BRISTOL -- After so many times dealing with people no longer able to maintain their pets due to money problems, it takes a toll.
"It's hard at the end of the day," said Nancy Cagley, a customer service rep at the Humane Society of Elkhart County here. "It's a heart-rending situation for everybody."
These days, though, with the economy going southward, there's not much she and others who deal with stray, abandoned or homeless animals can do. Just as home foreclosures and layoffs have become the tough reality of the times, so have drop-offs of cats and dogs by their owners at the animal shelter here, mirroring what animal advocates say is a national trend.
In Elkhart County alone, pet owners surrendered 2,560 animals to the Humane Society in the first six months of the year, up 19.5 percent from 2,142 in the same period in 2007. Usually, the figures remain static from year to year and the spike had Humane Society Director Eric Durcinka and others pointing to fallout from the struggling economy -- the job losses, home-loan defaults and rising gasoline and food prices.
"If they've got to pick between feeding their kids and feeding their dog, (the animals) are going to go," said Cpl. Darlene Guthrie, animal control officer for the Elkhart Police Department, who's also noticed an uptick in pet surrenders.
That's not to say it's a decision taken lightly. Some of the people surrendering pets that Cagley assists say they've done all they can to place their animals before turning to the Humane Society, asking friends or advertising in the newspaper for new homes.
"They're pretty upset because their animals are their family," she said.
Still, the trend can lead to some unsettling situations.
Durcinka said animal-neglect reports in Elkhart County, which include cases of underfed critters, are up, due in part, he suspects, to the soft economy.
Likewise, Sandy Parr, president of Pet Refuge in Mishawaka, received a call on Tuesday from South Bend authorities about a dog abandoned in a foreclosed home by the critter's owners, who had left the animal to fend for itself. The South Bend family had adopted the dog about four or five years ago from Parr's group, which covers a broad swath, including Elkhart County.
"We've got four or five dogs just this year that have been abandoned," Parr said. "It's terrible."
'Please don't abandon'
No one keeps national stats. But Nancy Peterson of the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C., said the information she gets from press reports and affiliate organizations nationwide tells her that pet surrenders and pickups of stray animals are on the rise across the country.
She, too, cited the slipping economy, but called on pet owners in precarious financial straits to do everything they can to hold on to their dogs and cats.
"What we're really stressing is please, please don't abandon a pet in a house, in an apartment or in the street," she said. "If you've tried everything and you have no alternative option, call your local shelter."
In that vein, the Humane Society of Elkhart County earlier this year redoubled an assistance program for needy pet owners who can't afford food for their critters. The effort continues.
Nonetheless, the animals keep coming, forcing Durcinka and other Humane Society staffers to more quickly cycle them through the system to keep space available for the constant inflow. Though adoption is the ideal they strive for, Durcinka notes that because of the high numbers, some cats and dogs are being sent more quickly to rescue facilities and, in some cases, euthanized. The Bristol facility holds a maximum of around 85 canines and 160 to 180 felines.
It's got Guthrie, the Elkhart animal control officer, stressing that once a family gives up a pet, there are no guarantees.
"Once you go to the shelter, their lives are up in the air," she said.
Contact Tim Vandenack at tvandenack@etruth.com.