Interesting piece on animal rescue in today’s Times that brings up but does not directly address some issues of class. Though, hell, it’s the Style section again, and class issues are a bummer.
Even as adopting a stray dog or cat — rather than buying one from a store or breeder — has become politically fashionable, a badge of pride for some because of the millions of animals that are euthanized each year, the hurdles that some humane societies and rescue groups make potential owners leap — including multipage applications, references, background checks, interviews and home visits — can make the process feel nearly as daunting as adopting a child.
Animal adoption groups say they want to avoid giving pets to owners who will abuse them and, perhaps more important, to make sure an animal that has been given up once will find a permanent home. Yet would-be adopters who expect exacting standards from top breeders are surprised when shelters and rescue groups ask more from them than a pulse. Many families feel stung when they are denied and are left to ask: Is it better for the animal never to find a home than to live with us?
I’ve known some people in the animal rescue field, and some of them are well-meaning but, frankly, a little nuts. Not all, of course, but those who are too soft-hearted and unwilling to face some of the hard realities of animal rescue (i.e., not every animal can be placed, not every home can be perfect, animals are not human babies, etc.) often develop overly-strict and unrealistic standards for placement.
Obviously, there must be standards — you don’t want to go adopting out kittens to someone like Bill Frist, who adopted cats to use for medical experiments. You also want to ensure that a home that’s taking in a cat has window screens and guards,* that someone who is taking on a strong-headed dog understands the need for exercise as well as training. You want to ensure that certain breeds aren’t used for fighting, so you want to be sure they’re not going to a neighborhood where dogfighting occurs frequently. You also want to make people aware of how dogs will behave around children, and to ensure that they make their kids aware of how to act around the dog.
But sometimes animal rescuers, particularly those who are running independent operations and have more good intentions than good training, look for impossibly high standards. And more often than not, these standards, particularly when it comes to home visits, are attainable only by the upper middle class (or, probably more accurately, are more of the ideal of how the upper middle class should live). One bugaboo is the fenced yard.
For those denied a pet, the experience can be bewildering. Tamara Burke, who lives near Stowe, Vt., where she owns a consulting company and writes a column for The Stowe Reporter, has owned animals all her life. But when she and her husband decided to get a second golden retriever as a companion for their older retriever, Mercedes, a rescue group still wanted to visit her home.
“There is nothing about my house that says upper middle class,” Mrs. Burke said of the century-old cottage that has been in her family for generations and where she raises sheep and chickens. “It is a funky, cobbled-together little thing, but it has nothing to do with how much money I spend on my dogs or how much attention I give them.”
The rescue-group representative said, Mrs. Burke remembered, that while she and her husband were nice people, theirs was not a suitable home for the dog because they did not have a fenced-in yard. “I own 150 acres,” Mrs. Burke said. “I’m looking at her saying: ‘What am I going to do, fence in all 150 acres so I can have a dog? This is absurd.’ ”
In response Mrs. Burke became involved with rescue organizations herself. And she found that lots of other people didn’t “qualify” for a dog. In her experience home visits don’t mean a lick.
“I cannot make a determination based on how a person lives,” she said. “I have friends who have trust funds, and they live without running water. They also happen to have dogs, and the dogs don’t seem to mind.”
Now, because of where I live, the fenced-yard issue doesn’t come up much, and shelter space is expensive enough to keep some of the more flighty types out of the business (and to keep the pressure on to move animals out of the shelter and into homes). But I’ve known plenty of people in other cities who have the time and the space for a dog in their apartments, and the willingness to walk the dog appropriately, but because they don’t live in a house, with a fenced yard, their applications are denied. It’s almost as if there’s some kind of 50s ranch-house suburban dream that the rescuers are chasing, while ignoring the good-enough reality that potential adopters with less-than-perfect homes offer.
Even the idea that the adopters must have a middle-class income in case any veterinary care is needed is less valid nowadays, as more programs offering low-cost vet care are available. The truth is, though, that a lot of animal-rescue people are white and middle class, and so you get a lot of class and race bias built into the system, as people tend to judge others by how much they are like themselves.
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*I got a taste of why this is a good thing last October. I have eight windows in my apartment, all but one of which has a screen. The one that doesn’t apparently had an air conditioner in it before I moved in. I usually leave that closed, but every October the heat in my building comes on and stays on until spring regardless of the temperature outside. On one particularly hot day, I decided to chance opening the window, since it has a child guard. A few minutes later, I saw Zuzu out on the ledge.
Damn cat nearly gave me a heart attack. I live on the third floor.
Since rural farmowners are more likely to be white, I find it odd that you use the ridiculous ‘you need a fence for 150 acres’ example to slam animal-rescue workers for being classist and racist. I’m also not sure why being leery of putting a dog in an apartment means the animal-rescue workers are classist and racist–we are assuming all animal-rescue workers are white and middle-class, eh?
Who pissed in your cornflakes today?
Note that I didn’t bring up race until the final paragraph, and the 150-acre example not only followed, but explicitly illustrated, the point about some of the standards being some kind of *ideal* of the upper-middle class lifestyle, regardless of the reality.
As for why being leery of putting a dog in an apartment, who, when a community has a mix of single-family homes and apartments, is more likely to be perceived as of a lower class, the house owner or the apartment renter?
I have experienced these high standards in terms of cat care as well, but, again, only from the smaller, mom-and-pop type of rescue outfits. I was in a pet store with a friend of mine once who lives alone and has no pets. He watches my cat when I go out of town regularly, though, and loves him. He was very taken in by the kittens a small shelter had in the store, but then was completely, I mean utterly, discouraged by the shelter staff. Why? Because he didn’t really want TWO cats, just one. and he expressed a concern about his leather couch. Now, if you’re going to have a cat, I agree that you should be prepared for them to be naughty sometimes and that your house will not be pristine. But the two-cat thing irritates me. My husband feels like two cats would be too much for him, and you know what? My cat is very happy anyway. Not to mention a friend of mine who has always had two cats, and in one pairing the older cat was so vile and aggressive to the new kitten that they had to be separated and shut in separate parts of the house for their own good.
So I don’t know about the class/race thing, although what zuzu said certainly made sense to me, but the high standards thing is definitely out there. I think, in general, some shelter workers have a very strict idea of what it means to have a loving home for your pet. I mean, my friend (comfortably upper-middle class), will now probably never own a cat, which I know he would have enjoyed, because the shelter worker basically told him that it’s not okay to only want one, and that you have to build the décor of your house around your cats needs.
Heh. My parents have a fenced in yard. And their damn dog can jump right over it if she feels like it. Luckily, she doesn’t feel that way often.
I looked into some rescue groups when I was thinking about getting a dog, and they’d turn my ass down in a heartbeat. I was looking at specific breeds rather than shelter dogs to try to take some of the guesswork out of how a younger dog would grow up to be (like, I wouldn’t want a dog that turned out to be extremely active. Not fair to the dog). But my apartment-living, no fences, moving-halfway-across-the-country-every-other-year self would never pass muster. Some of them “preferred” one person to be able to stay home with the dog. Like it’s a baby. I understand that a lot of dogs end up in rescue because they were being crated 16 hours a day, but that’s a little much. So it’s just guinea pigs for me for the next couple years at least.
