See, I read somewhere that the reason black cats aren’t adoptable in October was the reason that bunnies aren’t around Easter – they don’t want people taking them because it’s a cute gift, and then returning them afterwards. (Or worse, just dumping them somewhere)
It’s been *years *since I saw an ad for free puppies. Our shelters import puppies (mostly from down south - they’re really providing a place for overflow, but it seems like they’re importing them to maintain stock), since no one locally turns them in. I kind of wish it was easy to get a free puppy, but it’s not up here.
I don’t doubt your word, that just sounds alien to what I see all the time.
I must amend my post; most of the ads I mentioned at work were cats and dogs, not puppies, but I do see the small ones every month. Still, cats and dogs need homes too, not just puppies and kittens. All my cats I adopted were mature except for two of them.
We got our dog from the SPCA - he’s a pure (or close enough to pure that we can’t tell) West Highland White Terrier.
- We had to answer questions about the family and where he would be kept. This was for
a) legality (certain houses can only have certain dogs)
b) to make sure there would be someone around with the dog - that he wouldn’t be left alone for full days. - We agreed to a house inspection (which happened a few days later)
- The whole family had to meet the pet.
None of this was onerous - the questionairre asked what we did but not what we earned.
The price was cheap, we got him for the SPCA vet fees - which are significantly cheaper than a private vet, and all the shots are legally compulsory anyway. He has been snipped and microchipped (which should be done anyway)
To OP - the only thing I find annoying in what they asked of you is income, and for me, I would just have filled in a random number.
The rest all sounds reasonable and ok.
When I wanted to get a kitten 11 years ago, there happened to be a local cat rescue set up at a pet store near me. I found a kitten I liked, filled out the paperwork and then was refused the adoption because I wouldn’t lie and state that the kitten would never get outside for the rest of it’s life. Hey, last I looked I’m a human and humans make mistakes, how can I possibly guarantee that a door won’t be left open at some time in the up to 20 years the cat will live in our house? My answer of doing everything possible to make sure the cat couldn’t get outside wasn’t good enough.
So, I got a kitten from animal control for about $100 less, and much less hassle. So far, she has been outside on her own exactly once. She is a much loved, very spoiled member of the family - that cat rescue group really missed out for one of their charges. Eh, I probably wouldn’t have passed the home check, since I don’t like to clean house… 
Rescues these days tend to be completely unrealistic as to what a good home is and what abuse is. Why anyone would think it would be better to kill a dog/cat or have it live out it’s life in a cage rather than take a chance that a home will turn out to be less than (their idea of) perfect is beyond me.
I’m really curious how you can have a thing like a **No Kill **Shelter, especially for dogs. What happens when you get a totally unsocialised older dog who has bitey tendencies towards humans and other animals? What about a younger dog who might have congenital issues that will make it a VERY expensive doggie to keep for future years?
Are there no circumstances under which these shelters will kindly euthanase some dogs?
Left Hand, that was my experience at least when I worked as a volunteer for a humane society shelter and later when I volunteered my time and did clinical rotations with the parish shelter and other local rescue groups. The shelter I volunteered first was no kill, but that county’s animal control center was a kill shelter. Similarly in Baton Rouge, the only kill shelter was the parish-run shelter.
I think, though, that I’ve heard of programs like what you describe (humane societies taking over some parish shelters), and they were a new thing in Louisiana. So perhaps they’re becoming more common.
To answer another question, places that are usually “no-kill” are also ones that either are selective of the animals they get in the first place, or have a big enough network of volunteers and foster homes to cater to those that need extra attention and training.
As to congenital issues… The ones that are too bad will surely quickly result in the death of the animal. The ones that may cause issues down the road… Well, it may seem to some people cruel to put down a perfectly currently ok German Shepherd because it may get pancreatic insufficiency down the road and need meds and diets, for example. The most they can do is alert the owners if a condition is known to exist.
I’m sure some will euthanize dogs that come with lots of trauma (burns, fractures), that could not be reasonably repair. Or they will just not accept that animal (and send it to the nearest “will-kill” shelter).
BTW, keeping a pet in an OK environment runs a big gamut of options/lifestyles. Keeping a dog chained all day to a tree, especially without checking that the chain is NOT digging through the dog’s skin, even if given food and water, is not one of those lifestyles.
You need to use craigslist or Petfinder. There are always plenty of free to good home or very low adoption fee ads for wonderful dogs and cats on there. We got a pup off of Freecycle (which is like craigslist but everything is simply given away) and rescued her from an abusive condition where she was chained and mostly starved. She is perfect, with no behaviour problems and probably the happiest dog I’ve ever met, bar none. She is dumb as a box of rocks, but i swear she is the very avatar of joy. Forget the shelters, search around. There loads of fuzzy friends waiting for someone to adopt them privately.
Remember though, at a minimum, you need to get your new friend their shots, fixing, and possibly microchipped depending on your local laws. After that, just a booster every few years is all provided they are an inside dog with no health issues.
In some cases, the “no-kill” shelter simply sends the animal to another shelter that does euthanize.
Regards,
Shodan
Maybe, or maybe they found their kitten another home just as good, where she never goes outside. And if they’re happy with their cat and you’re happy with your cat, it’s all good, right?
It’s good that you found a pet adoption program suited to your needs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the adoption programs that are too strict for you are failing in their mission. I think that rejected prospective pet owners are sometimes a bit too quick to lapse into “rejection ego” feelings: “you’ll never get anybody as good for you as me, baby”.
