Hi all,
This letter has gone out on the freecyclepetmod board for any suggestions. It looks as though they are doing all they can but I'd thought I'd share in case anyone has something to add - I will pass on anything of use.
"We voted in the past and the group, overwhelming, voted to allow
pets, both offers and wanteds. The issue we now face is, with the
economic downturn, people are posting pet offers at an alarming
rate. We fear it will only become worse as our area, having not
recovered fully (economically speaking) from Hurricane Charley in
2004, saw the construction industry take a plummet early last
spring. As construction is one of the top fields in our area, along
with the service industry, we've been struggling tremendously since
this time last year. Now that the rest of the country is feeling
the pinch, many of our residents seem to have even less hope of
recovery and appear tired of the struggle. This leads them to post
an offer for their animals as they need to cut expenses somewhere.
An example of our worst fears realized: In a neighboring county, a
man took his dog to the shelter, whereby he was told he needed to
leave a cash donation to offset the costs. He didn't stick around
long enough to hear that he could leave the animal even if he
couldn't afford the cash. He drove down the road a short way, took
his dog into a wooded area and beat it to death. The neighbors near
the shelter, hearing this, called the police and he was promptly
arrested.
Our group's mod team is concerned this abandonment, etc., will
happen more frequently and are trying to adapt somewhat to the
current economic downturn. We're trying to put some pieces in place
and are attempting to be a bit less stringent in some ways, while
providing as many resources as possible including shelters and low-
cost spaying/neutering clinics, shots, inexpensive supplies, etc.,
that have been checked out by our lead pet mod. She is working
diligently, ensuring the clinics, etc., are not on any
known 'negative' lists with vets, rescues, etc. She's also put
together lists of specific breed rescues, pet freebies and more.
We are personalizing our letters a bit more, offering to work with
the members more closely, doing some of the legwork for them. I'm
sure there are other angles we've not thought of and would welcome
any input for how to best address this looming situation.
