I just had a kid so I want to get a dog because I think being around dogs make you a better person, so I go down to the pet shelter to adopt one (I had previously only gotten puppies from friends and neighbors) because the local shelter has been swamped with people abandoning their pets, which has led to a lot of perfectly healthy housebroken dogs who just need a home. It turns out that you have to have fill out an application, they want to interview everyone, someone visits your home, and IF you make the cut, you pay $200.
On the other hand, I can go to petland and just buy a puppy for about the same money.
Yeah I understand that noone wants to put a dog in an abusive home but considering that they were about to put the dog to sleep in a few weeks, couldn’t they just take a chance on someone who fills out their application and just check up on the dog after the adoption?
The application process is a real turn off and is probably what makes puppy mills commercially viable.
Odd. We didn’t have to go through any of that, and the fees were about what we would have saved in vet bills.
FWIW, I will NEVER get a dog anywhere but from the shelter. They’re so overbred now that it’s ridiculous. Shelters take in about 8 million dogs a year; 3 million of these are put down. Insanity.
I don’t mind them doing a modicum of research on who the adoptive family is, but it seems like the inmates have taken control of the asylum, so to speak.
To be fair the cost of the vaccination and neutering is more than $200 if you go to a vet. I don’t object to the money, I just object to the fact that you can literally buy a puppy for the same amount and you don’t have to go through all that shit.
Damuri, where do you live? I can’t remember any screening for us, though I may have spaced it. There were certainly no home visits. They absolutely stressed training, and offered free/reduced price classes. I do wonder if your area is a bit of an abberation–or perhaps the staunch conservatism of the central US has kept pet adoption screening to a minimum here.
Honestly if you get a dog from a reputable breeder the breeder will give you the third degree and make a decision if you are a worthwhile owner of one of their dogs. Any breeder who doesn’t should be regarded with suspicion.
Pet stores just want your money. They could not care less who you are or where the dog is from or anything. Plop your money down and take the dog. Frankly you are asking for a bad result there. Puppy mill dogs tend to be highly inbred and can end up with all sorts of issues from medical to behavioral problems.
An adoption place wants to do the best they can to ensure proper placement of the dog with a family. You are not buying a TV. You are getting a living, intelligent creature and making a large commitment. Especially when adopting older dogs out it is important to assess the home they will be going to. Just like people dogs get set in their ways. Some love children, some not so much. Some may be used to running outside and would be destructive left inside. If done badly those dogs and owners are unhappy and the dog may find itself back in the pound or worse.
Frankly it is not that onerous a process. If you can’t be arsed to make that effort to get a family pet you will have for a long time then you probably should not have a pet (although I do agree that children can benefit mightily from having a pet, especially a dog, around).
I tried to get a dog out of a rescue organization for months before giving up. I’m a current dog owner (healthy, well adjusted, etc…), a home owner, I have a fenced yard. After about 3 or 4 applications being turned down they did consider me for one of the dogs. I had a home visit and interview. And didn’t make the cut again. So yeah I ended up getting a puppy. It is truly messed up how many dogs and cats end up in shelters, but I do agree that many of the rescue organizations have gone off the deep end.
You know what? Fido’s temporary keepers don’t really need to know the square footage of my house, how much money I make, and what my work schedule will look like to ensure that I can walk him the requisite 30 minutes per day, what I’ll do with fido when I travel, why I want the dog, where it will be kept, how many hours it will spend alone, bla bla bla - especially not if he’s going to get gassed if no one takes him.
Without looking at the specifics of why they turned you down I have no idea if they were being overzealous or did not like the look of the dog fighting ring in your back yard. (kidding ;))
I have worked for the Anti-Cruelty Society here in Chicago helping to adopt out dogs. They rarely do home visits although part of your contract is they can showup and visit the animal from some time into the future. They do spot checks but mostly it never happens without good reason.
They do insist that all family members come to meet the dog. No dad picking one up and taking it home. They also insist any other pets present (well, at least other dogs) be brought in to meet the potential new family member.
If all goes well and you can prove you are allowed to have a dog where you live (Chicago remember…lots of places/buildings forbid or restrict pets) then that is about it. Pay a stupidly low fee (considering the dog gets shots and is fixed before it leaves which would cost you LOTS more at a vet) and you’re off.
