We are ready to retch over an AP story we just read - as you know out of curiousity we follow real estate and mortgage stories out there so we stay current.

Even more disturbing? This AP article is about people who abandon their pets when they abandon their homes one step ahead of the foreclosure man. This article is profoundly disturbing, and people who do this should get their asses thrown in jail. Our pets depend on us, they are part of our families. They aren't furry accessories to be discarded...

Foreclosures Lead to Abandoned Animals
By EVELYN NIEVES – 4 days ago

The house was ravaged — its floors ripped, walls busted and lights smashed by owners who trashed their home before a bank foreclosed on it. Hidden in the wreckage was an abandoned member of the family: a starving pit bull.

The dog found by workers was too far gone to save — another example of how pets are becoming the newest victims of the nation's mortgage crisis as homeowners leave animals behind when they can no longer afford their property.

Pets "are getting dumped all over," said Traci Jennings, president of the Humane Society of Stanislaus County in northern California. "Farmers are finding dogs dumped on their grazing grounds, while house cats are showing up in wild cat colonies."

....The abandoned pets are overwhelming animal shelters and drawing fury from bloggers, especially as photos of emaciated animals circulate on the Internet.

The first people to enter an abandoned house, such as property inspectors and real estate brokers, have discovered dogs tied to trees in backyards, cats in garages, and turtles, rabbits and lizards in children's bedrooms.

No one keeps track of the numbers of abandoned pets, but anecdotal evidence suggests that forsaken animals are becoming a problem wherever foreclosures are climbing...

and

Hidden victims of mortgage crisis: Pets/Owners abandoning their dogs and cats after foreclosure

related video

Please support animal rescue and no kill shelters. We suggest Main Line Animal Rescue. Support them, support your SPCA, support breed specific rescue...

Another story all shoud read is A mortgage crisis that didn't have to be
By Gail MarksJarvis Chicago Tribune:

"It's not a pretty picture, and it didn't have to come to this.
The worst housing slump since World War II is showing no sign of abating. Manufacturing activity is hinting at recession. Employment is weakening. The stock market has fallen dramatically. The mistakes banks and brokers made with mortgage-related bonds have left a lingering credit crunch, or a reluctance by lenders to make affordable loans to consumers and businesses.

Investors have gone into the new year with a dreary attitude, and Wall Street analysts are warning investors to be careful.

"Batten down the hatches," Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. economist Michelle Meyer said in a recent report.

Meyer estimates that the housing mess, which set off the economy's problems, is only half over, and that home prices will be down at least 15 percent when they hit bottom in 2009.....As early as 1999 to 2000, consumer advocates were tracking what Keest calls a "foreclosure crisis," in which one in four homeowners were unable to handle payments.

"The industry wouldn't listen," she said."