Why do people give up their pets when they move?

Why do pet owners give up their pets due to moving?

My husband and I recently moved across the country with our 70-pound Lab mix and two cats.

Our pets were a huge burden for us during the move, and I will never judge someone who chooses (or is forced) to re-home her pets due to moving. There are way too many factors out of the pet owner’s control.

In this post, I’ll go over:

1. The challenges of finding affordable and nice pet friendly housing.

2. What we can do to help pet owners keep their pets when they move.

Some examples of hurdles we faced during our move:

Time crunch.

We moved 2,000 miles from Fargo, N.D., to southern California. My husband Josh had the luxury of taking a trip in advance to do apartment searching, but some people don’t have that option.

Either way, there is only so much time available to find the right apartment. For example, my brother recently moved to a different state on about 10 day’s notice. Finding affordable housing in his new area was extremely limited in general, let alone for people with pets (he doesn’t have pets).

But what do you do? You need a job and a place to live.

Dog breed and size discrimination.

We never did find an apartment that does not discriminate against certain dog breeds, so here I am renting from an apartment that discriminates and I feel guilty.

I’m not sure what we would have done if Ace happened to look like one of the targeted breeds (to most people he looks like a black Lab).

It was hard enough finding an apartment that would allow us to have a dog over 55 pounds.

Liability insurance.

Our apartment requires us to carry $100,000 in liability insurance. This is yet another expense when you’re on a budget, and yet another barrier if you own certain dog breeds.

The insurance company we are using will not offer coverage to people who own certain breeds. I feel terrible admitting to this, but I had so much to do in preparation for our move that I did not take the time to find a different insurance company.

High pet deposits and monthly ‘pet rent.’

Ever notice how the pet friendly apartments are either really expensive or really cheap? Every time I move with my pets I have to choose between paying more than I can afford or paying a lot less and living in a really run-down place. I’ve done both.

Thankfully we can afford an apartment on the higher end of our budget, but this is not an option for everyone. What do you do if you can’t afford any of the pet friendly apartments?

And then of course there are the extra expenses for pet owners who rent such as the pet security deposit and the monthly “pet rent.” And since my dog is more than 55 pounds, we are blessed with a higher pet rent.

One- or two-pet limits.

Nearly every apartment has a limit on the number of pets you can have – usually one or two pets. We have three.

Again, if you’re on a budget and a time crunch, what do you do?

Cat declawing required.

Some landlords will ask for proof that the cats are declawed. Sometimes front and back declawed.

Frankly, I don’t have the money to get my cats declawed, even if I wanted to. If you have cats and a limited budget but need a place to live, what do you do? Risk eviction? Then what?

Finding pet friendly hotel rooms.

It took us three days to drive across the country, so we had to stay in two “pet friendly” hotels that charged a $15 pet fee. But “pet friendly” generally means dog friendly and not cat friendly.

I was about to lose my mind when I got to our first hotel only to be told “absolutely no cats allowed.” I never even mentioned I had cats, and I still had to sign a form saying I was not a cat owner.

Thankfully, I knew to expect this in advance and brought my cats into the hotel by hiding them in duffle bags. I carried their litter box in a duffle bag, too. This was extremely stressful for me after 14 hours of driving.

Figuring out how to fit the pets in the moving truck.

I understand why people have no choice but to re-home their animals prior to a move. Sometimes moving with animals is nearly impossible.

Josh and I had a moving budget, and hiring a moving company was simply out of the question. So then we had to figure out how to fit two humans, two cats, a litter box and a 70-pound dog in the cab of a moving truck for three full days. And we don’t even have any kids!

We briefly debated putting the cats in a large wire kennel with their litter box in the back of the truck, but we knew it would be too hot for them.

Ultimately, we decided Josh would drive the truck and I would drive my car with three passengers – a mutt and two cats. We were able to make it work, but some people would not have this option. And thankfully my pets are excellent travelers!

So what can we do to make moving easier for pet owners?

1. We need to be understanding.

Those of us who volunteer for rescue groups or animal shelters need to be compassionate to the pet owners. People don’t want to surrender their pets. They simply have no other options or they believe they have no other options.

I’ve heard plenty of high-and-mighty rescue volunteers say things like, “Well, didn’t they know they would be moving? Couldn’t they plan ahead?”

It breaks my heart thinking of it now. It makes me want to cry for these pet owners because on a small level I can imagine what they might be going through. How awful would it be to surrender your pet to a rescue volunteer who greets you with such hatred and judgement?

2. Offer the pet owners some options.

We may not be able to prevent all pet owners from surrendering their pets, but maybe we can offer help to some.

A great example of a rescue group that works to help families keep their pets is Downtown Dog Rescue located in Los Angeles. Tegan Whalan maintains the blog Some Thoughts About Dogs, and she had a great post about DDR that I hope you’ll read because it shows the human side of animal rescue work.

“An overlooked part of dog rescue is to prevent dogs ever being in the position of needing rescue,” Whalan wrote. “That is, preventing animals from entering shelters to begin with.”

Her post included an example where a family brought their cat to a shelter to surrender it because they could not afford the required $100 pet deposit to bring their cat into their new apartment. The woman at the shelter was compassionate and provided options and a solution – DDR would pay the $100 pet deposit so the family could keep their cat. What a great story!

3. Help them find pet friendly housing.

Prior to our move, I emailed a local humane society asking for suggestions on apartments that would allow dogs of any breed. I would love to adopt a second dog, I said in my email, and I don’t want to be limited on my options based on breed restrictions.

The humane society never got back to me. I received no response at all. This is a huge failure. How many other pet owners is this shelter ignoring? If you’re in the business of finding homes for dogs, one of your first tasks should be helping pet owners keep their pets in order to keep animals out of the shelter in the first place.

It would be worthwhile for every shelter and rescue group to keep a detailed list of pet friendly housing divided into categories that include:

4. A ‘responsible pet owner’ is not defined by a person’s level of income.

This should not need an explanation. Pets ask for very little, and they do not care how much money we make as long as they receive the most basic care.

How many of us have said something like, “I would live out of my car before giving up my dog”?

Then why are we so judgmental of others who are facing real-life hardships?

5. Express our concerns to landlords and insurance companies.

Remember how I said I’m renting from a company that discriminates against certain types of dogs? I can politely and professionally voice my concerns to the management of the company and ask for change.

This is especially effective when those of us with non-targeted breeds are the ones to speak up. We aren’t trying to protect our own dogs, but we are showing that breed discrimination in general is wrong and ineffective and that we do not support it.

We can also approach insurance companies in the same way, and we can make a point to give our money to companies that do not discriminate.

What advice do the rest of you have about moving with pets and the challenges people face? Do you have any real-life examples?