Say Anything Blog

Bad Economy Kills Pet Dogs, Cats, Pigs, Goats...and People Too

By Brent Baker

Going to extraordinary lengths to pull at the heartstrings of viewers, Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News focused on, in the words of anchor Brian Williams, “the innocent victims of the foreclosure crisis”—that would be dogs, pigs, goats and horses. Meanwhile, ABC discovered people are more likely to get murdered at work in these “hard economic times,” though they really haven’t been. At the end of a story on a workplace shooting in which five were murdered, reporter Eric Horng acknowledged “workplace violence is down in recent years,” but he nonetheless ominously warned: “For smaller companies it remains tough to prevent, because security is costly. And in today’s economic environment, disgruntled workers can be reluctant to discuss problems.”

NBC put “TOUGH TIMES” on screen with a picture of a puppy as Williams introduced the story reported by Chris Jansing who, back in May, centered a piece on an elderly couple forced to live in their van. This time, Jansing again delivered anecdotes, starting with a Seattle woman who “has never experienced anything like this—not just dogs and cats, but horses, pigs, goats—so many, she has to turn away three out of four animals.” Going south, she asserted that “in May, the number of animals turned into Los Angeles City shelters jumped 30 percent,” which hardly seems like a crisis, and a local official fretted: “Pets seem to be the silent victims of this whole economic downturn.” Jansing next conveyed the deadly consequences:

The harsh reality is, as more animals come in, more animals have to be put down....[A]t shelters across the country, euthanasia rates are going up.

[...]

JANSING: With 261,000 homes in foreclosure in May alone, a dog’s life is suddenly much more tenuous. Chris Jansing, NBC News, Los Angeles.