Wings of a Bird

For Poor Families, an Added Burden of Too Many Pets - N.Y. Times
Phillip Swetman is an accidental owner of 13 dogs. Most, Mr. Swetman said, came from “drive-bys.” “They hear a dog bark and they throw theirs in the ditch,” he said. “Then for us, it’s either let them starve or get hit by a car, or take them in.”
Midnight dumping of unwanted dogs is common here on the southern tail of the Appalachian Mountains, where large numbers of poor people are attached to multiple pets but cannot afford to sterilize or vaccinate them, and where impoverished county governments do not maintain animal shelters, require licensing or enforce requirements for rabies shots.
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“I’d do without food myself before they do,” Ms. Swetman said. But they say with some despair that veterinary care, which can run $100 a year per animal for vaccines and $100 or more for spaying or neutering, is far beyond their reach.
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Alicia Swetman looked especially anguished because she learned that one of her puppies, the one with one blue eye and one brown eye, had a health problem that made surgery too dangerous. To Ms. Swetman’s relief, as the puppies were brought out, their tails wagging furiously at the reunion, Dr. Love said it was probably a curable worm infection.
“I’d happily give these two away to a good home, where they’d be loved,” Ms. Swetman said, not entirely convincingly, as she hugged the afflicted puppy.

Labels: animals, compassionate people