Tax deductions. If you operate an animal shleter, any money you donate to that shelter is tax deductible. People will donate money to you, etc.
Once again its not the money. Please forget anything I EVER said about the money. Its the PITA. There I said it. It had to be said.
I had a lil rascals pit bull when I was growing up and that had more towing capacity than my first car.
You’re right, we should move this to great debates where that sort of stuff is SUPPOSED to happen.
That strikes me as a somewhat different issue from the one curlcoat mentioned.
Interpreting a promise never to give up a rescued dog (who’s being adopted sight unseen, no less) as an unacceptably binding commitment due to the uncertainties of family/pet interactions seems quite reasonable. ISTM that you probably judged rightly when you decided that that was too much for you to honestly promise about that dog at that point.
Interpreting a promise never to let a rescued kitten go outside as a cast-iron guarantee that NO human error or unforeseeable mishap will EVER occur that might result in the kitten’s accidentally getting on the wrong side of an outer door for ANY length of time at ANY moment in its ENTIRE lifetime, on the other hand, seems… well, let’s just go with “scrupulously hyper-conscientious” and leave it at that.
Hear hear. I’m sure it would be somewhat costly, but I don’t see why at least the national organizations like ASPCA couldn’t coordinate something like that among their shelters. Maybe some of them do and I just don’t know about it, or maybe there are other obstacles in the way.
They do, to some extent. Just this last week my mother looked into adopting a 10 month old Weimaraner that had been sent up here from a shelter in Louisiana. (Apropos enough, after some research I was against it, pretty sure that it wasn’t going to be a good fit for her, and in any case it was moot as he had already been adopted when she went to get a look at him.)
I’m sorry that you consider not wanting to lie to be “scrupulously hyper-conscientious or jerkishly nitpicky” but since they wanted me to sign a document attesting to that lie, I decided I would go someplace else.
Ah, that’s your problem, you are interpreting what I said the way you want, not the way it was. However, the paperwork did essentially say what you just listed there - that the undersigned guaranteed that the kitten would never be outside at any time during it’s life or they would come take it back, blah blah blah. I’m not signing something as unrealistic as that.
BTW, the shipping of shelter pets happens all the time. We get them here from the streets of Mexico - or we did. Rabies was recently discovered in one or two of these dogs after they had been adopted, so that may have put a stop to it. Another problem with doing this is it skews the numbers for any given area - it makes the greater LA area look like it has a much bigger problem with unwanted dogs than it actually does. Same with counting feral cats in overall numbers. OTOH, if shelters want to keep getting money from their cities and counties, they have to keep moving pets thru the doors.
Make up your mind. Did the adoption paperwork require you to “state that the kitten would never get outside for the rest of it’s life”, as you claimed at first, or did it require “a cast-iron guarantee that NO human error or unforeseeable mishap will EVER occur that might result in the kitten’s accidentally getting on the wrong side of an outer door for ANY length of time at ANY moment in its ENTIRE lifetime”, as you’re now claiming?
Because the two convey quite different impressions of what the adoption agency was actually asking you to promise.
:rolleyes: Speaking of jerkishly nitpicky… There really isn’t that much difference, except apparently in your mind. How do you think indoor only cats get outside if not thru a door or window left open accidentally?
It was eleven years ago. My memory of the incident is that the paperwork stated something along the lines of my guaranteeing that the kitten would never get outside or they would come take it back. When I read this, I said something along the lines of “I don’t know how anyone can guarantee this - do you not adopt to people with husbands and children, ha ha?”. The person told me deadpan that I was expected to guarantee that not only would I never accidentally leave a door or window open, but that no one in the house ever would either. It was at that point I handed the paperwork back and told her good luck with that.
That is, they asked you to formally agree that if they ever caught you not being sufficiently careful to keep the cat from getting outdoors, they’d be within their rights to take the cat back.
If you didn’t want to agree to that, fine by me, and as I said, I’m glad you successfully got a cat from an agency whose policies suited you better. But trying to portray it as a source of outrage over having been asked to “lie” about being “able to guarantee something no human can” still strikes me as… well, we left it at “scrupulously hyper-conscientious”, I believe.
Wow, you are as bad as they were. How can you expect that someone could honestly say they would never made a mistake, for up to 20 years?
just let it go, curl… fluffy’s better off dead.
Sigh, hopefully it didn’t come to that but sometimes I do wonder!
Speaking of just let it go…:rolleyes:
When I got married my wife’s church (Catholic) made me promise that any children would be raised as Catholics (I am not Catholic hence them making me promise if I wanted to marry in their church). Been so long I forget but they may have made me sign something (as opposed to a mumbled “sure” from me).
I seriously doubt they could have enforced that.
No, I do not make promises lightly and yes, my (at that time future) wife had discussed this with me and I was willing to raise them in the Catholic church. Again though I doubt the Catholic church could have done a thing about it legally if we reneged.
With a cat what do you expect them to do? Have surveillance outside the house to see if the cat ever gets out?
I guarantee anyone who is in the business of adopting cats knows their nature well enough. I have had cats and sure as shit, sooner or later, your cat will bolt for the open front door and squeeze out. I doubt there is a cat owner in existence who has not experienced this (I never understood why but cats have a thing about closed doors).
As such I doubt an adoption agency would be so anal as to hold someone that accountable. Mostly they want to know it will not be your policy to let the cat roam outside at will. Legal things being what they are they just say never.
And again…do people here expect the agency to surveil every house they adopt a pet to in case it gets out once?
I had a similar experience with an agency in Chicago - they sent me an application that made me think I was re-applying to grad school, and then gave me the runaround for a month. I ended up adopting from another shelter that was much more reasonable - go in, have an interview, fill in some forms, pay $80, and you can take your new pet home with you on the same day.
I actually went to several shelters in my search for a cat, and one lady was definitely a bit wacky - she refused to let me adopt a kitten unless I promised to take two, and all her adult cats were pretty anti-social (she ran the shelter in her own home, which was basically a glorified cat farm).
Do you remember the name of that agency? (just curious)
A runaround for a month is nuts.
The ACS in Chicago will put a hold on a cat or dog so the person can bring in other members of the family (which may take a day) but frankly 90% or more of all adoptions are finalized in an hour or two. At most an animal and its prospective owner wait a day as things like the lease are provided. The ACS doesn’t fart around though waiting or making a lengthy process out of it all. It is pretty efficient.
Of course I cannot speak for all agencies. I have some experience with PAWS and they seem pretty good too.
I agree a month is absurd. Not just for the human but leaving the animal in a cage for a month while they fart around is bogus. If they cared about the animal’s welfare this would not happen.
As I said before, big country and I suppose it should not be surprising there are shitty “adoption agencies” out there.
Stick with a reputable service and your experience should be pretty good.
I know, you’d just kill them and spare them the tortuous life.
A life of many twists and turns? Might not be so bad.