Having trouble affording your pet’s care? Look to these groups for help.
We at PETS 911 actually receive a great deal of sad stories from owners who cannot keep their animals because of crippling financial situations. While we ourselves are only a web page and a hotline, a service trying our best to get the public together with the animal welfare community, we try our best to respond in kind with people looking for resources to help them.
The HSUS has created an extensive list of aid organizations across all fifty states that help people with veterinary bills. It is definitely worth your time to go through it if you happen to be in dire straights with your own vet bills or perhaps to show to someone you know who is.
We ourselves haven’t had the time to compile such a list, but will certainly be directing people to it in the future.
Take a look.
Link, via the HSUS.
Someone has to hear. Someone has to care? Apparently people need help feeding & caring for their pets. The numbers are increasing of those neglected, lost, abandoned. I SEE IT!! almost everyday.
I write & write & write on the internet about what is happening. I tell & speak & tell EVERYONE what i know, what we’ve seen & they shrug it of or even give me strange looks. Dogs, cats everywhere behind buildings, in store parking lots, lying in the grass at my church, i notice them in surrounding fields, at the library, Walmart p. lot, YOU NAME IT, begging for attention, for food, for their lives. Sunday night I woke up to the sound of barking dogs. My 2 dogs were going crazy because
they sensed something outside. When i looked i found 8-10 maybe more dogs, of all sizes barking & running all about the yard. I live in Live Oak, Florida, & the nearest neighbor is 1 acres away. I hope we didn’t wake them because the noise was LOUD at 2 am ! These dogs had overturned my garbage, were hungry, lost & alone. I thought to myself, how sad BUT I can’t feed 8 more dogs, we are struggling to pay our bills, with the price of food, electric, insurance, taxes etc. also because there are virtually NO jobs available in this area. I had to make them leave but how? Well, this took 3 hours ! before the silence came. I tried to shoo them off to no avail. They were wagging their tails one minute & fighting each other the next. My babies were shut inside safe from the fight. I finally got a cooking pot & a spoon & started banging & shooed them off. Talk about loud ! They still didn’t leave until 5 am, i guess they found little food & left. I thought to myself it is bad enough in public to see neglect, but now this is following me home! SOMEONE has to help- help people in need with the means to feed their pets so they are not abandoned or left to stray! Mine will NOT, God willing, but the numbers of hungry, neglected strays are increasing…. I feel for them & love them all…but can not take on any more. I hope they don’t return tonite, and they have every night for the past 8 nights, we need our rest! I know of many families who have over 6 or more dogs EACH ALL STRAYS! because we all own 1-10+ acres & thought we can take care of them & struggling now w/ VET VISITS, FOOD everything including our needs! What if someone opened a food & help pantry for those struggling to feed & care for their pets ?! I have sought help in this matter but found nothing. I would do anything and ALL involved in putting this in place if only I had some help, or the means. I did find people food banks in PA, Atlanta, GA & CA who help w/donated pet food, Chow Wagon, spoke to them & they had no suggestions just prayers as to how this would become Nationwide. Nothing else, NOTHING near NOTHING IN Suwannee or the neighboring counties.. I have asked & told my church pantry, the local Animal Shelter, my Vet of the need for this in this area, but they shrug it off or even look at me as if I’m crazy! Maybe i am? Hey if anyone wants a THOROUGHBRED dog DON”T pay for one there are literally 100’s here in Live Oak FLORIDA in desperate need of homes! Labs, Shepard’s, Pit bulls, Dachshunds, Huskies, YOU NAME IT!!!! OH and I DIDN”T even tell U what I see & know about cats, kittens abandoned everywhereeeee! With this economy people are shunning their pets to live on the streets in EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS! I will not rest until someone hears & HELPS! God save these neglected, underprivileged children. Seemingly so alone in this, LOST IN THE SUNSHINE STATE Live Oak area- McAlpin, Florida
My life of 50 yrs has been filled with numerous animal companions to love & provide for. I think back & remember all the love & happiness they have brought to me & I also can’t forget the 8 pets I have now who I love, cherish & protect everyday. ALL STRAYS OR ABANDONED ! In the past I could afford to have pets, no problem. Our economy, it seems is making this providing part harder & harder for me & so many others. I live in North Central Florida, just been here a yr,(WRONG MOVE) moved my 8 babies w/me from Ohio. As i go about my daily business i can’t help but notice the MANY, MANY, MANY STRAYS in this area ! So many MORE than the busy metro of Cincinnati I left. There is not a day that goes by that I, who, would notice these things, see numerous neglected dogs, cats in fields, on busy roads & hiways, at Walmart p-lot, the library, church, EVERYWHERE! While returning home the other day I saw 5 kittens huddled (5-8 wks old barely weaned) together in a field wet & starving….i took them to the local Animal Shelter & they were closed earlier than the designated time on their sign! after it took me at least 1 hr. to russel them to my car for they were starved & scared to death! There is a lady 1/2 mile from my house who is very unfortunate it seems with 30 PLUS cats & dogs ALL STRAYS who i help when i can with leftover & un-liked food