[janelle144]

Good Homes Need Not Apply : Nathan J Winograd

Humane Societies and PETA would rather have animals killed than have them go to a good home. They don't trust you and me to give them a good home, they know best. Sick.

[subject2change]

Please note that "humane societies" are all independent of the HSUS, and do not have to be accredited by them or follow their policies. They get no funding from them. Shelters and rescues that have very restrictive adoption policies are very discouraging and detrimental to the animals, but each shelter's policies ultimately are decided on by its director.

[WildnFree]

I dealt with that too, when I wanted to adopt I was told that since my county wasn't neighboring to theirs I could not. The reasons behind it were unstandable however if you have someone willing to adopt isn't the overall goal to find them loving homes?

[mrs1885]

Originally Posted by subject2change

each shelter's policies ultimately are decided on by its director.

True of rescues, not shelters. My shelter lets me make all policies and procedures. I even wrote them and submitted them to the county attorney and had the county admin vote them into local law. I am the manager. The Director does not make our laws.

Many of the shelters in my state however are run by the city, county or sheriff's / police department and rules can be made by any one person or group of persons on policy. Sadly, those are also usually the shelters with high euth rates, set days that animals can be on premises before being euthanized, etc.

[stan4]

We tried to rescue from Collie Rescue down in Houston.

All we got was run-around. We submitted floor plans, letters of rec, letter from our vet, home visit...we called over and over. They finally said, "Ok, you can have the puppy." Then they would never meet with us, even though we were willing to drive TWELVE HOURS to get the dog (and 12 back).

I finally went to a breeder. To find a responsible, reputable one, I had to go all the way to Georgia.

It really burned me up. I mean, wtf?! Our dogs get the best of EVERYTHING. I spend more on their health care than my own. We bought our house with the yard in mind for them. They have their own car, for god's sake. Those people really turned me off the rescue process. And since they pretty much run the show around here, I guess I'll never get to have a rescue collie.

[passwithoutatrace]

I've heard of rescue groups like this, but luckily I've had nothing but good experiences with our local shelter. We have 4 animals, with 2 coming from the shelter. For the cat all we had to do was meet the cat, fill out an application, talk to someone at the shelter for about 20 minutes, pay the fee, and take our new pet home. For the dog we had to bring our existing dog to make sure they got along, but other than that the process was the same. The people there were happy to see us.

[eevee]

My roommate got her pit bull pup from a friend of a friend who worked at a vet's office (can't remember the exact detail) after attempting to adopt one for nearly half a year. It was a tough go. Animal Control had tons of pit and pit mixes, but none were tested around dogs, cats, and kids, which was a major requirement for her. Many of the rescues that did fosters turned her down b/c she didn't own a house or have a backyard.

The backyard requirement many rescues have kills me. Even places adopting out smaller breeds like shih tzus and Pomeranians seem to have this requirement1 We don't have a backyard, but we live w/in spitting distance of a dog park and a mile from a dog beach. Bella gets tons of walks and off leash time playing in the surf w/ the other pooches. She's probably more happy and exercised than a pooch that only has the backyard to got out to. I think a lot of dog owners w/ yards get complacent and use the yard as a substitute for proper walks and socialization time w/ other dogs. In my mind, it's the equivalent of sticking a swing set in the backyard and never taking your kids to the playground or Gymboree or other similar places. In a perfect world, dog owners would have both a yard and take their dogs out and about the town, but if I was an adoption counselor and had to choose one or the other, I'd choose the people w/o a backyard who were dedicated to exercising the dog in other ways vs. the people w/ a yard and a dog door who thought that this was enough.

And don't get me started on the no kids thing. What, am I not allowed to adopt a small toy dog b/c I may, one day in the future, want to have kids? would I be too incapable as a pet owner and mother to keep my kids and pets from harming each other? I understand small kids can hurt little dogs, but regardless of the size of the dog, supervision of kids and pets is key. Even w/ the higher demand of small dogs in urban areas, too many still needlessly linger in shelters do to this rule.

[cittic10]

The only time I was ever put through the wringer like that was from trying to adopt from private adoption groups.

The municipal kill shelters and hobby breeders I've dealt with had applications too but they didn't require an in-home inspection or any application fees or anything like that.
I don't doubt it goes on though. It needs to be more heavily regulated.

[=^..^=]

Originally Posted by eevee

I understand small kids can hurt little dogs, but regardless of the size of the dog, supervision of kids and pets is key.

But that's the problem. Too many parents don't do a good job of supervising their kids and the kids do injure or kill the kitten, pup or small dog. As a vet tech for years, I saw it happen time and time again. The parents are too busy watching TV, yapping on the phone, texting, entertaining visitors or some other more important activity and no one is watching/supervising the kids. After a dreadful situation with a beautiful poodle puppy and a 6 yr old, I refused to sell or adopt out pups to people with children under 10 yrs old. Or adopt out (rescued) kittens or cats to such families.

You may well be a very vigilant mother but all too many out there are not.

[jasper12]

Or adopt out (rescued) kittens or cats to such families.

So, you don't adopt cats to families who have children? I have had kids, and pets...and my kids were always great to the cats, and the dogs.

My Mother, also has extremely strict rules about who she allows to adopt her cats...to the point of which hardly anyone "qualifies" for a cat under her rules...so she justifiies keeping the cat.