STANDISH – To combat a recent rise in abandoned dogs and cats in town, Standish is inviting residents contemplating abandonment to instead drop their animals off at the town offices on Route 35.

Standish’s animal control officer, Jack Freitas, who’s tasked with bringing abandoned animals to the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland in Westbrook if he can’t immediately locate the animals’ owners, said he’s never seen so many abandoned animals in his 10-plus years on the job.

“Within the last couple weeks, I’ve noticed a lot more of them,” Freitas said. “Usually I get two to four animals a month, and in the last two weeks, I’ve been averaging four to five a week. So that really is substantial.”

One of the recent dogs dropped off near the Standish House of Pizza on Route 25 was a completely blind Pomeranian. The little dog, like all abandoned animals that Freitas picks up, is safely being cared for by the Animal Refuge League, where staff call him Little Mr. Big Stuff because they don’t know his real name.

And just this Tuesday, Freitas responded to a call regarding a kitten dropped off on the side of the road in Sebago Lake Village. The cat’s eyes were closed due to infection, and thanks to a passer-by, the blinded kitten was saved and transported to the Animal Refuge League.

Freitas said the abandoned animals show no signs of being abused or neglected. He believes the owners, perhaps lacking funds, are opting to drop off their pets in the hope they find a better home. While the owners’ intentions may be good, Freitas said, “abandoning an animal is never a good idea.”

The better move, officials say, is to drop off the pet at the Animal Refuge League or the town office.

“If you need to surrender your animal, that’s what we’re here for,” said Patsy Murphy, executive director of the Animal Refuge League. “And if you could provide us with the name of your vet, that way we won’t double vaccinate or overvaccinate. If the animal hasn’t seen a vet in five years, that’s OK, too. We’ll take care of it. We can work with blindness. We can work with deafness. Congenital abnormalities or cancer don’t scare us. We are committed to each animal.”

While better than outright abandonment, Freitas said other owners are bringing their animals to him claiming they have found a stray animal. Freitas said this only delays the process, to the ultimate detriment to the animal. State law requires towns to wait seven days to allow an owner to claim their animal. After the mandatory waiting period, the shelter will spend a few days conducting tests and vaccines on the animals. The delay adds costs and wastes time.

“What they’ll do is come to me and claim it is a stray, and I mean it’s nice and they feel they’re doing the right thing by not just dropping it off,” Freitas said. “But what they don’t realize is that when you tell me you found a dog, that’s going to add a couple of weeks for us to find him a home. So you’re basically wasting 10 to 14 days having the animal sit in a kennel when it’s unnecessary.”

Instead, Freitas asks owners planning to abandon their animals to bring them directly to him.

“I don’t ask questions. If people are just honest and sign the dog over, that makes a big difference. It helps the refuge league if people are honest and it helps the dog if people are honest,” Freitas said.

And if owners are upfront, Freitas can usually find a home for the dog within a day or two.

“The only way I can find a dog a good home immediately is if you sign it over to me,” he said. “If you relinquish a dog, then legally I can give it over in a half-hour. I’ve got a list a people on a waiting list.”

Freitas blames the uptick in abandonment on high gas prices.

“It’s been a bad economy for years now, but gas has really gone up recently,” Freitas said. “For some people, it’s honestly (a choice) between buying dog food and buying gas.”

Patsy Murphy, executive director at the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland in Westbrook, holds Little Mr. Big Stuff, one of more than a dozen dogs and cats that have recently been abandoned in Standish. The Pomeranian is completely blind, due to a congenital disorder, and was abandoned on busy Route 25 on April 27.