Group warns pets are often abandoned during holidays

(Lancaster) —Financial pressure can add up during the holidays — putting stress on families’ budgets.

“Many of the people who dump their animal take it out to a nice farm lane, the tinier the better, and just dump them off, saying in their minds ‘Oh, well if it’s cat, milk and mice and everything nice, they’ll get a home on the farm’ and if it’s a dog, they’ll just think the farmer will take it in,” says Connie Kondravy of the Organization for Responsible Care of Animals in Lancaster County, says some families might decide they can no longer afford a pet.

But, Kondravy says, that rarely happens.

“They seemed like they fell from the sky. I make sure I call the police, I call the SPCA, I call the Humane League, I put them on Craigslist.

“Nobody ever calls.

“And I mean, no one ever calls.”

She says her group works to find a suitable home for the pets, or the owners themselves.

She adds the holidays are often not the right time to adopt a pet either, because schedules can be hectic — making it difficult for the family and pet to get acclimated to each other.