Abandoned pets are

companion animals A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence ...

that are either inadvertently or deliberately abandoned by their owners, by either dumping the animals on the streets, leaving them alone in a vacant property, or relinquishing them at an

animal shelter An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would ...

Animal welfare Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevity ...

laws in many states of the United States make it a crime to abandon a pet. The UK passed the

Abandonment of Animals Act 1960 The Abandonment of Animals Act 1960 (8 & 9 Eliz. II c. 43) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It received Royal Assent on 2 June 1960. The Act made it a criminal offense to abandon an animal, or permit it to be abandoned, "in circum ...

which describes the offence of cruelty as "If any person being the owner or having charge or control of any animal shall without reasonable cause or excuse abandon it, whether permanently or not, in circumstances likely to cause the animal any unnecessary suffering, or cause or procure or, being the owner, permit it to be so abandoned." Often, when abandoned, pets are forced to fend for themselves and become stray or feral. Feral cats are said to outnumber feral dogs and can become challenging to handle and socialize enough to be re-introduced to a new human owner. In general, only some newly abandoned cats and very young feral kittens can be tamed. There is a necessity to investigate interventions to prevent companion-animal relinquishment. Stray animals increase potential exposure to

zoonotic diseases A zoonosis (; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a bacterium, virus, parasite or prion) that has jumped from a non-human (usually a vertebrate) to a human ...

rabies Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. Early symptoms can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, vi ...

Cat bite Cat bites are bites inflicted upon humans, other cats, and other animals by the domestic cat (). Data from the United States show that cat bites represent between 5–15% of all animal bites inflicted to humans, but it has been argued that this fig ...

s or scratches involving stray or feral animals are eight times more common than dog bites. Some pets relinquished to an

will be

euthanized Animal euthanasia ( euthanasia from el, εὐθανασία; "good death") is the act of killing an animal or allowing it to die by withholding extreme medical measures. Reasons for euthanasia include incurable (and especially painful) conditi ...

due to a lack of space or financial resources. Millions of companion animals enter animal shelters every year in the United States. However, the number of dogs and cats euthanized in US shelters declined from approximately 2.6 million in 2011 to 1.5 million in 2018. This decline can be partially explained by an increase in the percentage of animals adopted, and an increase in the number of stray animals successfully returned to their owners. Studies show that the majority of people who relinquish an animal also report being emotionally attached to the dog. It has been reported that when forced to abandon their animals in an evacuation, people suffer mental issues such as grief, depression, and

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

. Recognizing the importance of pets to their owners and their role in public health is an essential first step in improving a public health problem that has been seen repeatedly in the past and is unlikely to change in the future. Pet abandonment increased during the USA

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

. In early 2009, the

ASPCA The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing animal cruelty. Based in New York City since its inception in 1866, the organization's mission is "to provide effective mea ...

published advice for people facing

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

and the loss of their pets, recommending finding a foster or adoption situation for your pet, being aware of rental property rules for pets, and checking with animal shelters and

animal rescue group An animal rescue group or animal rescue organization is a group dedicated to pet adoption. These groups take unwanted, abandoned, abused, or stray pets and attempt to find suitable homes for them. Many rescue groups are created by and run by ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abandoned Pets Pets Abandoned animals

See also

References