etc. She doesn’t know how to stop taking them in. She sez “they just keep coming!” SHE TOOK THEM IN ! WE JUST CRIED because i knew i was burdening her but what were we to do ??? Use them for fishing bait like the guy down the way!? NOT US! our LOVE saved them for now!I know there are many people things to worry about in our world today….but I mean it i see dogs on the streets, on the dangerous hiways, around dumpters, or dead, running, starving, cats missing a leg, missing an eye, 2-5 dogs cats in the parking lots of Walmart, the gas station,up to 2-6 EVERYDAY here in Live Oak, FLA & am just heart broken!!! I think sometimes i shouldn’t go out for what I might SEE!! I carry around 1/2 bags of dog/ cat food a bowl & a pitcher of water ALWAYS & when I see a stray baby I get honked at, yelled at because i am feeding them & protecting them for just a moment on the side of the road!! I couldn’t take them home, i would just end up like my neighbor w/ so many neglected babies to feed…and i can BARELY feed myself & my 8 STRAYS, I’ve acquired in the last 12 yrs on my SS income!!!! PLEASE pray that God Almighty helps us with this struggle. FEED your pets, keep them close & DO NOT LET them stray to worry ME & others who truly care!??? I feed mine bread soaked in chicken broth when i cant pay $20 plus dollars for their food almost every wk. I WOULD NEVER let them stray from me to become homeless !!!! BUT it seems SO MANY HAVE! I tried to ignore this…BUT I CAN”T… i wish i had a happy story to tell…but its not there!!! I have plans to start an “underprivileged pets” something to help those who need food for their babies but people look at me like I am crazy…but something has to be done….soon! We do without so much during these recent times. DESPERATELY robbing Peter to pay Paul to have enough worthless green paper to BUY MY BABIES CARE & FOOD! HELP HELP I am in constant prayer for the state of our world today…AND I pray & prayPrayPRAY prayHOPE believe have faith that our babies will somehow be saved, loved always & live in peace!!! before it is toooo late for them…and me! Much love & peace of mind to us all! Please hear our cry’s.
Both of you are not crazy. There are a lot of us out there also praying and wondering if this is going to get worse before it gets better. The next time you get honked at, just ignore it. They were probably thinking that they are better off dead than living like they are begging for every scrap and dying a slow and agonizing death starving every day until it finally comes. This did not suddenly happen. It has been coming for years and people have been turning their heads and ignoring it. The animal shelters have been talking about the numbers of dogs and cats euthanized yearly for awhile. Who was listening then???????????
I agree with your suggestion regarding providing help to others for food and health care especially during these hard times. I adopted to stray kittens that a couple brought into a veterinary office where my friend works. The couple explained that the mother of the kittens abandoned them after giving birth to them just four weeks prior. They asked the vet if he or any of the employees knew anybody that would love and give the kittens a good home, and my friend jumped on that real fast and called me immediately. The couple then paid the vet to provide the first physical / check-up and gave the kittens their first set of shots for good health. That same day after I got off of work, I met with the couple and brought my babies home. Being that it was such short notice and everything happened during the time I was at work, when I brought them home I had absolutely nothing for them, no food or anything, so I immediately ran to the pet store by my home and pretty much bought out the entire store practically. I would constantly bring them home something everyday.
Now they are five months old, and they are my heart. I lost my job last year right before the holidays and times have been very hard, but no matter what I have always made sure that my babies are taken care of and fed. I love them so much that even if I don’t have enough money to feed all of us, then I will go without, but they will always be fed and taken care of no matter what!!! They are my babies, and I will sacrafice for them always!!!
It is now 2009, and my babies are now “in heat”. This is natural of course, but being that I had lost my job right after my kitties got their second set of shots and was told that they were too young to be spayed at that time, and am still without a job it is very very hard on me to just struggle to live, and now I have to figure out how I am going to pay for both of my kitties to be spayed. It is very expensive!!! When I first brought my babies home I was in a position to provide food, healthcare, etc. to my babies being that I had a job at the time. Now I am of course taking care of them, and always will, but now I have to become a magician or something so that I can make sure my kitties can get spayed, and whatever medicine the vet prescribes for them if needed to take care of them, and not to mention the vet bill for it all… WOW!!!
I love my babies with all of my heart and would never ever let them go no matter what. I have also seen so many stray animals on a daily basis, especially cats. What kills me the most is how many cats I have seen in the middle of the road that have been hit by cars and killed. I can’t take that, it hurts me so much to see that especially knowing that there is nothing that I can do at this time being that I am a part of the “Unemployment Economic Statistics” in the world. God knows that if I could I would take in and adopt as many stray animals that I could because it kills me to see their little faces knowing that they are without love, food, water, and a home to keep them warm.