Foreclosures may be to blame for rise in pet abandonments in Saugus

SAUGUS-K-9 Control Officer Harold Young is beginning to see a disturbing trend that he believes is tied to the growing number of housing foreclosures – abandoned dogs.Four dogs in the last two weeks have been found without tags or microchips and no one has come looking for them.Young said the first of the incidents began on Christmas Eve when a beagle was left at the Shell Gas Station on Route 1.”It was an older beagle. He can’t hear and has a tumor on his right leg that could be cancer,” he said. “I think this is because of all the housing foreclosures.”Young said he believes people facing foreclosure are abandoning pets they can no longer afford to care for or can’t take with them when they relocate. It’s a trend he said he has seen before, but not for a very long time.”I remember when we were in a recession before, I started to see animals abandoned,” he said. “People couldn’t afford them anymore.”Lynn Dog Officer Kevin Farnsworth said he has not seen the rise, but he has enough animals to deal with as it is.”We have a lot of dogs picked up off the streets that no one wants, but no more than usual,” he said,Along with the beagle, Young said he later learned that a pit bull had been picked up Christmas Eve in the parking lot of Burger King on Route 1. He said a woman found the dog wandering in the parking lot with no identification or collar. She took him to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) in Boston.A second pit bull was picked up on New Year’s Eve near Spud’s Restaurant on Lincoln Avenue. Young said that pup was brought to the North Shore Animal Hospital in Lynn.Also found on New Year’s Eve was a Chihuahua, which Young thought was abandoned before receiving a call Thursday from the owner’s sister, who heard that Young was looking for its owner.He said the dog belonged to a Florida man who was visiting for the holidays and headed home thinking he had both dogs.While Young said he was glad to find the owner he was equally glad to find the dog because an animal that tiny is not likely to make it through the cold night outdoors.Rather than abandoning a pet, Young urged owners who no longer want or can no longer care for their pet to drop them off at his office on Main Street behind the Department of Public Works building. There will be no questions asked and no fee charged. Young said unwanted animals can also be left with an animal shelter or the MSPCA.”Don’t just let them go – it’s not right,” Young said, adding it’s also illegal.Should an owner get caught abandoning their pet, it is a felony that falls under the cruelty to animals act.”Any willful abandonment is a felony that could result in two and half years in jail, a $2,500 fine or both,” Young said.