A lot of rescues take into account where the person lives and the community around them. While I can’t speak for all rescues, the ones I do know (as well as the one I actively participate in) have adopted dogs out to people without a yard, who often live in apartments and to the young and old alike.
We also microchip all our dogs, tell new parents to keep the Pet Harbor tags on and to never never ever take the collar off.
We are very skeptical of those expecting a baby because many of our dogs find us because once the baby comes, suddenly caring for a dog becomes to “stressful”. What actually happens is the people put all their attention on the baby and not the dog, thus creating anxiety issues in the dog who was only trying to get attention any way s/he could – usually by destroying their house or biting the baby. It’s important to remember that dogs get jealous, anxious and paranoid just like we do.
We ask for all that information on the applications to make sure we match dog and people personalities nicely. And seriously, who wants to knowingly give a rescued pup/kitty to an asshole who’s turned in 3 dogs, had 1 taken or flat out hasn’t taken their current animals to the vet in over 5 years?
Just this morning, after making an appt for another dog to get neutered, the Vet Tech told me of a dog they just took in. The owners were in their 80′s, took in the dog as a stray, she had had multiply litters and somehow had broken her front leg.
They took a ruler and taped it 2 her leg for 2 months, until it got so bad they had to bring her in. The vet had to amputate the leg it was so infected.
Tomorrow I pick up 2 dogs that are being surrendered because, surprise, caring for a new baby and 2 huskies is getting to be too much, yet the dogs have both been to obedience school and know several commands. Which tells me they’re feeling neglected and quite possibly jealous.
My doggie boyfriend, Rocco, was tied to a fellow malamute rescuer’s bumper while she was in a grocery store.
My question to those people who were denied: did you ever think that it could just be that you and that particular dog might not work together and the rescue is letting you off the hook with a better sounding “you don’t have a fence” line?
(and thanks for the link, I’m going to pass it on!)
And just so you know, even those with fences get turned down. Once, while the prez of PH and her daughter were doing a house visit, daughter found a dead cat stuck in the fence where it’s collar had gotten stuck they think.
They were very quickly rejected.
I’m sorry, I didn’t realize commenters are not allowed to be anything but meek when they disagree with you, zuzu. Would you like a little more pee in your Cheerios?
As for being leery of putting a dog in an apartment, do you think that has anything to do with the ‘perception’ of the renter’s income rather than, oh, concerns about the dog having enough space and exercise?
I doubt the animal-rescue people are pushing a white, middle-class agenda so much a a super-animal-oriented agenda. The dog must have plenty of space! The dog must not be allowed off the property where it could get hurt! The dog must have human companionship at all times! Etcetera. I really doubt that people living in poor neigborhoods in small houses with yards are being turned down in favor of LA penthouse-dwellers. If they are, then damn right you have race and class issues. Otherwise, not so much.
From the perspective of the animal-rescue people, you have to understand that everybody’s got exceptions as to why they think their pet will be fine, and an awful lot of animals get returned to the shelter when those exceptions don’t work out. The rescue people don’t want to give a dog to the person who says “Oh, I only have one bedroom, but I PROMISE I’ll walk the dog every every day” and then have that dog abandoned, or brought back, a few months later because Mr. Good Intentions didn’t have time for the dog-walking and anyway he’s moving to a bigger apartment in a place that doesn’t take dogs.
I’m glad you posted, nut. You do malamute rescue, right? I’ve found that rescuers who work specifically with large and/or scary and/or highly active breeds tend to be more focused on behavioral issues and fit rather than more fuzzy stuff. Do you find the same thing? I’m thinking that when you’re adopting out a breed with a reputation, you’re going to be thinking about finding people who are aware of that, have a good sense of the challenges involved, and who aren’t going to further the bad reputation of the breed.
Which is a lot different than dinging someone because they haven’t painted their home recently.
Did I ask for meek? No. But if you’re going to come out with guns blazing, read the damn post first.
And their perception of what’s perfect for a dog just happens to correlate with white, upper-middle-class neighborhoods where one person stays home all day. They’re using class as a measure of qualification, probably because they lack good backgrounds in animal behavior and human behavior.
Not all discrimination is conscious or overt.
Zuzu – it’s husky rescue but occassionally we get malamute’s because people get confused. While they do look similar, they aren’t the same.
And yep, you nailed it. We also get to know their individual personalities well so we want to make sure a people personality matches it. Like say, we wouldn’t adopt out a puppy to an 80 yr old couple bc huskies tend to be VERY high maintenance energy-wise.
I kinda do pit rescue, though not as involved, and they do the same thing. The application process is even more strenuous and in-depth for them given their lovely reputation as of late, not to mention breed-specific banning that targets them only.
Rocco, my doggie bf, followed me everywhere but was nasty to other males, thus giving him the Alpha male status. But he was such a people lover, we knew he’d be fine. Also, huskies are very packish and A’s are most common in females (we have dubbed them husky bitches ’cause they really are).
jerseygirl – we don’t worry about fences much bc huskies are notorious for getting out of them anyway. If there is a fence, we strongly recommend both physical fence and the invisible kind for back up ’cause they’ll just dig their happy little asses right out of that yard otherwise. And the entrances to said fences have to be padlocked at all times to discourage wet noses from pushing gates open. Seriously – it’s happened before.
Interesting – my experience with animal rescue organizations has been highly negative, but not for the classist reasons, but merely because these people value animal lives the same or more than people. My oldest had developed asthma and was battling illness after illness. We were getting rid of everything that was triggering the asthma – unfortuneately that was my three beloved kitties. After weeks of trying to find homes for them, I called or emailed every no-kill shelter in 400 miles. Not ONE treated me as a well intentioned individual. Everyone seemed very put out that I was choosing the health of my own child over a pet.
Peace,
nerdchik
nerd chik – that’s because we do view animals as people or better. Otherwise, why are we in rescue to begin with?
damnit, hit submit too early.
And also, you have to remember that you were probably the 10th person that day to not only drop off their kitties, but to use that excuse.
People lie a lot about why they’re getting rid of their animals. The most irritating one, perhaps, is becuase the people are going on vacation and it would be too expensive to put them in a kennel or hire a housesitter.
I used to live in a two bedroom apartment with two dogs and a couple of cats.
One of the dogs was a pure breed German Shepard (he was mine) and the other was a Welsh Corgi/Chow mix (my mom’s dog) and he was about the size of a Welsh Corgi. Neither one of them seemed hindered in any way because they were living in an apartment.
All of us would take the dogs out on their daily walks as well as trips to the beach and parks.
Now, I live in a 1,500 sq. ft. home with a fenced in backyard and either The Hubby or I would be home to spend time with a dog. Yet we’ve been turned down multiple times by a certain animal rescue agency. The only reason we have a dog now is because we found one living between the walls that seperated our property and our neighbors property. I suppose it all worked out for the best, but still.
Of course, this is the same rescue organization that won’t let you adopt a cat from them if you want to declaw them.
Starla – I don’t know of many rescue’s who will let you adopt a cat if you plan on declawing it bc many of us see is as inhumane as it takes away their only natural form of defense. People can say the cat will only be inside but we’re not stupid and sometimes shit happens.
My question to those people who were denied: did you ever think that it could just be that you and that particular dog might not work together and the rescue is letting you off the hook with a better sounding “you don’t have a fence” line?
