Immigrant Detentions and Deportations Leave Pets Behind

U.S.|The Pets Left Behind When Their Owners Are Deported

The adoption listing described Heinz, a Shih Tzu-poodle mix, as sweet, happy and energetic.

“But he also has a sad story,” said the bio on the website of Rolling River Rescue, a nonprofit in New Orleans.

The caramel-colored pup hadn’t run away, nor had he been given up by owners who no longer wanted him. He had “lost his family,” the listing said, as a result of “recent events in New Orleans,” a reference to immigration enforcement that has swept up people under President Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

Federal agents have conducted large-scale crackdowns in New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, and smaller roundups from Hawaii to Maine. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants have been arrested. Most have remained locked up and many have been deported.

Left behind have been their dogs, cats and bunnies, even chickens, according to pet rescue groups and animal control agencies.

“What many Americans don’t realize is that there are companion animals being left by families that disappeared overnight,” said Maria Thomas, president of Rolling River, which has been scrambling to find foster and adoptive families for dogs and cats in New Orleans.

“We were already working at such a deficit because there are so many pets in need all the time,” she said. “Now we have the additional challenge of animals who need re-homing when their owners are deported or they self deport.”