More pets being abandoned at shelter in the middle of the night


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DRAPER -- There are still a lot of homes for sale out there, many of them foreclosures. Utah was recently put on a list as the 4th highest foreclosure state in the country. While no homeowner wants to be foreclosed on, there are others affected who can't understand what is going on.

Animal control officers at the Draper City Animal Shelter at 12375 South Galena Park Dr. (550 W) say ever since the number of foreclosed houses have gone up, so have the number of pets being dropped off. That's not the problem, though. The problem is when people drop off their pets in the middle of the night. It's become such a problem, officers had to put up a sign saying that's animal abandonment and illegal.

Dennis Wilson, the supervisor for the Draper City Animal Shelter, deals with dropped off pets every day. He says, "These animals are in here for quite a while."

More pets being abandoned at shelter in the middle of the night

And while he's used to dogs and cats coming in, something he says he just can't get used to is when owners drop them off in the middle of the night. In those cases animal control workers don't know anything about the animal, making it tougher to get it adopted.

"We don't know if it's current on rabies, if it's good with kids, just stuff like that," Wilson says.

He says cases like those have increased in the past few months.

He says, "Ever since the economy has dropped, we started seeing a lot of animals turned over to use, left out on our front door," he says.

More pets being abandoned at shelter in the middle of the night

There are a lot of homes in Draper, as in other Utah cities, where you can find foreclosures. While we were taking video of some of them, we ran into Jan Fogg, who runs Bark Busters, which is a dog-training business. She, too, has heard of people abandoning their pets because of the economy.

She says, "These are troubled times. A lot of people are in financial difficulty. We all understand that, but call somebody. They'll help you with your dog."

"It breaks my heart because there's no reason for that," says Fogg.

It costs $15 to drop your pet off at Draper City Animal Shelter, but workers say if you do have financial difficulties, they can work with you. They just want what's best for your pet.

E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com

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