Yes, it was “we don’t have a big enough fence”, among a few other things that boil down to “you don’t have the perfect, idealized suburban dog situation”. Understand that we weren’t looking for a specific dog, necessarily — this was at the SPCA, we were looking around and meeting possible dogs with no particular need to find one immediately or whatnot, so it certainly wasn’t the match-the-owner-and-the-dog thing. Bear in mind, too, that I’ve made money training animals (horses, mostly), so I have a special resentment for some busybody SPCA volunteer who wants to tell me according to some checklist that I’m not in a position to have a dog because X,Y,Z things that are really just about attention and good training.
I think this stuff is pretty weird given two things — one, that there simply aren’t enough homes to take all the dogs that need them, and two, there’s no way to tell from a couple of questions whether somebody is going to be a good owner. Good and responsible people can make all kinds of living situations work. Stupid asses who have the ideal fenced-in yard on a quiet cul-de-sac often bring home dogs that wind up being completely ignored (which usually results in huge behavioral problems, which the stupid asses then whine about as though it’s the dog’s fault that he’s a spazz from being ignored for days on end).
Wound up, BTW, going to the city shelter instead, which is so desperate in this city to find any non-abusive homes for dogs that the ease with which we went through this process was a fascinating contrast — the shelter folks asked us about our living situation, commented that we’d really want to supervise a dog outside since our fence was not very high (to which we said yeah, we know), and we wound up finding the perfect little mutt who is living, fence or no, a very good dog life now.
This is an interesting discussion — I actually had the opposite experience when I adopted my dog from the local animal shelter. I’m single, work full-time, and live in a tiny 1-bedroom apartment. I really wanted a pet, so many friends encouraged me to get a cat or small dog.
But I really love big dogs, so I went to the shelter initially just to talk with an “adoption counsellor” to see if a big dog was totally out of the question for my situation. And much to my surprise, the woman said they actually prefer placing dogs in apartments if the owner takes them out for regular exercise, socialization, etc., than if the owner has a fenced-in yard, but just leaves the dog outside by itself all day. And that leaving the dog alone for 8-9 hours a day wasn’t a problem at all.
I left the shelter that day with a very sweet lab/pointer mix. So yeah — I was surprised at how eager the shelter people were for me to adopt this large, bouncy, hyper pup. We do exercise and go to the dogpark regularly, so in the end, the shelter people were right that the tiny-apartment thing wasn’t necessarily bad…
I’ll be the first to admit that rescues are pickier and we can afford to be. To be honest, I’m not a fan of house-checks either, but fences are important but we tailor our responses to the individual, too.
I tell people who were/are turned down for your silly reason to go to local shelters because they are more lenient. Mostly because they don’t have the staff to do home checks, call everyone and your mother, etc.
There are so many places to try and find a dog, why stop at just resue organiations? Alot of the dogs come from shelters to begin with.
(I know all about suburban assholes with fences creating asshole dogs – we’ve got one right now who might be with us forever that’s how hard he is to place and I’m about to pick up 2 more this evening. In fact, I think it’s a safe assertion to say that we get most of our dogs from the suburban assholes with fences. I just transported a dog from Charlottsville to where I live because she killed 4 goats on 4 separate occassions because she kept digging her way out of the fence.)
Kleio — sounds like they had their priorities right. As in — responsible owner who will spend time with dog — high priority. Living situation of that responsible owner, so long as it’s relatively stable — not so high priority.
It must be very frustrating for folks who do this stuff, figuring out who will be good with a dog and who will not. But that frustration doesn’t, IMO, give them an excuse to base these things on what amount to really meaningless criteria.
Then how are we to do it Spit? Sometimes it’s all we’ve got to go on…
a nut, I believe you about escaping huskies. You can never underestimate a smart dog or cat. My mother’s pantry is organized around a cat who used to open all the cabinets and knock out cereal boxes looking for his food.
Spit, I completely agree. A good friend of mine’s family is very involved in golden retriever rescue, and I’d say half of the dogs they’ve taken in during the time I’ve known them have been from middle or upper-middle class people who were more or less ignoring them. Leaving them in crates 16 or more hours a day, never exercising them, freaking out when they had babies and realized they’d never trained their dog past housebreaking, generally not realizing that goldens are somewhat different from houseplants. But I’d bet cash money those people would have been acceptable to many adoption organizations.
I wonder about this stuff a lot when I watch Animal Cops, particularly the Detroit version. It’s great when they show the happy home an abused or neglected animal ends up in, but it seems statistically odd how often the families are white. Like, to the point that I’m surprised when it’s a black family.
There are so many places to try and find a dog, why stop at just resue organiations? Alot of the dogs come from shelters to begin with.
I agree, and we did wind up at the shelter. But I think when there are too many dogs out there, and getting them into decent homes is a priority, the things that wind up being looked at are not the right things. Having a fence or not having a fence — just not a big deal, so long as you understand the repurcussions of either. Apartment or house — matters more with some dogs than others, but again, a good owner can make an apartment space work with most dogs. A bad owner is going to suck whether they live in a house with a yard or no.
I’m not so pissed at this point, because we got a great dog who I adore. But I think it screws things up to be so picky about the things that aren’t central. Because if somebody who would be a great owner but has less-than-ideal thing X can’t get a dog — maybe they’re hell bent on a specific breed or somesuch — you’ve just lost out on a fine home for a dog that needs one. Which means less space for you to take on another rescue dog. Every missed opportunity comes at a cost — for the dogs, not just for the people.
a nut –
Then how are we to do it Spit? Sometimes it’s all we’ve got to go on…
I totally sympathize with that — but when “all you’ve got to go on” is essentially meaningless information in the long run, I think you just have to accept that you don’t have anything good to go on, not try to pretend that the meaningless information will help.
To some degree, there’s just no way to guarantee that a home is going to be a good situation. I think the only meaningful things you’ve got to go on are based in talking to the person about their experience with dogs, about their plans with the dog, watching them interact, so forth. Other than that, I think you just have to accept that there’s always going to be a risk that you’re giving the dog to somebody unprepared to take good care of it. That risk is in no way avoided by ruling out people based on stuff that really doesn’t make a difference, so long as they’re good dog people.
Which is something we know all too well about and take into consideration. Again, I can’t speak for all rescues because there are just way too many, but I know that when we’ve said no, it’s not just because the person lives in a house with/without a fence or even an apartment – we want to make sure that dog will not come back. But we also do breed specific rescue, taking out a lof of the other stresses.
Btw, when we do a home visit, it’s with the dog they are interested in if possible just so we can watch how they intereact, especially if they’ve got other dogs.
And we don’t let people who have cats and/or small dogs adopt huskies bc to huskies, they’re lunch (and in only very specific situations are huskies cat/little dog friendly).
Spit – I agree. Sometimes we take huge leaps of faith, but in my opinion, every time we let someone have a dog it’s a leap of faith. Many of the questions asked are judgments but in lieu of nothing better, this is all we’ve got.
And like I said before, people lie. A lot. Probably a lot more than you realize.