Something to consider… the pet store is happy to take your $200 because if later you decide you made a bad decision and just dump the pet, it’s no skin off PetStore’s nose. They don’t pay again to intake the animal, give them their shots, treat their medical issues, whatever.
Contrast this with the shelter, where potentially they could be paying for intake on an animal in January, then again in February when his dumbshit owner dumps him without a collar, then again in March when his dumbshit owner dumps him without a collar, incurring that intake cost over and over, and needlessly subjecting the animal to bad homes and repeated vaccinations, treatments, confinement, environment change, etc.
I will agree that when there is any moral question involved, some people can vault off the deep end. Especially animal people.
Which I explicitly mentioned there were degrees and later asked you to define what abuse you were talking about (which you didn’t).
It takes a person of colossal stupidity to think I meant a dog that doesn’t get its Milk Bone on schedule once in its life would be better off dead. Yet you keep trying to hammer that home despite my repeatedly saying that was not what I was talking about. Despite my and others’ examples and despite me asking you for a specific example that you never provided you persist.
Honestly I do not think you are that stupid. I think you are just being an asshole for no reason that I can discern. If others really thought I was saying what you keep trying to pin to me I guarantee others here would be all over me as well. Maybe you should get a clue since that isn’t happening.
I cannot speak for all shelters but as I mentioned the Anti Cruelty Society in Chicago will euthanize an animal that is too sick/injured or one that is too aggressive to be safely adopted (and as mentioned they do a good deal of work to rehabilitate the dog…sometimes it just doesn’t work).
Barring those cases if there is a dog that cannot be adopted they look for breed rescue organizations to take the dog or there are a few other places which will take the animal and give it a home where it can spend the rest of its days (it is not euthanized). They do not euthanize or pass it off for someone else to do just because a dog has become inconvenient to them.
Rarely is it an issue for them. It does happen on occasion but they almost always adopt out everything. Even special needs animals (I was surprised to find that three-legged dogs get adopted very fast). The hardest to adopt are the very old cats and dogs. Many want an adult pet but few want Methuselah who might kick the bucket any time in the next year.
Thanks for the link. This is just about right. I am looking for an older animal that has been with a family. I have to think about the whole notion of taking care of a pet and then having to give it back after a few years.
Maybe this is a bit counterintuitive but if you have a family that is going to get a pet and then drop it off at the shelter in a few years, is it better for that family to do that with an existing dog or is it better to create demand for new puppies? Lets assume that these families with dogs are otherwise caring responsible environments, would we better off with some dogs living with a series of families or would we be better off with a continual stream of puppies that will end up getting euthanized?
One reason I want to adopt is to cut down on the demand for puppies from puppy mills.
You may not get a dog after a new baby, but for someone else the timing might be perfect. One or both parents may be home on maternity leave, or perhaps a grandparent or other family member has offered to help out for a few months. Newborns generally sleep a lot and do not need to be chased around so there will be some time to focus on the dog. For many families it may be the best time in a three-year period to get a puppy.
Although the idea of having to teach a newborn not to “hit the dog” is pretty funny. You realize newborns can’t do much of anything, right?
The point is that what seems like common sense to you may not be the same for someone else. In some cases a stranger who wouldn’t know you from Adam isn’t a better judge of your ability to take care of a pet than, you know, you are.
Contrast with in the UK, when I got my moggie Yorkie from the RSPCA shelter they wouldn’t let me have a cat unless he had outside access.
There’s various smaller local rescue groups though, and I’ve heard they can be a bit eccentric with their criteria.
Still, as Kimstu said, sounds like the right cat ended up with the right landlord in the end so yay for all 
Me neither! The RSPCA requirements were a modest application form and 2 “surprise” home visits, one to make sure my home was suitable and another to check up on the cat a month after a got him.
On the first visit I mumbled apologies about the state of my house (not dirty but generally pretty messy) and the visitor told me it was fine, and that she in fact worried slightly whenever she called on an immaculately clean and tidy home, like are they fully prepared for the impact a cat is likely to have?
Also saved me a fortune getting my cat from the RSPCA as his teeth were in a dreadful state when they rescued him and he had two surgeries to remove a lot of them. He doesn’t seem too worried though.
Total cost to me was about GBP40 to take him on. I did take out a monthly donation to them though.
I have to agree, you don’t see ads on the supermarket bulletin board giving away dogs.
I was mistaken about how many people were abandoning their dogs around here. They’re not. I went to the county dog pound, they have 2 adoptable dogs, neither was right for my family. The private shelters sweep the city pounds on a regular basis.
Even at shelters there are not a lot of dogs that are appropriate for a family with small children and a small back yard.
They either don’t take those dogs or send them to the county dog pound where they will euthanize them. I suppose their mission is to save the ones that can be saved.
Yeah, it’s bizarre up here (I’m in southern Maine). We have a little newspaper that is sent out, free, to the residents of several small towns in my area. It covers local events, library news, etc. It’s cute. A few weeks ago, there was a small article with a picture: North Berwick animal control had found a stray cat! Did anyone know who it belonged to? It was a really sweet cat, and anyone with information about it’s owner should contact them. This, apparently, is a rare enough event to make the paper. 
This just cracked me the hell up. We moved here from Okinawa, where you NEVER left the house without seeing at least one stray animal. It’s a different world up here, for sure.