Pets Are Losing Homes, Too

Animal shelters are being filled with pets abandoned because of the recession and home foreclosures. In Massachusetts, a rescue league has seen a 45% jump in owners citing money or housing problems when they surrender a cat or dog. Others are just leaving their pets on the streets or in the houses they must vacate, sometimes with a supply of food, the Boston Globe reports.

The problem has multiplied in some cases because owners are not paying to have their abandoned pets spayed or neutered. "We don't know where to put them. We're all overwhelmed," says the president of an animal shelter. Horses, which cost thousands of dollars a year to care for, are also suffering in the recession: Farms say their paddocks are overflowing.