Local animal shelters and humane societies are seeing an increase in pets turned in to them due to home foreclosures and other economic difficulties.

"Most of these are loyal pets," said Mark Kumpf, director of the Animal Resource Center of Montgomery County. "You can't explain this situation to a dog."

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Mackenzie Phillips, a vet tech at the Greater Dayton Humane Society, holds two cats that came to the shelter because they were left behind during a housing foreclosure.Click to enlarge

Many Miami Valley shelter officials are reporting an increasein families who have lost their homes and have moved to an apartment that does not allow pets or to the home of a relative who has no room for a cat or dog.

"We had a couple who lost their home and had to give up their Saint Bernard," said Deputy Director James Straley, deputy director of the Clark County Humane Society.

Local shelters have reported the following:

• Last year, the Animal Resource Center would get one pet a month because of foreclosures or evictions. Now they get a few every week, Kumpf said.

• At the Humane Society of Greater Dayton, there were 233 animals turned in to them in December. That is the highest December total since 2002, according to Executive Director Brian Weltge.

• The Darke County Animal Shelter has received three to four animals per month exclusively due to housing issues, according to Director Duane Sanning.

• During the six-month period of August 2007 through January 2008, the Clark County Humane Society has taken in 201 more animals than in the previous six-month period, Straley said.

"An older gentleman came in and said they cut his gas and electric and he could no longer keep his dog," Kumpf said. "How do you tell the guy he has to give up the only friend he has left in the world?"