"It's almost every day now that we see a [foreclosed] house in awful
condition," says Scott Mitchell, president of National Property
Inspections, a company that provides home inspections and assessments in the Las
Vegas area. "We've really noticed it increasing in the last month and a
half." RealtyTrac
estimates that Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the country in April,
with one filing per every 232 households.
Nothing to Lose
Found:
Cute kitties
Where: Cincinnati, Ohio
When: May 15, 2007
In the state with the third-highest number of foreclosures in April, an evicted
man left his home without telling anyone about the 60-plus cats and kittens that
were trapped inside without food, water, or medical attention. An animal rescue
worker stumbled across the scene and several local animal rescue groups and
shelters quickly came to help the animals, which were all suffering from
treatable health problems such as malnutrition and parasitic infections. The
groups are still looking for donations and homes. To help out, visit www.foreclosurecats.org
"They know they are going to lose their house, so they have no pride of
ownership anymore," Mitchell says. "They'll leave the water on so
there's flooding and mold everywhere, they'll tear the chandelier or the ceiling
fan out of the ceiling, kick the doors and walls in. Then the critters start
taking over—ants, scorpions, and Black Widow spiders."
In and around Sacramento, Calif., mosquitoes that may carry the deadly West
Nile virus are thriving in the thousands of uncared-for swimming pools on
properties left vacant by slower home sales and rising foreclosures. With 30,505
foreclosure filings reported in April, California documented the largest
foreclosure total in the country for the fourth month in a row, according to
RealtyTrac. In Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and
Yuba counties, more than 1,500 homeowners handed their homes over to the bank in
the first three months of 2007, according to DataQuick
Information Systems in La Jolla, Calif.
Sometimes, frustrated homeowners get creative. A man in Eagle Creek, Ore.,
recently put three 200-pound pigs in his repossessed home. They quickly tore up
the place, ripping away the foundation and reducing the back porch to rubble.
When police found the pigs, the animals were unharmed, if a little cranky.
Left for Dead
Found:
Horses
Where: Bixby, Okla.
When: May 12, 2007
Sheriff’s deputies came across 24 starving and neglected horses on a 40-acre
property in foreclosure just south of Tulsa. Four horses were trapped in round
pens and forced to drink water contaminated with their urine and feces. Deputies
had to dig another horse out from piled-up manure. Two horses had to be
euthanized. The owners were accused of at least 13 felony complaints of animal
cruelty and booked in the county jail, with bail set at $52,000 each.
Many animals are not so lucky. Pets are often silent sufferers during the
foreclosure process. Homeowners in financial straits may make them a low
priority to begin with, and when foreclosure leads to eviction, they are
sometimes abandoned without food or water and left to breed uncontrollably. In
the month of May alone, authorities found 23 abandoned animals in a house in
Lake Carmel, N.Y.; three pigs trapped in an Oregon home; 20 birds in a Lorain
(Ohio) house; 24 horses on a Bixby (Okla.) property; and more than 60 cats in a
home in Cincinnati. All of these properties were in foreclosure, and most of the
animals were injured, infected, dehydrated, and starved nearly to death.
"There are a lot of hoarders and neglected animals and people who just
don't realize how fast things can spin out of control," says animal rescue
worker Gail Silver, who discovered the foreclosed home in Cincinnati with more
than 60 cats trapped inside.
On May 1, Silver was on her usual bike ride along the river when she decided,
suddenly, to turn down a road she hadn't been down in two years. "Something
said I should go down this street," she remembers. On the street was a
house with a bunch of cats sitting on the porch. "They did not look
good," Silver recalls. Neighbors told her the owner had been evicted two
weeks earlier and the local chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals (SPCA) was scheduled to come the next day to take the cats away and
euthanize them. Silver decided to look inside the home.
"When I saw what was in that house, I was sick to my stomach," she
says. "They were everywhere…tiny little babies that weren't even weaned
yet, with bulging eyes. The house was filthy, you could smell the disease. I had
to wear a mask in there, it was so toxic."
A Bigger Burden
Found:
Mosquitoes
Where: Sacramento, Calif. area
When: Spring 2007
As the housing slump in the region creates more and more vacancies, mosquitoes
are breeding and thriving in uncared-for swimming pools, garden ponds, and
flooded yards, according to the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control
District. California health officials are concerned that these insects may
spread West Vile virus to other animals and humans. More than 1,500 homeowners
lost their homes to banks in the first three months of 2007 in Amador, El
Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties, according
to La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems.
Local rescues got involved, bargaining with the SPCA and the bank for more
time to round up the cats and kittens. The house was scheduled to be cleared out
completely in a week, on May 8, but Fannie Mae (FNM),
the government-backed home mortgage giant, intervened and extended the date to
May 25. "They had to. It would have created an overpopulation of animals
that the community would have been dealing with for years and years,"
Silver notes.
A national organization, United Animal Nations, provided a grant to assist
with emergency medical expenses for the sickest cats. The Cincinnati SPCA
donated $1,000. Eventually, the team was able to remove all of the animals. Six
cats have died, others are living in shelters and foster homes, but the
organizations still need more money and help.
Foreclosure activity in Ohio surged in April, up 39% from March and up 135%
from April, 2006, pushing the state's total to the third-largest in the nation.
That's 11,431 filings, or one filing for every 418 households—1.9 times the
national average of one filing for every 783 households. For the thousands of
Ohioans and others struggling to find money for food and shelter, pet care is
often the last thing on their minds. "They spiral down and financially and
in their personal life, everything just falls apart for them," says Anita
Barron with Pet Alliance, the rescue group taking care of administrative work
for Cincinnati's "Foreclosure Cats."
Resources for Pet Owners
If you're facing foreclosure and are unable to care for your animals, call a
shelter like Best
Friends Animal Society. But spaying or neutering your pets is the simplest
way to avoid having too many animals, even if money is tight. It will save you
money in the long term: A female cat can have a litter of as many as seven
kittens up to three times a year—that's a lot of extra cat food. Spay/USA
is a nationwide network and referral service for affordable spay and neuter
services with a hotline (1-800-248-SPAY). Surgery at one of the clinics in the
network averages $50, about half of the average cost in a vet's office.
"So many problems are very complex; this is a simple problem," says
Spay/USA founder Esther Mechler. "And it's scary to think that with rising
foreclosures, these animals will be some of the hidden victims."
To donate to or adopt one of Cincinnati's Foreclosure Cats, visit www.foreclosurecats.org.
Roney is
Real Estate writer for BusinessWeek.com.
Pictured: the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses IV
Found: Mummy
Where: Roses, Spain
When: May 15, 2007
In a coastal town in Spain’s northeast Catalonia region, a man made his first
visit to a home he purchased in a foreclosure auction -- only to find the
previous owner’s mummified body sitting on the couch in the living room.
Coroners estimated that the woman, in her mid-50s, had been there since 2001,
the same year she had stopped making payments on the home. The salty seaside air
in the popular vacation town helped to preserve her remains.
Home foreclosures on rise statewide
Malnourished and flea-ridden animals, feces-covered floors and urine-soaked
furniture, piles of rotting garbage, swarms of diseased mosquitoes—these are
the horrors that may await the ill-fated sheriff, property inspector, Realtor,
or passerby making that first visit to a deserted home.
