It’s the shelter’s cat. If they want to adopt it to you they can set their own rules, if you don’t like it there are many more cats out there that you can get.
Shelter volenteers get very hurt when they find that the cat they knew has been starved to death, fed to a dog on purpose, abused, etc. As such they would rather carefully screen adoptions and be restrictive then find out that fluffy was used to get the racoons out of the attic.
I still say, fuck 'em. I’m getting my new kitty from a girl at work who took in three pregnant strays at the same time. She has thirteen kittens! And one of them is mine. She brings me progress photos and plays with her. She’s going to be a great kitty. I can’t wait. Maybe I’ll get two!
Capri, spend a little while working for an animal shelter, and you might start to understand the suspcion some folks form of pet owners. It’s definitely an occupational hazard: after the hundredth dog that comes in covered in mange, with his ribs sticking out, or with his fur so matted with feces that it has to be shaven off, some shelter workers start to believe the worst of pet owners.
Nonetheless, shelters are in the business of saving lives and preventing deaths, and the good shelters do a damn good job of it. When you get an animal from the enwspaper, you may be getting an animal from a backyard breeding who is contributing to, rather than helping solve, the euthanasia problem.
Our shelter doesn’t ask for credit checks; frankly, that sounds excessive to me. Poor people can be just as fine pet owners as rich people, despite the implications of a credit check.
MajorTom, I understand that it can be heartbreaking to take your dog to the shelter. However, I know that for us, there are significant expenses involved in taking an animal into the shelter (you have to test them for various diseases, temperament test them, set them up in their cage, scan them for microchips, and a dozen other tasks).
We, too, have a policy that once someone has surrendered an animal to us, they may not reclaim that animal. We’re not a kennel, to be used for boarding animals, and given that we receive about 10,000 animals every year, we don’t want to be thought of as a convenience. Pet owners should bring us their animals only when they’ve exchausted all other possibilities: they should only bring us their pet if they’ve come to terms with the fact that they (not we) have decided to have their pet euthanized.
We make people sign a form that explicitly acknowledges this before we’ll take their animal in. Not all shelters are as clear about this as they should be.
Daniel
Thanks for rescuing that kitten – but good goddamn, why doesn’t that girl have the pregant strays spayed?! With the numbers of cats in the US, she would literally be saving lives by having them spayed. Call your local shelter, find out how many kittens they have to put to sleep every year. Betcha you’ll be horrified.
Daniel
I vounteer at a cat shelter and I agree with DanielWithrow’s every word.
MajorTom, I am curious - if you didn’t have the heart to keep the dog on a chain and it was too much trouble to keep him fenced in, what changed such that now - after surrendering the dog once - you are able to do those things?
DanielW -
Actually, I do work with folks at shelters all the time. I’m a veterinarian who runs a community service project that puts me in contact with them constantly. I still don’t get the attitude. It must be human nature to remember the abused animal while forgetting about the 1000’s of happily placed pets. And somehow that becomes converted into a belief that the only way they can ensure that the animal won’t suffer is to kill it.
Every shelter is different, and many are laid back about placement. Unfortunately for the animals in the county in which I work, the requirments for adoption prevent many from getting loving (but not ideal) homes.
It just seems odd, if not downright hypocritical, to on the one hand bemoan the number of dogs and cats being destroyed every year while on the other refuse to place dogs in homes that don’t have a fenced-in back yard and cats in homes that can’t be sure the pet will be indoors 100% of the time.
As for getting animals from the newspaper, puppy mills don’t give away their product. If the dog or cat is for free, you can be certain that it wasn’t produced by an dishonest breeder looking for some quick cash.
and they wonder why there is overcrowding in animal shelters. There are people willing to give a loving home to a pet, and are turned away because of being a single parent, bad credit, having a full time job, and no fence? sheesh
i would never get an animal from an animal shelter anyway, i’d rather find a breeder i like and trust, than get an amimal with a mysterious past.
one other story. i have a friend who called animal control to report a stray kitten, thinking it was someones pet. they took the cat, letting her know that after 14 days the cat would be euthanized. she called to see if it had been claimed/adopted on day 14, and they said no. she ended up claiming the cat out of guilt, and paid 172 bucks for the cats medical/kennel bills…yikes
Capri, that’s fair – as I hope I made clear, some shelters are IMO overly restrictive in their adoption rules, and part of the problem is indeed human nature, which leads shelter workers to remember the bad while forgetting the routine.
FWIW, our shelter will adopt to homes that will let their cats out (although we discourage it, and provide people with information on why we discourage it at the point of adoption). We don’t require fencing for all homes with dogs. We won’t adopt to someone who wants an outside-only dog, except under rare circumstances (e.g., a farmer who will work outside and spend the majority of daylight hours outside with the dog). We may not adopt to someone who has had multiple animals die in accidents in the past few years.
We very rarely deny someone an adoption. We bend over backwards to help people realize why we have the restrictions on adoptions that we do, and only a few times a year do we end up telling a person that no, they cannot adopt the animal they want to adopt.