I adopted my dog for a rescue center and had to fill out the application, send an email, provide friend references, provide a vet reference then have the inhome visit. I have a small condo w/only a fenced in patio – but they gave me the dog anyway after making me stress about the entire thing. In my situation dog is a cockapoo kept chained outside by original owner so they wanted her kept indoors. I promised to take 2 days off work and my mom came up to stay w/dog rest of first week. They encouraged me to have pet sitters during work day and also use day care so she was only by herself 1 day a week. I tried the daycare but she HATES it – puts her butt down and has to be dragged into the play area.
I guess I understand b/c she was already badly abused – but yeah the adoption counselor had me so anxious!
I’ve worked as everything from a volunteer to a manager in shelters of all sorts for 18 years, and the issue of “screening” adopters is always a hot topic among the professionals in the field.
Here’s the catch-22: Most of us get into this field because of our passion for animals (not for the pay or the glamour, certainly!), but if we’re going to do our jobs effectively, we frequently have to allow our passion to take a back seat to our sense of reason. Not every adoptive home is going to conform to our glowing standards. Not every animal is a diamond in the rough who can be “saved” by just the right person. Not every outcome is going to be a success story, no matter how hard we try.
In my experience, 97% of prospective adopters mean well. They want to get a pet for what they consider to be good, solid, humane reasons. They intend to keep the pet long-term. They want the pet and the people in the household to get along and live happily ever after. Now, they may exhibit a shocking lack of knowledge about how to help this happen, or whether it’s realistic to begin with—but as I see it, the job of shelter staff and rescuers is to educate and prepare new pet owners for a successful adoption experience, and to do so without judgment or condescension, reserving their outright denials for cases that are clearly unworkable or dangerous.
The worst, unhappiest animal rescuers I’ve known have been those who, over time, become so suspicious of humans and so protective/possessive of animals that they develop a full-scale paranoia that prevents them from placing any animals at all. It happens frighteningly often. (I was upbraided by a rescuer once when I contacted her about adopting one of “her” dogs–after 15 years of shelter work, 20 years of dog training, and authoring a book on dog adoption–because I said I didn’t want a dog with aggression issues. I explained that I would be taking my new dog with me to schools and Scout meetings to teach kids about proper treatment of pets, and though I was willing to take an older dog with health problems, I did absolutely need one with a very steady temperament. She snapped at me, “Well, dogs aren’t perfect, you know. If you’re not willing to work with a little biting issue, you don’t deserve one of mine.”)
Human-to-pet matchmaking isn’t an exact science. Because we care so deeply about the result, that reality kills us sometimes. Adoptions don’t always work out; endings aren’t always happy. But if we get discouraged and distrustful, we run the risk of turning shelters and rescues into entities that pet lovers are afraid of. That’s why I’ve never hired anyone who said “I love animals–I just don’t like people very much!”….because a basic faith in both is required to succeed, and survive, in this challenging field.
Long, sorry! Here’s a scratch behind the ears for all of you doing animal rescue (and all of you who have adopted pets in need)!
And like I said before, people lie. A lot. Probably a lot more than you realize.
That doesn’t surprise me at all, to be honest. After my experience at the SPCA, I’d be tempted to lie if I were going to go to them again.
It’s not that I don’t understand asking the questions; I do. I think they’re questions any person likely to be a good dog owner has probably asked him/herself before deciding to get a dog in the first place.
It’s that having conversations about these kinds of issues and what people plan to do about them can be instructive, but the issues themselves IMO just shouldn’t be used to deny someone a dog.
Also, I think that “we don’t want the animal to come back to us” is a great motive — but it’s also unrealistic. Sometimes, the situation just isn’t going to work out. And it winds up IMO making this process so prohibitively difficult that a lot of people just don’t even try to adopt through rescues anymore. That hurts the rescue and the dogs its trying to place.
Sorry to be long winded, but I also wanted to add that this stuff isn’t foreign to me — when I was training horses, I was doing it through horse rescue. When we were trying to place a horse, we were frankly pretty damned happy to find someone who wasn’t going to abuse it or neglect it, nevermind the rest. That’s because the quicker we placed them with an acceptable home, the quicker we could get another horse in that was right then being abused/neglected. It was a leap of faith every time — but all you can do in this stuff is take the animal in from a bad situation, work with it, send it to a new situation that will probably be better, hope for the best. That’s reality, and its a little harsh, maybe — but so is watching an animal die because you didn’t get to it in time (which I’ve done many, many times).
It’s hard for me to have too much sympathy for dog rescue organizations that get really picky about it partially because of the work I did in horse rescue, I guess. Because I think that it gets lost that what we’re talking about is frequently a life/death situation, and so arguing over somebody’s fence seems really stupid to me. Also, because there is simply no way to know that the animal is going to now have a good life. You give up that control when you give up the animal. All you’ve done is give it a better shot.
Lizard — awesome post.
I have also seen an amazing number of people doing this work just become incredibly paranoid about any human that might take “their” animal. I’m not sure why, but it seems anecdotally to be a much more frequent occurence in people doing small animal (dog, cat, etc) rescue than it was when I was dealing with the large animal stuff.
You aren’t long winded, just passionate about your animals just like me.
Like I said, I agree with you which is also why we don’t worry about fences or housing arrangements so much as “Is this person going to be able to take care of the dog to the best of their ability.”
Also in the Times this week was an article on colonies of feral cats out on the Long Island Shore and the people who feed them and are resisting the environmental officers who want to move them because they are feeding on rare plovers and sandpipers.
People’s beliefs are incoherent and quite often people are bullies. People who are crazy about domestic pets often don’t give a shit about wildlife. People who are crazy about domestic pets eat meat raised in factory farms. Blithely.
I’ve had both experiences with adopting an animal: a thorough application to make sure the animal wasn’t being placed badly, and that I didn’t have unreasonable expectations; and another time where it was clear the two people checking me out were small-minded bullies intent on abusing the small amount of power they had.
That said, there are obviously a lot of people who care very deeply about animals and devote their lives to them; they have my gratitude. Another thing to keep in mind is we’re all subject during our lives to emotional illnesses and they play out in various ways—the average animal hoarder has 11 animals. Yikes!
As for race and class—in this experience, as in every other experience across the board in America–I get preferential treatment for being white and middle-class. Sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, but all the time, everywhere. Read the paper, study after study, from health care to mortgages to the legal system, I benefit over and over and over again from being white.
a nut — maybe I’m long winded and passionate about it. Pretty likely, actually. ;)
Actually, I’m quickly learning that a lot of rescues fold more for conflicting personalities than funds. In fact, we just lost 2 volunteers: 1 for a personality conflict and 1 because we wouldn’t save a very agressive dog, which would have only become a liability. The prez of PH told the shelter to euthanize the dog instead and the 1 volunteer didn’t like the decision.
Regarding race, thought I’d just throw this out here:
My first job was at a pet store. Whenever someone black or Latino (well, actually, pretty much anyone that wasn’t white) came into the store, our manager would always have us take certain dogs “for a walk” so that they would not be available to the customer. They were usually dogs like Rottwiellers, Dobermans, Shepard’s, etc. My boss’s reasoning behind this was that if they were not white, and they were looking for a dog that was more traditionally known as a guard/attack dog, they were either wanted the dog for guarding drugs or for fighting them for entertainment.
I didn’t stay at that job very long. Anyway, point being, yes, I do think race can have an effect on this for some people.
