We like to think it is an act of desperation, the abandonment of animals — at the front door of a veterinary hospital, or at the top of a lonely mountain pass. We imagine that it’s the action of someone who’s overwhelmed by the needs — maybe financial, maybe emotional — of the creature in their care.

Sometimes, it appears to be leavened with a teaspoon of mercy, as in the case Ann Bloom writes about in this edition of the Chieftain: Two puppies were left outside the Enterprise Animal Hospital. A surveillance video shows a person tying up the puppies and scattering dry dog food on the ground. It was about 4 a.m. and temperatures were near-freezing. The puppies were discovered some three hours later, when veterinarian Severin Knudsen, the owner of the practice, showed up.

The puppies were OK and have since been adopted. They were lucky.

Much luckier was the dog who was found last year abandoned last spring on Highway 3 wearing a vest that said “I’m deaf.” Today, that dog — her name now is Penny — has been adopted and lives with another deaf dog.

Our hunch is that the abandonment of these animals was driven by desperation, but even if that’s true, there’s still a measure of cruelty to these acts — not to mention the fact that they’re illegal. And residents have legal options to give away animals that they feel, for whatever reason, they no longer can properly care for. Both veterinary clinics in Enterprise offer assistance to people who must surrender their animals. The same is true of the Wallowa County Humane Society, which routinely makes heroic efforts to care for abandoned animals, especially considering the fact that it has no shelter facilities — just a network of good-hearted souls willing to serve as foster parents.

Not every case of abandoned animals ends as happily as the cases of Penny and the two puppies left outside the Enterprise Animal Hospital.

But the heart-wrenching thing is that most of these cases can be avoided.

It starts with understanding the commitment necessary to be an animal owner. A rural area like Wallowa County, with its agricultural heritage, has a head start here, with programs like 4-H and FFA teaching lessons about that responsibility. But it’s still easy to pick up a puppy or a kitten without giving a moment’s thought to the responsibility that goes along with the animal. And it’s easy to not think about whether your household is a good match for a particular pet: If you think that your border collie puppy is just going to snooze away the day while you’re at work — well, you’re in for a surprise. Reflection about whether you’re ready for the commitment an animal requires will go a long ways toward avoiding heartache for everyone — and everything. (Dog and cat owners also should think about reducing the supply of puppies and kittens by having their pets spayed or neutered.)

We liked something that Kevin McQuead, Enterprise’s chief of police, said when asked about pursuing criminal cases of animal abandonment: He said the police sometimes have to provide a voice for the animal. But that should begin earlier: Animal owners need to understand that they must provide that voice first.