How to Handle Abandoned Pets
If you find abandoned pets at your rental property, do not panic. Thankfully, there are a few things you do to handle the situation more responsibly. Having a property management company on your side could help ease this stress.
Many tenants cite “moving” as one of the main reasons for turning pets over to shelter homes. Unfortunately, some irresponsible tenants simply choose to abandon their pets when they move out rather than take them to a shelter. So as a landlord, you are left with a poor defenseless pet that is weak, hungry, dehydrated, scared, and stressed. Finding the best solution is often hard because the pet can surely pull at your heart strings therefore we have some ideas on how to handle abandoned pets.
Take caution
A scared animal is quite unpredictable. An abandoned pet who is frightened might lash at you so proceed with caution. Use a soothing, reassuring voice to calm it down. Lure it into a room or a crate with food and water, and then call animal control or the humane society.
Contact your tenant
Your next course of action is to reach out to your tenant and let them know you found their pet. Make sure you do everything to reach them, whether it is through calls, email, text, or social media. That way, you can make sure that they really did abandon their pet. However, if they have moved out and are now ignoring your attempts at contacting them, you can proceed with the next steps.
Report to authorities
Abandonment usually falls under the definition of animal cruelty and is a punishable offense by fines and/or imprisonment. So you’ll need to report the incident whether or not you want the animal control to take care of the animal.
Take the animal to a safe place
As you wait for the animal control to arrive, take the animal to a safe shelter, ideally a no-kill shelter or a rescue agency. Just make sure to give the agency your tenant’s contact information in case the tenant comes by to pick up their pet. Also, contact your tenant to let them know where the pet is.
Real Property Management Enterprises can handle situations like this for you to make your life easier. We look forward to hearing from you.
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