In the small world of chinchilla rescue, money does matter in many parts of the country. Why? Air conditioning is a must most places. Chinnies die above 75 degrees. In New York or Los Angeles in the summer, that means the AC has to be on all day and night. That’s going to price some people right out of having a chin.
So demanding AC is a reasonable thing in the chinchilla community. But other demands, such as the ones listed here, may not be — and may reflect the fact that some rescuers are conflicted about parting with any of their animals!
Hugo- I agree, demanding safety for the animal is always reasonable.
The line gets crossed for me when people stop seeing the issue as “will this be safe and work out” and start seeing it as “will this be the perfect environment”. There is no perfect environment, and if we held the “perfect situation” standard for, say, children — we’d essentially be saying that nobody who wasn’t upper-middle-class or higher should have kids. As though upper-middle-class people do any better or worse at raising their kids than any other group.
Plus, I just can’t get over the fact that there are so damned many stray, feral, neglected, or abused dogs and cats (and other things) out there, and yet some folks (I’ve run across them) act as though “abuse” consists of “not feeding premium food” or whatever. But I also grew up in the country, where barn cats are only sort-of pets (and you love them, pet them, feed them — until they get hit by cars or eaten by coyotes. More barn cats will usually get dumped by some suburbanite. Hell, you tell yourself, it was a better life than a lot of dumped cats get.).
Spit, you sound so incredibly sane–are you sure you’re an animal person? Heh.
Lizard — yes (twitch twitch) I (blink) am perfectly (twitch) sane (shiver drool).
Thanks!
I don’t argue that some people view declawing as inhumane, but that doesn’t make a potential owner evil or unfit because they prefer to have the cat declawed.
And yes, people can have indoor cats without incident of them ever escaping and going outside.
From personal experience, I own two 16 year old cats (have owned them since kittenhood, as well as the other cats that will be mentioned) who are both declawed. One is a orange long hair tabby male and the other is a black and white tabby female. Both have no physical problems because of being declawed and both have never gone outside. Next up are two of my other cats who are both 6 years old. One is a black and white tabby male and the other is a solid white tabby female. Again both declawed, never been outside and no physical problems. The last is is a 3 year old grayish striped long hair tabby female. She is also declawed, does not go outside and has no physical conditions due to be declawed.
In my opinion (which may be wrong) to not allow adoption of cats just because of declawing is turning away potential owners, which I think would make it harder on no-kill rescue places being able to rescue more animals.
Maybe a good thing to do is just put the people who want to declaw a cat on a secondary list or something instead of outright rejecting them.
I don’t have time to read all the comments right now, but wanted to share my experience with a rescue group. About a year ago my husband and I were looking to adopt a puppy, and were interested some golden-retriever puppies from one of the local rescue groups. We met the puppies and picked one out. Then came the home visit. I figured it would be a quick thing–that they just wanted to make sure that there weren’t abused animals on our property, things like that. Two women showed up, and proceeded to question and lecture my husband I for an hour and a half. They told us, among other things, that we should only feed the dog organic dog food (and btw, the closest store that sells it is an hour away!) and that most vets overvaccinate and we really shouldn’t let our vet do that (umm…thanks, but I think I’ll trust the person who actually went to vet school). The kicker was when we got a look at the contract they wanted us to sign. Essentially, it said that they could show up at our house at any time, and if they thought the animal was not being cared for properly they could take it back! No way in hell were we going to sign that. We never found out if we would have been approved–we withdrew our application because we were so put off by the home visit. I wonder how many other animals miss out on getting a good home because of similar experiences.
We wound up just going to the humane society and getting a wonderful, sweet, incredibly well-behaved dog.
Eliz
One problem with declawing is that it’s so deeply misunderstood by many pet lovers. It’s not like getting a nail trim—it’s the removal of an entire joint of the cat’s “finger.” It’s drastic and it hurts, and sadly, lots of people do it as a preventive measure or a first resort, consigning the cat to a great deal of unnecessary pain. Scratching is a natural behavior for a cat, and most people who cannot or will not work to redirect this behavior appropriately are, in my opinion, in need of a lot more education before they take home a kitty.
If a cat has a truly intractable scratching obsession and its options are declawing or euthanasia, then I surely wouldn’t judge its owner for choosing the former.
If an adopter insists on having a declawed cat, then we encourage him or her to take home an older cat who’s already been declawed by a previous owner.
The practice of performing major, life-altering surgery for our human convenience just doesn’t sit well with me. Especially when, in many cases, a few good scratching posts and some committed training will do the trick just as well.
I adopted my kitten from a no-kill shelter in August, after two months of run around and bizarre behavior.
Basically this no-kill shelter shows different cats every Saturday at a local pet store, and I had been in a couple of times to look. I wanted a cat that was fairly young (less then 2 years old) but I didn’t have my heart set on a kitten. I eventually had my heart set on a grey tabby that was a little over a year old. So I followed the proceedure and called the woman who was fostering the cat. I talked to her once about arranging to come over and see the cat and bring her an application, but our schedules did not work out and she refused to schedule anything more then a week in advance. She said she would call me. She never did.
So I called her. For two months. I left messages on her machine, at least two with her husband, until I got frustrated and started calling the shelter itself. Well the woman who runs the shelter itself never answers her phone. I left her about 5-6 messages over 4 weeks. Finally I just mailed the application to them. No response. I have no idea why these people would not call me back, or why someone would run a shelter and never answer their phone. I had told the woman that I was a poor college student, so I was looking for a cat with no major medical problems, and she had told me that was fine. Now I wonder if that was why she never called. I really fell in love with that cat, and I wanted to give her a home so badly. But they just never called me back.
Finally, I bought my cat from a person selling kittens by the side of the road while I was on my way to the local humane society. They were from a different no-kill shelter, and they asked me a few questions ( would I have time to play with her, could I get her vet care, life plans after college, etc) and I took home my sweet baby kitty. Who is now a slightly chubby 11 months old.
And I still do not understand what the big deal was with the other place. If they don’t think I’m fit to have a cat, if I’m too young or too poor just let me know. Don’t just not return my calls.
I’m pretty firmly against declawing, myself — I think that, though most of the time it’s not hard to keep a cat in, the risks to the declawed cat if it does get out somehow and get in a fight are pretty high (though to be fair, the risks from traffic are higher).
But I actually agree with you that declawing in itself doesn’t IMO constitute the kind of thing for which a person shouldn’t be able to adopt a cat (and then presumably have it declawed). I personally don’t like the practice, but it doesn’t cross that line of “really not okay” for me. I mean, I don’t like the practice of docking ears and/or tails, either. But it’s a common and accepted practice, hell, part of some American breed standards still, so far as I know.
I understand completely.
Maybe I’m being a bit hypocritical (and off-topic) but I never understood the whole bobbing a tail or perking up the ears on certain breeds of dogs.
Docking tails and ears originally was supposedly a functional thing — to prevent picking up foxtails or getting caught in thickets in hunting dogs or whatever. It’s a shaky argument to me, but that’s its history. Now, I just think it’s pretty pointless — based on tradition, more or less.
Also, there’s a difference to me between docking a fleshy ear and removing part of the bone structure of the foot — a part that helps the cat function, in fact. I don’t really see a good justification for either, personally, but (maybe this is a holdover from dealing with horses, whose health relies so heavily on their feet) but screwing with the natural form of something so absolutely vital as feet — and causing foot pain for a while in the process — doesn’t sit very well for me.
