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Economy Leads To Animal Abandonment

The hardships of the economy right now are trickling down to pets.

Hundreds of animals are being abandoned on a weekly basis in Clark County.

The story is the same at other shelters around the Valley.

"I believe it has everything to do with the economy," says Gordon Smith, the Co-Director of Operations at the Animal Foundation.

He says that over the past few weeks, there has been a disturbing number of house pets, not strays, being brought into the Foundation.

"This is normally the slow period of time, but we've seen a steady incrase over the past few weeks," says Smith.

Across town, at the Nevada SPCA, D.J. Cogswell is seeing the same trend.

He's also hearing the same reasons, most of which he says, stem from Southern Nevada's foreclosure crisis.

"We have to move into a smaller place where the animal won't have enough space, or we don't have the money to take care of the animal," says Cogswell.

The SPCA shares another concerning trend with the Animal Foundation: the number of adoptions leaving the shelters.

"Those are staying constant, but now the number of animals coming in has grown," says Cogswell.

At the SPCA, a no-kill shelter, that means more expenses in an economy where donations are dwindling.

At the animal foundation, it means there's not enough room to house all of the pets.

Because of the increase in animals, there's an increase in euthanizations.

Abandoned pets aren't the only animal victims of the economic crisis.

Action News talked to several veterinarians, who told us some people are forgoing vaccinating their pets to spend the money elsewhere.