Pets and Poverty

Pets and Poverty

This article relates to Rethinking Rescue

It's a standard feel-good trope of countless viral YouTube videos and the central narrative of many animal rescue marketing campaigns: a suffering dog or cat found in a horrifying state—emaciated and filthy, abandoned, neglected, or abused—is saved by a heroic rescuer and adopted into a new, loving home where it lives happily ever after. But as Carol Mithers writes in Rethinking Rescue, "The majority of dogs and cats held by shelters and rescues aren't victims of deliberate cruelty. They're more likely to have begun their lives as poor people's pets." And in all too many cases, those animals end up in shelters not because they are unwanted but because their owners simply cannot afford to care for them.

Rethinking Rescue examines the many barriers faced by low-income pet owners, including lack of access to resources and services, the exorbitant cost of veterinary care, and the crisis in affordable housing—for many low-income pet owners, the biggest challenge.

Nationally, only 33 units of affordable housing are available for every 100 renting low-income households. In some states, the problem is even more dire—such as in Nevada, where the number of available low-income housing units drops to 14. Given the severe shortage of affordable housing, almost three-quarters of extremely low-income renters end up spending more than half of their already meager income on housing costs, leaving little left over to cover other essential expenses—let alone the cost of pet care.

While affordable housing is already scarce across the United States, finding affordable pet-friendly accommodations is even harder. Many rental units, especially those in low-income ZIP codes, don't allow pets at all. Those that do typically impose restrictions on the size, weight, breed, or number of pets allowed, further limiting the available housing options for low-income pet owners. Increasingly, so-called pet-friendly units also slap on hefty surcharges, such as non-refundable pet security deposits and even monthly "pet rent"—extra costs that can be prohibitive for economically struggling pet owners. In some cases, landlords who initially tolerated a family's pet suddenly change their minds and threaten eviction or demand a new security deposit the family can't afford to pay, forcing them to face an excruciating choice: surrender their pets or move.

As a result of the affordable housing crisis, millions of financially insecure Americans are one emergency away from ending up in the street. And when people who own pets lose their home, the options for safe refuge dwindle even further—for both people and pets. Only three percent of homeless shelters in the United States accept pets. Few emergency cold shelters or other temporary housing arrangements accept them either. When forced to decide between a beloved pet and a safe place to sleep, many unhoused people choose their pet.

In Rethinking Rescue, Mithers tells the story of Los Angeles-based animal advocate Lori Weise, whose work is founded on a basic premise—that people who are struggling to make ends meet deserve to love and be loved by animals just as more affluent pet owners do, and that those who have the means should help them. Thanks in part to Weise's pioneering work, a growing number of animal welfare programs have made that kind of community support a priority, but the impulse to blame and judge low-income pet owners is still prevalent.

When poor people struggle to care for their pets, all too often the tendency is to berate them as "undeserving" of a pet's companionship, to castigate them for their failures instead of thinking about how to give them the resources they need to succeed. We proclaim our "fur babies" to be cherished members of the family, then turn around and scold poor pet owners for having a luxury they can't afford.

For many economically vulnerable pet owners, however, the love of their dog or cat is anything but a luxury. Perhaps especially for those who are the most marginalized, pets can be an essential lifeline and an indispensable source of joy, comfort, and meaning. Mithers quotes the touching tribute of one unhoused Skid Row resident to a deceased dog: "I will always be grateful for the part you played in my life, your unconditional love for me when I barely loved myself."

A Dog Lying on a Mattress on the Street, photo by João Saplak

Filed under Society and Politics

This article relates to Rethinking Rescue. It first ran in the August 21, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.