Honestly, I believe that some of Pablo’s problems are caused by declawing — but given that I don’t know where he came from or his previous situation (although I know he was a pet by some of his behaviors) I can’t be sure.
That said, both Pablo and Doug are indoor cats for life. They ain’t going outside anytime soon, and yet Pablo can’t defend himself when he and Doug play, and Doug uses claws. This leads me to constantly break up fights that would otherwise be play because Pablo can’t get Doug off of him with his cotton ball paws.
More later when I get back home.
We were rejected from adopting a kitten at one point. Because though we both worked full time, my husband was in law school and I was in library school part time, and they didn’t adopt cats out to students.
Errrr. Okay.
We never went back to that particular place. Their attitude seemed to be that these cats belonged to them, personally, and that if they deemed us worthy, they might allow us to take one of their cats from them.
Amusingly enough, my husband read through the “contract” that they’d wanted us to sign – which included things like unannounced visits to be sure the cat was well taken care of – and he pointed out that there were six things, just skimming over the contract, that were completely legally unenforcable. And a few things that were downright illegal.
All my three feline babies were from shelters. All of the shelters required us to submit proof that our apartment allowed cats or that we owned our house, that our existing cats were up to date on shots, and that if we decided we didn’t want the new kitty, we would bring it back to the shelter and not just dump it on the street. That, we’ll agree to. Unannounced site visits to be sure the litterbox is clean? Thanks, I already have a mother-in-law.
and they didn’t adopt cats out to students.
Well, plus you must know how dangerous it is to combine potential librarians and cats. Makes me shiver just to think of what damage such a dastardly combination could do. Brrr!
I’ve heard about the “no students” thing before, too, and it’s a thing that I just think is really bizarre — in your case, of course, even more bizarre than it would be if we were talking about some 19 year old undergrad. But either way, most of my fellow student friends have cats, and they do just fine.
I guess the thing, socially, that gets me about this stuff isn’t just that class (and possibly race) plays into it, it’s that it’s based on a whole thing even beyond that — one in which there is a preferable lifestyle, one that is assumed in this case to be healthier for the pets. Of course, it’s a lifestyle in which you presumably have a large, fenced yard on a house that you own (read: suburban) and have nothing going on in your life that could possibly lead to any major changes at any point (so you’re settled, have a steady job, aren’t a student… hell, I’m kind of surprised they don’t whine about whether you’re married, since with single people there’s always the risk that a new partner might wind up being allergic). It’s just IMO another one of those things where you wind up being considered less-than, somehow underdeveloped, unless your great goal in life is to wind up in a house in a subdivision with neatly-laid sod and a minivan (or an SUV, I suppose).
Now, all of those things are fine if you want ‘em, I guess… but some of us just genuinely don’t, and that has no bearing on how responsibly we care for… ourselves, pets, children…
Frankly, I know homeless guys that take better emotional care of their stray dog sidekicks than some folks with that lifestyle who leave the dogs stuck in their dog runs on the side yards 24/7 (can’t have them, you know, digging and chewing and whatnot) .
Kind of a tangent, I guess. Kind of.
As my name suggests, I used to be a cat/dog rescue person. I did everything out of my own pocket- and I was a poor student at the time.
No, I will not adopt to a family that cannot afford vet bills. Yes, there are low-cost vets, but if your cat ingested a string and needs surgery, that’s still hundreds of dollars. Most low cost vet care is limited to shot and office visit- not actual procedures should the animal need one. and chances are, it will at some point. If you are not willing to pay for vet bills, then I don’t feel that you should have pets. I’ve been in rescue over a decade, and I have been very careful about who my fosters are placed with. I do not spend countless hours working, socializing and paying vet bills on animals that I rescue for it to wind up being neglected or denied medical care.
I have placed my animals in many types of households- some were well to do, some were not. I always ask for vet referrals, and if they have a history of caring for their animals, then I don’t care if they’re rich or poor. It’s dedication and can-do spirit that matters. That said, I refuse to place animals in homes that will decalw them, and I refuse to place dogs in homes with no fencing. It’s heartbreaking to find out that a dog you spent countless hours working on and socializing was killed by a truck because the yard had no fence. It’s maddening to get a cat come back after the bastard owner de-clawed it because it’s gone slightly insane. Cat decalwing is illegal in UK and parts of europe- and it’s not because they think it’s a wonderful procedure. There are major physiological and psychological effects on the animal that can be harmful, so why risk it? If you prefer your leather couch to be pristine, you do not need pets.
Animals and children (those out of the womb- I’ve aborted many pregnant cats during kitten season because I knew there weren’t going to be enough homes) are both lives. Once they exist on in this world, they need to be cared for with their best interest in mind. I feel that animal adoption and child adoption should be strict. It’s not about classism, but dedication for the well-being of the animals. I’ve found people from all situations that were dedicated to animals. That said, you can’t screen your window, you shouldn’t have a cat. If you want a declawed cat, don’t decale a cat- adopt one that’s already been declawed. animals are at our mercy, so we need to make especially sure they get cared for. They can’t report abusive or neglectful situations.
I feel that animal adoption and child adoption should be strict.
To a point, sure. But if you take this too far, the practical result, often, is that most of them don’t wind up with homes. If every shelter ran this way, the problem would be exascerbated to the point of ridiculousness. Luckily, nobody would suggest putting down children — but perfectly fine dogs and cats are put down in astounding quantities because they can’t get homes at all. Which is every bit as sad as the dog that got hit by a truck supposedly because there was no fence — except that it’s neatly tucked away in back rooms, and most people don’t have to think about it.
I refuse to place dogs in homes with no fencing. It’s heartbreaking to find out that a dog you spent countless hours working on and socializing was killed by a truck because the yard had no fence.
But the fencing or lack of fencing really has little to do with whether the dog is going to get loose. Dogs get out of fenced yards all the time when people leave them out there unsupervised — whereas my dog, who is never outside unsupervised because our fence is low, never gets loose.
The point is that you really can’t tell what conditions the animal is going to live under based on those criteria.
And yeah, it’s heartbreaking when something bad happens to an animal. Believe me, I know — I have personally watched horses die because for months before we got them, they’d been living off of their own feces. On the balance, I’d rather give more horses more new chances to have decent owners who will do the best they can than make sure that one or two horses get people who will be able to afford the sometimes $10,000 vet bills that happen when something goes really wrong. Will it always work out? No. But that’s true no matter how picky I get, and if I have the best interest of the animals at heart, I’m not going to (1) deprive it of a good, loving home when those are harder to come by than we’d like or (2) limit the number of horses I can help into better circumstances by making my standards so high that it takes me ridiculous amounts of time to place perfectly healthy and trained horses.
Training, by the way, that takes an incredible amount of time, effort, and sometimes high risk of injury — and sometimes unfortunately winds up being for naught. That’s how it is.
I’m not trying to be an ass, I just really disagree.
Catty, you sound very dedicated. I’m sure a lot of animals owe their lives to you.
In my experience, adoption guidelines are great, as starting points for honest conversations with prospective pet owners. Hard-and-fast rules, on the other hand, tend to get us in trouble. They’re seldom without exceptions, and moreover, when the public gets wind of the fact that there are “right” and “wrong” answers to the questions we’re going to ask them, that’s when they stop being truthful with us.