And as for the newspaper, sure, folks who breed in their backyards for cash create all sorts of problems for shelters, communities, and animals. But even folks who are too irresponsible to get their animals sterilized, who give puppies and kittens away for free, create a lot of problems. When we have to euthanize thousands of kittens every year, when people bring us several boxes of kittens every summer, it’s hard not to be a little bit mad at those people who see no problem with letting their animals continue to breed. It’s hard not to wonder whether, if they hadn’t offered free kittens in the paper, maybe some of those people would have come down tot he shelter instead and adopted from us, meaning that one less cat would be euthanized.
Soulseeker, out of curiosity, who do you think should have picked up that $172 in medical and kennel bills? I admit that the fee looks a little high to me, but assuming that the shelter is nonprofit, they weren’t making money off of it. Although we charge a $70 adoption fee, moving each animal through the shelter (from intake, through medical exams and sterilization, through boarding, through the adoption process) costs us between $100 and $120. It pisses me off when folks complain about our adoption fee and say stuff like, “I’m just trying to help you rescue an animal, and you want to charge me $70? Forget it!”
Finally, you might prefer a breeder, but the worst animal I’ve ever lived with is the only one that came from a breeder. Every other animal I’ve ever lived with has been a stray or a shelter animal, and my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive with them.
Look at it this way. We get nearly 10,000 animals in the shelter very year. Only about 2,200 of those animals ever make it into the adoption room. You can be damn sure we choose the friendliest, healthiest, cutest animals to put into adoptions, because we know that they’re the ones that will get adopted fastest, freeing up those cages for new animals.
Every now and then I hear about someone who’s had a bad experience with a shelter animal. They’re definitely the exception, rather than the rule.
Daniel
Daniel,
it was the county animal control, not a private shelter. had the cat been euthanized the taxpayers would have picked up the entire cost…as a point of reference, had my friend not been the one that original reported the animal, she would have paid the standard 40 buck cat adoption fee
i would agree that there are bad pets that come from breeders, i think knowing the breeder, and knowing people that have had successful experiences with that breeder gives you a much better chance of getting a good animal. my point about the shelter pet, was that i don’t give pets back. better or worse they are a part of my family. I’d prefer not to take the chance that a pet has issues that the shelter doesn’t know about. I am sure there are great pets that come from shelters, as well as great pets from breeders.
They took in a cat that was reported as a stray and then when she wanted to adopt it they socked her with all the medical bills? I don’t think they do that here. It’s not the adopter’s pet until he/she signs the papers - whatever medical attention the animal needed before being adopted isn’t the responsibility of the eventual adopter.
Here, if there are any existing medical issues when the animal is adopted, the shelter pays half the cost after a $100 deductible. That makes a lot more sense than making the adopter pay through the nose for illnesses and other conditions that happened on the shelter’s watch.
I think running a credit check it a little extreme, but it’s their shelter and their rules. I would enquire about what they are doing with the results of the credit check. They may not be looking for spotless credit, after all - it’s likely they’re not going to scrutinize it the way a bank would. They may just want to verify that you pay your rent/mortgate on time and that’s it. After all, if you’ve been unable to keep yourself in a home, you probably shouldn’t be getting a pet. If they’re seeing if you pay your credit cards off every month, I agree that’s completely ridiculous and has nothing to do with whether you can take care of a cat or dog.
I’d probably balk at giving a shelter access to my credit report, though, and not because they’d see anything bad on it. It’s just not information I feel comforartable giving just anyone access to. I’d probably go somewhere else for a pet.
I completely understand why shelter are picky about placing pets. I think a reference from a vet is very reasonable if there are prior or current pets. I think not giving an animal back to someone who’s given it up once is a good policy. I know many shelters in the area won’t give an animal back to its owners if they’ve picked it up loose a certain number of times.
I work with a golden retriever rescue, and while we can’t run credit checks, we do require a vet check, a home visit, and sometimes the group consults amongst itself over iffy adopters.
soulsearcher, some of the best pets are animals who have a “mysterious past.” We have two adopted dogs, both found as strays, one (our golden retriever) not only half-starved but all shot up with BBs – he even had one in his tongue, poor baby – and the other, a golden retriever/yellow lab mix, had obviously been out fending for himself for a while, and doing a pretty good job of it as he was fairly well fed. They are both WONDERFUL animals. The dogs our group adopts out go to people all over the country, and almost without exception they seem to be so grateful to be in a good home that it really makes it all worthwhile.
I say if the shelter wants to run a credit check, fine. They’re the ones having to put down hundreds or thousands of animals a year. Only the few, the lucky ones, get adopted out. We get most of the golden retrievers we adopt out from the various shelters around; they call us to get the dogs before they get killed. Most of the ones we get are young males, 1-2 years, not fixed, who ran off looking for love in all the wrong places. The number of irresponsible pet owners is truly horrifying. And these aren’t people who actively abuse their animal, they just get it, ignore it, and when it runs off, oh well.
