Gardiner resident Wayne Otis will be featured in a segment that NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams plans to run within the next week or so. Otis is grateful for the publicity but wishes his 15 minutes of fame could be for any number of other reasons.
Otis is one of a growing number of residents in this region and nationally for whom the looming recession is dealing a particularly sad blow. He and his wife, Laurie, have been forced to part with two beloved pets – pony mules named Blackjack and Smokey – because the couple is losing the seven-acre parcel adjacent to their home in a foreclosure proceeding. Although the three-quarter-acre parcel on which their house sits is not in danger, the Otises will no longer have adequate room for the mules.
Animal shelters in this area and elsewhere in the country have been fielding a marked increase in calls during the past six months – 25 percent more just at the Ulster County SPCA – from individuals who can no longer afford to care for their animals. In some cases, it is because foreclosures or the economy in general are forcing these people to move to smaller quarters, say a variety of sources, including the Catskill Animal Sanctuary (CAS), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the local SPCA. In other instances, the owners simply can not afford to continue feeding the animals at their homes and farms as the cost of feed, hay and gasoline skyrocket.
“You rarely see a 55-year-old man cry,” said CAS founder and director Kathy Stevens of Otis, who brought the two mules to the sanctuary in Saugerties on a recent Sunday. CAS regularly takes in large numbers of animals from starvation cases during the winter months but the animals typically come from so-called “hoarders,” individuals who compulsively collect animals regardless of their ability to care for them.
“This is a completely different scenario,” explained Stevens, “and to be honest, we’ve been blindsided. These are people who love their animals dearly and are desperate to find homes for them.”
More barns needed
CAS is currently caring for some 140 farm animals and equines at its 80-acre property on Old Stage Road off of Route 9W. To accommodate the additional need, it is building three more shelters to house some 18 large animals at a cost of about $28,000. With about 60 large animals already at the sanctuary, “that’s a lot of mouths to feed at a time when hay prices have gone through the roof,” Stevens pointed out. The farm animal sanctuary normally wouldn’t consider undertaking construction during the winter months “because the costs are so high,” but, said Stevens, “We have to respond to the need. And there are going to be a lot of animals we have to say no to.”
The Saugerties-based farm animal sanctuary currently has a waiting list of three dozen families representing about 200 animals, according to Julie Barone, Stevens’s assistant, who has noticed a particularly sharp increase during the past six to eight weeks in calls from people seeking homes for everything from horses, pot bellied pigs and goats to cats and dogs, which CAS generally doesn’t accept. Barone said these individuals often report that their boarding facility itself is being forced out of business due to economic conditions and they have been unable to find an affordable alternative.
On Tuesday, as Stevens was receiving two more calls from individuals who could not continue to care for their horses, a CAS representative was meeting with a horse owner in the Albany area who had notified the sanctuary that she could now only feed her two mares and one stallion every other day. Because the stallion, like the mares, is so thin, it can not be gelded immediately. Accepting a stallion would pose an additional dilemma, said Stevens, adding that the situation highlights just how complicated the problem is.
And these are some of the lucky animals. In many cases, farm animals as well as cats and dogs are simply abandoned when their owners face foreclosure or are forced to leave their properties for other reasons, according to Stephanie Shain, director of outreach for companion animals at the Washington, D.C.-based HSUS. Abandoned pets face a particularly grim future, she pointed out. Many pets trapped inside abandoned homes are not found until they are dead or are on the brink of starvation. Those that do reach a shelter generally have only a 50 percent chance of being adopted.
“No one likes to think of leaving their pet at a shelter, but if you can’t take (the animal) with you, it is by far more humane than leaving (it) in an apartment or a house alone,” said Shain. “Too many animals die alone this way every year.”
The Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary (WFAS) is not fielding as many appeals as CAS; WFAS co-founder Doug Abel believes it is because his facility generally does not take in horses. When faced with the inability to feed and care for their farm animals, many farmers will simply sell the animals for slaughter, he pointed out.
The soaring cost and availability of hay is an issue in itself, according to Abel and Stevens. Last year, a bale of hay cost $3.24. Now it is $4.75 because of the spike in the cost of gasoline, she noted. At the same time, fewer area residents all the time are willing to cut and bale hay because there is so little profit involved. The situation is further exacerbated by the willingness of some southern farmers to pay up to $11 per bale for New York hay because of the drought in North and South Carolinas that has made hay so scarce there, according to Stevens.
SPCA at maximum capacity
Ulster County SPCA shelter manager Adam Saunders reported his shelter has observed a 25 percent increase in abandonment cases at a time when adoptions are remaining at the same levels. “I don’t get into detail whether it’s a foreclosure or not,” he said. As a “no-kill” shelter, the local SPCA has a maximum capacity of 80 cats and 40 dogs and the facility is at about that level now, he noted.
Most of the local individuals who are surrendering animals to CAS for economic reasons were not willing to speak to the media. Wayne Otis of Gardiner was the exception. A truck driver/mechanic with the Gardiner Highway Department, Otis and his wife Laurie had adopted the two pony mules five years ago after Laurie’s employer acquired them at an auction to prevent them from being euthanized. In warm weather, the couple enjoyed watching as the mules grazed freely on their fenced-in property. When it became known that the couple was about to lose the seven-acre plot in a foreclosure proceeding, several offers came in from individuals who were willing to board the Otises’ mules for free but Wayne Otis said he couldn’t afford the additional cost of gasoline to drive back and forth to feed them twice each day.
Those mules have “personality,” said Otis, describing the animals. Blackjack would find a way out of even the smallest opening in the fence and Smokey would call to the couple to let them know he wanted his breakfast or dinner. Otis said he wanted to speak with the media “to make people aware of what can happen.” Said the Gardiner resident, “At this point, it’s water under the bridge. My concern is to bring some help to the animals.”
The Catskill Animal Sanctuary, the region’s largest sanctuary for horses and farm animals, is located at 316 Old Stage Road, Saugerties, NY, 12477. Animals can be sponsored for as little as $10 per month. For more information, visit www.casanctuary.org or call (845) 336-8447.