XPost: rec.pets.dogs.rescue, sci.econ, soc.culture.usa   
   XPost: rec.pets.dogs.behavior   
   From: duckster@erinet.com   
      
   As  Licensed Realtor and a dog owner, I am both involved in and affected by   
   this issue.   
      
   Here in the middle-west - considered fly by country, Ohio, we are the second   
   largest foreclosure state in the country - only behind Michigan.   
      
   Having personally run into abandoned animals in properties, it's one of the   
   sorriest things you can imagine.  A miserable animal, waiting patiently for   
   its people to come home.  Driven by hunger, often madness claims them and   
   it's no time at all before a dog or cat's feral nature takes over.   
   Heartbreaking.  Truly heartbreaking.   
      
   As for the subprime issue. I can tell you it affects everyone, regardless of   
   your politics.   
      
   Mortgages backed securities are uninsured investments.  Sold off in bundles   
   to investors, it is their collapse that has contributed in no small part to   
   the recent drop on Wall Street and throughout the world.   
      
   Finger pointers abound, but the truth of it is that with deregulation of   
   banking, the rise of mortgage companies who could sell a botique of loan   
   products, along with prospective home owners desiring   
   bigger...bigger...bigger...(and couldn't qualify for it), you have the mess   
   you see today.   
      
   With loans long sold off from their originators and in the hands of   
   portfolio managers, government intervention may be a partial answer.   
      
   As in most financial crises situations, the vunerable suffer; here in this   
   case, abandoned animals.  Unfortunately, with owners long gone, it is   
   difficult to prosecute who you haven't caught.  That leaves the "clean up"   
   to the animal lovers.   
      
   With a houseful of castaways ourselves, we shake our heads and say:   
   "there's always dog..."   
      
   (the)duckster   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)