You just don't dump family on the side of the road. You just don't

Detroit Free Press

When a car pulled away from a home on Keating Street near 8 Mile Road in late January, it left behind an unkempt white poodle.

"They drove off and the dog was trying to follow them, running after the car," said Deborah Thurman, shelter director for the Michigan Anti-Cruelty Society in Detroit.

After neighbors called, crews found the dog, since named Albert Einstein because of his wild white hair, waiting on the porch for a family that had moved out and wasn't coming back. The dog remains in the shelter, but a potential owner has applied to adopt him, Thurman said Thursday.

Albert Einstein

Although Einstein's drama may have a happy ending, other pets aren't always so lucky. Animal welfare advocates say Michigan's two-legged residents aren't the only ones losing their homes to foreclosure and eviction. Increasingly, pets are being left in abandoned apartments and houses, surrendered at shelters and even dumped along roadsides.

The number of such animals coming into the Anti-Cruelty Society shelter, which doesn't charge to drop off animals, has risen by an estimated 30% over the past year, Thurman said. The Michigan Humane Society reports a 150% increase in abandonment complaints since 2004.

"Most of the animals we see are dogs that people are just dumping on the street," said Heather Mehi, manager of the Dearborn Animal Shelter. "You know that's what's happening because the animals are so nice. People just can't afford them anymore."

Mehi said at one point this winter the shelter had a neutered boxer that no one would claim.

Officials say it's often difficult to know the true reasons people turn in pets because they often are reluctant or embarrassed to admit they have to give up pets for financial reasons. Many people will claim the pets are strays.

I can at least have enough pity for the folks who have enough decency in them to drop the animals off  at the shelter.  But to just leave them behind?  To drive off knowing the dog is following you?  So maybe I do spoil Duke a bit much sometimes.  I take full responsibility for getting him hooked on peanut butter and bananas, but I do it because I love him to death.  I made him a promise when I brought him home from the MHS shelter - where my home is, his home is.  At 5 1/2 months old, he'd already had two homes before being sent to the shelter.  I wasn't about to add myself to that list of people.  I don't care how bad things get for me - Duke is my family.  That's all there is to it.