We’ve vilified, guilt-tripped and “educated” pet owners in an effort to prevent them from surrendering their pets at shelters. Is it time to try something new?

Lori Weise of Los Angeles’ Downtown Dog Rescue thinks so. In a recent guest post on the Beyond Breed blog, she bluntly pointed out that shelter relinquishment is mostly about poverty, housing loss and desperation, and called for two new tools in the surrender-prevention tool box: compassion and practical assistance.

Her organization has put its money and time where her mouth is, too. They operate an in-shelter intervention program in one of the LA’s most under-served areas, where they offer assistance and referrals, including help with spay/neuter services, veterinary care and behavior tips.

In just two months, they intervened in 554 cases; 448 of those pets were not surrendered to the shelter after all.

 

Weise’s conclusion: This is not a “pet problem,” this is a poverty problem:

Lack of jobs, lack of secure and affordable housing, lack of services. When services are available, they are often difficult to access. Other services require people to live in a target zip code or prove how little money they make to qualify. Even reclaiming a pet from the shelter can be a challenge, since it requires identification that matches the address where the pet owner lives — a challenge for people in transition.

It’s especially daunting for someone who quite possibly can’t read, doesn’t speak English and, for that matter, doesn’t speak Spanish that well either, and definitely can’t read in either language.

Why do “they” have pets in the first place, you might be wondering? If you can’t afford to feed your children, why take in a dog or cat or both?

Caring about a stray dog or cat is universal and for many people who live in communities where stray dogs and cats are common, it saddens them to see the animals suffer and ultimately die horrible, painful deaths. If one spends any time in an underserved community like south east Los Angeles, you will hear the stories of the sick animals on the street, living in a back alley or under a house. For many people, they take these animals into their homes and they become a cherished family pet.

I know many of you might say that you would be homeless, living in your car, before you would surrender your cat or dog. But think about it: would you really? Could you survive living in a violent area, constant noise, graffiti, trash, gangs controlling the streets, controlling the times that you can go out after dark?

Read the rest here.