I’ve met shelter staff who refused adoptions to poor people (because “they won’t have any money for vet bills”) and to rich people (because “the rich ones are always the ones who never want to spend anything on their pets”). Some people feel that a fenced yard is a must; others feel that it encourages people to leave their dog unsupervised and unstimulated for long hours. Some shelters have an iron-clad “no students” rule. I’m lucky one of them was willing to get to know me and make an exception when I was 18, or I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the last 14.5 years with my fabulous lab mix (who, incidentally, racked up hundreds of dollars of vet bills while I was still in school….I paid them all and learned to love ramen noodles!).
As I said up the page, most adopters genuinely want to succeed. If we earn their trust, they’ll usually let us educate them on how best to do so. If they absolutely resist, and refuse to take basic humane care of their pet, that’s when I think a denial is in order.
(And I have denied plenty….I worked in a HIGHLY coyote-populated area, and we strongly discouraged adopters from letting their cats outdoors unsupervised at any time. One lovely woman told me that I was violating her civil rights by asking her to keep her cat indoors, threatened to report me to her senator, and informed me that she was “already emotionally prepared to lose a cat in that way, so you don’t have to educate me, thank you very much.” I said “I’m afraid this kitten isn’t emotionally prepared to be devoured by a coyote. You’ll need to look elsewhere.”)
“already emotionally prepared to lose a cat in that way, so you don’t have to educate me, thank you very much.”
Nice.
Some people, I wonder if they have any concept that animals don’t exist entirely for their amusement.
And you make very good points. IMO, the best service I could personally provide both for the animals I would try to place and to somebody who sincerely wants to take on a rescue (horse, in my case) was to look at their situation and help them work out how the make it the healthiest possible one. In the case of horses, which are far, far more expensive than dogs, the economic barrier was a particular issue, honestly. But there were a lot of things people could do to make it work out fine, most of the time.
I’m currently a student, and we have very little money. But even with two cats with feline leukemia — which tends to lower the “we’re going to the vet” threshold something fierce — and a young dog, we scrape together what we need for vet visits, and tighten our belts if we have to. And all the pets are a whole hell of a lot better off than they were when we got them — one of the cats was found in a cardboard box at a busstop (with its now-dead littermates), and the other one was 3 weeks old with pneumonia and in the middle of the street. The dog came from the pound, and had clearly been abused (took her a month to wag her tail and not freak out at fast motion — we had to teach a six-month old puppy how to play. She had no idea how).
In my experience, the fence requirement is ridiculous. If a dog is well trained, and he is used to being outside without any borders or restrictions, no fence is needed. In fact, I think bordering a dog in with a fence makes him skittish and more likely to bolt and not obey commands and not be aware of hazards, like cars. Of course it depends on where the dog lives.
Maybe my experience is colored by the fact I lived in the country for a time when I was in college and we had hundreds of acres for the dog to run. We simply let him outside when he wanted to go outside, and a couple of hours later he would “knock” on the door to be let back in. I think that dog was happier than any other dog I’ve known. And smarter and more aware of hazards.
Now I live in a city and I won’t get a dog because, even with daily walks, there is no replacement for the environment of a farm or country. Dogs need that space to be truly happy. I really want a Vizsla but I would never have one in a city.
I’ve never done rescue work, but y’all have made me *want* to, I have to say. I’d also like to note that adopting to students isn’t a bad idea in a lot of cases, either– our cat has some weird behaviors from being born to a feral mother, but he’s wonderfully sweet-tempered and we’re glad to have him. And, of course, we’re careful to make sure he’s healthy and happy. Our neighbors across the street (we live a few blocks from a Big State University, and most of the houses around here are rented by students) adopted a puppy a few months ago, and are doing a great job making sure she gets the training and attention she needs.
Of course, that’s not always the case– I remember a frat party where one of the house’s residents had a beautiful Weimaraner puppy who absolutely no one was paying attention to, to the point that the dog was licking up enough spilled drinks to get tipsy. The trouble is telling *those* prospective pet owners from my roomate or the guys across the street from us.
My neighbors to the rear of me have two dogs they just don’t pay attention to. I want to steal them and take them on walks.
When I was in law school, I lived next to a de facto frat house. They had a beautiful husky puppy they kept staked out in the front yard all day. She was a very aloof dog, but she adored the mailman. He’d be delivering mail across the street, and she’d start howling for him. He’d shout over, “It’s okay, baby, I’m coming!” and she’d roll over for bellyrubs when he got there.
I understand why some rescues prefer fences and others not. Rescues are individually run so they get to make up their own rules. However, like Lizard said, guidelines are our friends.
Let me tell you why house visits can make a HUGE difference, but not always:
Earlier this evening I picked up two gorgeous yet slighty skinny huskies who were being surrendered because the couple had a new baby and realized that, combined with 2 fairly young dogs, it was just too much to handle.
When I walked into the apartment, it was tiny. Not necessarily too small for a dog mind you, but definitely too small for these two. They were in their crates when I arrived; not a good sign. Then, when the husband took Trinity out of the crate, she had a pinch collar on, with tags. This meant she had the pinch collar on 24/7 and that’s not good either.
(For those of you who don’t know what a pinch collar is, it’s similar to a choke chain, but has spikes facing inward at a diagnal so that when tightened, they pinch the dogs neck, but don’t poke. It’s commonly used for training the less leash saavy of dogs to not pull so hard on the leash.)
When talking with the couple about the dogs, I learned and witnessed Trinity’s ability to obey all kinds of commands such as sit, stay, down, go to bed, up, etc. This couple put a lot into their dogs and a lot of love and attention was obviously given to them before the baby came.
I noticed Trinity knew what the leash on her meant and that she was really bouncy. Neo at this point was still left in the crate, whining because he wanted out, too. When I mentioned to the husband that appx 50% of Trinity’s behavioral problems could have been fixed if he’d gotten her spayed, he responded with, “Well, we were going to originally breed them but figured with the space we have now and a new baby, that wouldn’t be a very good idea.”
Ya think?
(Just so you all know, I wish people had to go through this kind of application process in order to first get a license and then there should be an agency checking up on them. Because backyard breeders suck and are the reason why rescues and shelters exist to begin with. I also believe there should be a moratorium on breeding in general ’til we take care of the animals we have now. But that might be just me.)
Seeing how much the dogs were loved at one point helped me fully realize why the dogs were starting to act out: they knew their position in the house had changed to bottom rung and were rightly jealous. The new baby came, taking up all the couple’s time and of course, since you can’t give up the baby, the dog’s are usually the one to go. This particular house visit helped me understand where this couple’s priorities lay and how they interacted with the dogs. (On the other hand, both absolutely adored Peanut, with Trinity wanting to lick his face real bad.)
I will also say that we are hesitant to give any of our dogs to people who have very clean houses and lots of nice, valuable things in them because huskies blow their coat twice a year but shed all year round. I’m talking clumps people, not just a few hairs here and there. Huskies are notoriously get-bored-quick dogs, too, and will destroy your house in a second.
Jason: lots of counties are starting to crack down on wandering dogs so I wouldn’t suggest letting your dog be half stray anymore. In fact, I would never suggest that to someone anyway. I live out in the country, too, and a few dogs have found their way to my house with no collars and no tags. Brilliant I say, letting your dog out without any identification.
