-regulation, because it always ends up destroying things in the end.

Even on the simplest levels, these past wrongs are affecting everyone: It is trickling down to even to our dogs.

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