1.   They say pet owners should recognise their responsibilities and stop abandoning their pets.

2.   The centre says the recession may be forcing more people to abandon their pets.

3.   But tens of thousands of people are sticking to their homes, fearful of looters or reluctant to abandon household pets.

4.   The hectic, changing lifestyle of many Americans is prompting them to abandon their pets to animal shelters, a new study shows.

5.   This has made the shelter awfully popular with people who want to feel less guilty about abandoning their pets.

6.   Two years before that, a landlord on in another neighborhood went into a vacant apartment to find that a tenant had abandoned his pet.

7.   But no registration system exists, and pets are frequently abandoned when families grow tired of them or move house.

8.   People were abandoning pets because they have less time to take care of them, he said.