Any time a stray is given a home, that’s one less for a shelter to have to kill. Dog, cat, or anything else. I will never get an animal from a breeder again – only did it once (a purebred Siamese kitten), and she was a great cat, but my current group of adoptees are the best pets I could ever hope for!
Requiring someone’s SS# and a credit check is far out of line IMO.
I’ve had some bad experiences with the local SPCA. First time my girlfreind found a dog running around her college, no tags, dirty, underfeed, etc. He was a sweet dog so she called the police and rode with the officer to the SPCA to turn him in and they assured her that if no one claimed him she could adopt him. They call us a little over a week later and leave a message that if we want him to call back. We do not an hour after the message was left and the women who answered bitched us out because the waiting period was over by a day and the dog was scheduled to be put down (!!). It took us rushing over there and demanding to speak to the manager (they didn’t want to let us) to get them to even think about letting us adopt him. We did in the end (and he’s the best dog I’ve ever had) but the fact that we had to fight to stop them from putting him down disgusted me.
Second time was a few years later, same college, same SPCA. My girlfriend saw a Pitt Bull puppy running around with no tags and no one knew where he came from. She called the SCPA about the dog and they told her to bring him in but they’d just destroy him because he was a Pitt. Never mind that he was sweet and lovable. She ended up just taking him home and we put up fliers all over the area about finding a lost dog and how to contact us. We got no responces so we kept him. He’s as sweet as can be.
This branch should be closed down. They don’t give a damn about the animals and just seem to go through the motions
</rant>
Now private rescues are another matter entirely. I had a wonderful experience with a ferret rescue about 6 years back. The lady that ran it truely cared about the ferrets and only wanted them to have a good home. I’ve also known 8 different people that have gotten dogs from rescues and they all said the same thing, the rescues only cared about the animals well being and happiness.
butrscotch
i agree with you that "some of the best pets are animals who have a “mysterious past.” ". my point was only that i felt that you probably had somewhat better chances getting a good dog from a breeder you knew and trusted than at a shelter. i am sure that many people have wonderful experiences with both.
the thing that is bothering me now, is that it seems that there are several people posting in this thread that work at animal shelters which is wonderful. A few have stated that several thousand of these animals don’t get adopted or don’t even make it to the adoption room, yet you are still turning people away based on credit? is the philosophy that its better to euthanize an animal than to give a chance to a family that has less than perfect circumstances? I really hope not. I hope someone can straighten me out on that, because i don’t think i’ll be able to wrap my head around this one.
Requiring a credit check to adopt a pet is over the top.
When you DO go to buy a home, get a car, credit card, etc, they do not only look at your current history, they also check the number of credit check hits on you in the last 6 months. They frown on more than 3 checks into your credit.
And I don’t really get why your shelter has a problem with letting animals be outside, Daniel. Maybe you could explain it in a way that I would understand.
I live in a small apartment in Houston, and the man above me has 3 boxers in a two bedroom apt. I personally think they should be somewhere they CAN be outside and get exercise.
~J
With all due respect, FyreFiend, not all shelters are as awful of that. And I bet there are some private rescues - or, more specifically, crappy employees at otherwise excellent rescues - that are as bad. Sadly, the quality of service can vary from rescue to rescue, regardless of whether it is private or public.
Hmm. I thought there were rules about who is even allowed to see your credit history.
I thought that it was only banks, landlords, or other lenders who could legally ask to look at your credit. And obviously, only because you are asking them to lend you money, or some sort of goods or service.
I’d have to look for a cite, but in Ontario anyway, there are very strict rules about credit history access & misuse.
Anyhow, there is no good reason on God’s green earth for a shelter or animal rescue/adoption service to need your credit history.
For the shelter to even ask, to my mind, smacks of discrimination or some kind of uppity bullshit at the very least.
I’m not sure I understand your question. As I said earlier, my own shelter doesn’t turn people away based on credit; on the contrary, we have programs funded that specifically enable low-income senior citizens to waive the cost of adoption (a foundation grant picks up their fee).
Some folks may be confused about how humane societies operate. Although there are some national organizations like the Humane Society of the United States, the American Humane Society, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, it’s not a franchise situation. The national organizations don’t have any control at all over the practices of your local shelter. The national orgs. definitely make information available, offer training courses, set standards of animal care, and the like, but no shelter is under the least obligation to follow these standards.
(There are a few exceptions: my understanding is taht the New York SPCA is an umbrella organization to which many municipal shelters belong. But those situations are rare).
Instead of thinking of the word “humane society” like the word, “McDonald’s,” think of it like the word, “restaurant.” It’s a noun describing a type of organization, not describing a member of an umbrella group.
Does that clear things up?
Daniel
I understand that. I’m sorry about the rant. I know some are wonderful and some are really awful. The problem as I see it as the publicly funded (or at least sanctioned) shelters seem to have no oversite. When the odd one goes bad there seems to be no recorse but when a private one goes bad there is (the SPCA will shut down the bad ones).
Nah, nice rant. Animal shelters can be a lot like Adoption Services for children; some are good, some are bad. Just a guess, anyway.