As for the no students rule, I can completely understand why that exists as not every student is responsible. I know we’ve adopted to some, but we must meet all the roommates, parents, etc. We make sure there will be no wild parties, where the dog will be when company is over, etc.
Zuzu: huskies are so damned lovable, you can’t help but want to use them as your pillow. They’re really good companion dogs and horrible watch dogs though. I had so much fun playing with Trinity and Neo tonight, :).
Declawing is flat-out horrible as is docking. I hate it when people dock pit bulls just so they can look more “bull dogish” or crop their ears ’til there isn’t much left. argh. (I say this knowing full well I have 2 pits with cropped ears but they were that way when I got them.)
Hollie: Rescue (or volunteering with your local shelter) really is great but you have to develop a thick skin fast because you can’t save every dog and there will be people who make you question your resolve. But it’s very rewarding as you meet some great dogs/cat/various other animals along the way. My favorist kitty got adopted over the summer – he was blind and black/white. He used his front legs as his guide stick and had very sharp ears: whenever I walked into the cat room and said, Brennan, he came running no matter what, then climbed on my back while I cleaned out the cat room. I was praying no one would adopt him so I could.
Okay, /long post, lol.
^^ I agree with you about ppl with immaculate homes and expensive things. If the Persian Rug is more important than the cat, I’m sure as hell not gonna adopt my foster cats out to her. I never look at the house being cluttered. I try to see if the house will be a good environment for the kitty. For example, if they have other cats, and I see that the litterbox is downright filthy- even if their house is immaculate, if the litterbox isn’t frequrntly cleaned, then that could be a potential issue.
I also take back all my fosters without qustion if the new house does not work out. I take rescue and the lives I save very, very seriously.
I’ve been told I’m too poor to adopt. I’ve also been told I’m to poor to have a kid. Both my cats and my daughter are very well taken care of, thank you. Just saying.
Ok, I’m going to expand on that a little bit. I’ve been told I’m irresponsible for having two cats and a kid in the first place. Irresponsible. Stupid classist motherfuckers.
Catty – we take our dogs/cats back with almost no questions, but we do want to know what the issues were that way, if needed, we can try and correct them in the dog. Sometimes we can get the new parents to work with the dog or cat first before they bring them back.
a nut — on the backyard breeders, I totally, totally agree. I get really pissed at people who leave their dogs unaltered because someday they might want to breed them — for what? Just because puppies are cute? Even worse is with cats. I fume at the unfixed cats.
Part of that thing, though, is driven IMO by all those people out there who want a pet but also want some specific breed (that usually they know almost nothing about, but think is “pretty” or “cool”), which means that a whole lot of perfectly wonderful (and frankly usually healthier) mutts get put down. I love my little mystery mix.
On the classism/racism thing — I just met a guy this morning on the way to the park who had a Cane Corso puppy — an Italian mastiff. He was Latino, Puerto Rican I’m guessing. We got to talking when I asked him how old the puppy was (2 months) and wondered if he had his shots yet (yes). The guy told me he did breeding, training and competitions with his dogs; he knew a lot about the breed and seemed to have a good knowledge of what training a guard dog entailed — IOW, he wasn’t training his dogs to be aggressive just for aggression’s sake. He had his son with him, too, and told me what he was doing to train his family along with the dogs.
He also told me that he’d been at the park earlier in the week when a woman with a Chihuahua mix asked if her dog could play with his, and when his dog, being a puppy, blundered and made her dog yelp, she started screaming at him, saying that Spanish people shouldn’t have dogs, and that they all had aggressive dogs, etc.
There are lots of ignorant ppl. As for my foster returns, I do ask what the problem is, and try to work with the ppl. I do take them back if they just insist on returning the animal and don’t want to talk about it, too.
As for the classist thing, I’m going to go on a limb and basically say that if you’re not willing to pay for vet bills, you shouldn’t have animals. That’s just that. We can’t drop the cat at the vets office and force th vet to care for the animal like we can with kids, and the animals suffer very much as a result. I’ve rejected both rich and not so rich ppl because they weren’t sure about whether vet bills “were worth the cost.” It’s not about how wealthy ppl are, but whether they consider the animals to be family members and willing to do what they can for the critter.
Spit -
I have 2 pit bull mutts and 1 *pure bred* (because they aren’t a pure breed) and by far the 2 mutts have been the best.dogs.ever. The youngest, who is also the biggest, is a lab/pit mix and she lets the kids hang all over her, dress her up, put sunglasses on her, even use her as a pillow. I think to her, it means she’s getting that much more attention, ; ).
My oldest is german shepard/pit mix. I taught her how to sit, stay, paw, lay down, roll over, play dead and give me five so fast (for which my dad tries to take credit for)! Storm was a rescue in the truest since as she was picked up at a truck stop by a neighbor who brought her home to us. She’s lived a wonderful 13 years with us!
Catty – that’s exactly why we won’t adopt to some people. We want to make sure that, if something happens such as a broken leg, it won’t be taped up with a ruler for 2 months resulting in amputation when she finally does get to the vet but for other reasons.
I was talking to the prez of PH and she said the same thing about the fences: there’s less chance of the dog getting out of an apartment then a fenced in yard so she’s more likely to give a husky to someone living in an apartment.
I’m a student and I’m poor. And my kitty is just fine, thank you. If, heaven forbid, she does get sick, I’ll figure out some way to make it work, even if it means eating ramen or hitting up all my friends for $20, I don’t care. I guess I’m kinda irked by this attitude that some animal care people in this thread have against people who can’t readily pay for vet bills out of pocket right NOW. It doesn’t mean that I can’t get money for it, or that I wouldn’t find some way to get it. My cat comes first in a situation like that, maybe I just won’t pay my electic bill for a while (they give you few months before they shut that off…).
I might be poor, but I’m not retarted or selfish, and I’m bothered by this implication that poor people are too dumb to get their animals adequate medical care or too selfish to try.
^^ I’m glad that your kitty is fine, and you seem like a great person. I started as a poor student rescuing animals when I can. Again, it’s about the ability to provide for the animal, not just the heart and the intention. If you’re wiling to beg, borrow and work to pay the vet bills- that’s fine with me. It’s not just about the intent to pay, but the ability to pay.
It is not about poor people being too dumb/selfish to get adequate medical care. I don’t know about you, but if you pay hundreds of dollars out of your own pocket and spend countless hours saving and socializing the animals, you would want the animal to go to the best environment. I once had a cat with a heart and live condition that a couple fell in love with- but she needed expensive, constant vet care, running an average of 300 dollars constantly every month (she needed monthly blood work, etc), and that was on months where she didn’t have to be rushed into the vet for other reasons. The only reason I could aford to foster this cat was because I had a vet that volunteered to take this case on for just the office visits and medication during her foster care. So, I did not approve the adoption of this cat to this couple, but I did approve an adoption of another cat to the same couple few weeks later.
I’ve adopted to many, many people that were not even close to being financially comfortable- but they had a proven record through their vets of caring for their animals very, very well. However, from a rescue point of view- we spend thousands of dollars and hours, often opening up our own home to care for animals. Our job is to give the best possible home for the animals we save, not play russian roulette with “good intentions” with the animals’ life on the line.
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