Bill Collectors Keep Hounding Basset Rescue Owner

SUE MANNING

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The basset hounds at Daphneyland aren't the only ones with long, sad faces.

Donations to the nation's largest basset hound rescue have never been so low, bills so overdue, the need so crucial or the help so thin, said Dawn Smith, Daphneyland's president and founder.

Every day, she looks at 100 basset hounds and wonders how she will feed them, heal them, bathe them, keep them warm or even give them a drink of water.

"We are bringing in $5,200 a month in donations and we need $10,000 to survive," Smith said.

Animal rescues and shelters have suffered during the recession, particularly in states like California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona where the real estate boom busted the loudest, said Stephen L. Zawistowski, executive vice president for national programs and science adviser for The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Based on real estate industry numbers and pet ownership figures, the ASPCA estimates 1 million to 2 million pets have been abandoned since the recession began in December 2007.