I just saw a headline that talked about a woman who moved out of her apartment to a new place...and left the pets behind! Now, as the saying goes, you don't know what someone is going through until you've walked a mile in their shoes (was that Confucius?) so it is difficult to judge this person too harshly until you know the full story. I don't know the full story so I will restrain myself, somewhat.
When I think about my dogs and some of the experiences I've gone through with them, like with Meko's illness and what we went through to get her back to good health, and the years they have been with us as part of our family, leaving any of my pets behind when I moved to a new place would be like leaving my child behind. It is impossible to imagine. I know there are a lot of apartments that do not allow pets (unfortunately this is usually because the homeowner had some previous bad experiences with irresponsible tenants who let the pets do their business on the carpets or tear up carpets, etc. - destructive behavior - this is called respecting other people's property). This makes it tough and almost punishes the tenants who are responsible and restrict their pets to certain areas, or cage them when they are not home, to convince a homeowner that they are different. So, the homeowner just decides, that's it, no pets.
There are other apartments around - perhaps that isn't the only place to live and you can find one where the homeowner does like animals and had a good experience with responsible tenants. Or perhaps you know someone who would love to take them and add them to their family of pets. I mean, don't we all know people who have pets? Usually adding one more to the pack isn't too much of a problem. Or there are people who would love a pet and have none. There are a lot of elderly who could use the company - a dog, in particular, can make an elderly person living alone feel more safe and secure in their own home.
All I'm saying is, there are always other options to just walking away from your pets. How someone can do that though is beyond my comprehension. My pets are my family.
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