My experience with the city pound and the humane societies have always been positive. Did you go to a shelter run by a “rescue group”? If so, I would definitely recommend trying the city pound or humane society instead. Since anyone can start a rescue, some of the rescues can be overly zealous and not very realistic about their expectations of adopters. When I tried to adopt a dog I was rejected by a “rescue group” for not having a fenced yard (but then adopted a dog from the humane society with no problems - and she’s a very cute, wonderful little dog, so all is well that ends well).
Don’t support organizations like Petland which profit off animal cruelty and quite often sell sick animals.
I would recommend getting a dog off Craigslist (since those animals are often the same ones who would end up at a rescue anyway if nobody takes them) before I would recommend buying from a pet store. I totally understand getting pissed off and frustrated by picky rescue groups after what happened to me, and how that can make it seem tempting to just buy an animal from a pet store…but it’s not the animals’ fault that some people are assholes, so don’t punish the animals by supporting cruel and unscrupulous puppy mills.
I think people are talking about two different shelters…
There are private, humane-society-run, shelters. In these shelters, usually no-kill, some of the pets are placed in foster homes while waiting adoption. It is there where the animals are socialized, housebroken, taught tricks, etc. Because they are privately run, and therefore can be more selective, they are also more particular about the animals they adopt out. Look at it from their point of view, they usually spend a lot to train and keep the animals in better conditions than regular shelters, they want these pets to go in places deemed worthy of that expense.
Then there are animal control-run shelters. Usually run by the county (or parish, in LA). Many of them put animals down, or have some combination of kill/no-kill facility (East Baton Rouge’s Animal Control parish had this type). Because they want the animals out of there (the other option being killing them), they are way less stringent about the future owners, and as long as they pay the fees, they can take the pets.
Rescue groups are similar to private shelters, in that they can be more selective. IMHO, if you don’t like how these are run, you do not have to go to them. You can go to the county/parish/city owned shelter and get a puppy there. Where surely, if you don’t adopt one, they’ll most likely kill it.
Not being able to meet the dog’s minimum requirements could be deemed tortuous to the dog. Fido may be better off being gassed.
They want to know the size of house and yard because different dogs have different space and exercise requirements. Various breeds can be distinctly different from each other. Keep a Border Collie cooped up and you are asking for trouble. Great Dane? Freaking canine couch potatoes.
They are not being nosy. They do not care if you have a big or small house. They want to make sure the dog goes to an appropriate home.
I have seen many times where people pick based on looks and do not consider the breed and their circumstances. The results can be bad when that happens.
I had a totally different experience at our local pound. We filled out a short form, paid about $80 (dogs who had been there longer were $40), and this included shots, neutering, micro chipping, and the first vet appointment free.
And for that we got the happiest, friendliest dog in the world.
I have seen animal abuse that would make your skin crawl. I saw an animal left on a chain so tight the dog’s neck grew around the chain (chain literally was embedded in the dog’s flesh). The people did not want the dog inside so left it chained outside. Yeah it got fed. That is about it. Rain, heat, cold, whatever. Tough shit for the dog.
There is a continuum from not walking the dog for 12 hours once in awhile to what I just mentioned or worse (and yeah, there is even worse).
This is exactly the experience I had when adopting our most recent dog from the City Shelter. We’ve picked up a number of other dogs and cats from the SPCA in the past as well, and it’s been pretty much the same story.
Adopting out animals is an imperfect “science”. Places like the Anti Cruelty Society do what they can to ensure the animal gets to a good home. There are no guarantees but they do what they can. Animal abuse is alive and well out there. It is sadly common and they see it every day and they are not including Fido missing dinner once in its life among the “abused”.
If you don’t like it fine. Fuck off. They do not want you getting one of their pets anyway if you can’t be arsed to jump through a few minor hoops.
R:They don’t need to ask me a bunch of random shit that is irrelevant to whether or not I abuse dogs, and they take an insane approach in trying to perfectly match up pet to adopter. This is an especially pointless practice if it’ll get euthanized
W: Well, Rumor, I dunno. Death may be preferable for a dog than living in suboptimal conditions y’know?
R: Are you fucking retarded?
W: I’ve seen a lot of horrific animal abuse.