Adoption Rant....

[punk-a-doodle]

So they would just rather put them to sleep than take a chance on someone that comes with good recommendations

If you dig around into the financial books of some popular animal rights groups, you actually see that sort of logic. "An animal is better off dead than going out to another home where it can be abused again or 'enslaved'", is the sort of thinking that the numbers seem to show. How much of that is actually driven by wanting to use the majority of funds to push agendas? I couldn't say. But, it is somewhat familiar to how animal hoarders usually start off. They often believe that they are the only ones who can save all the little animals, which drives the delusion that they are helping even as swarms of unfed, dead, and dying animals surround them. With shelters/rescues, sometimes that does happen, and they eventually get shut down for neglect. Sometimes incompetence and poor management are the root of the issue, and a simple overhaul of upper-staff fixes the major problems. Sometimes people who have power-driven personality disorders do strive to gain these sorts of jobs (ANY position seen as capable of holding sway over others. Some may laugh at, say, a management position at a fast food joint, but some take that illusion of power very, very seriously), and the results aren't pleasant, especially if they also are actively seeking profit for themselves. And, some just seek profit, through abusing their position to dishonestly collect money (With shelters with this issue, it often is seen as tickets for ridiculous situations, such as handing someone with a young puppy in their lap on their home porch a ticket for breaking a leash law. Some places, especially rural, take it further with confiscating animals wrongfully and charging owners in a sort of blackmail situation. I've seen vets do it too. For example, by charging way, way more than they stated, and 'holding' the animal until the owner pays...it's gross. Heck, I've seen hospitals do it too. My husband's father was charged $70 because they put socks on his feet during his stay for surgery. Not even kidding. Socks.). Adoption agencies have the ability to do wonderful work and improve the lives of many. But, it doesn't mean that any group claiming to be a "rescue" or offer "shelter" should never be questioned or examined, or given a free pass because we assume they "do good work". Better regulation of some groups would help, and so does personally carefully researching and examining chosen shelters before donating, and not supporting groups that are not fair or well managed. Putting public pressure on shelters can also help. Our local shelter opened some cats and dogs to go to certain outside homes, where as they would not before.​

 

[flnatv]

sunny & the 5 egg layers :

Quote:
Wow! That is an amazing story. I am so happy you were able to save him.

5 MINUTES before beng euthanized. Wow! He is a lucky little dog!

Yep... here he is today

And I waited as long as possible, because we really did NOT need another dog... he is wonderful.

To the OP... what did you end up doing?... Did you get your mother to get him for you? I have to agree and disagree with the fence issue... I personally have my dogs in a fenced in yard (that they proceed to jump and are now inside dogs with strict supervised yard visits.... My neighbors lab is not in a fence and NEVER leaves her yard.​

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Gorgeous dog Flnatv. So glad you were able to work with him and give him a great home!

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

I can't say I disagree with most people's sentiment here: A LOT of shelters and shelter workers are not...umm...shall we say, logical?

I haven't cared for shelters for a long long time. I have personally dealt with them for years. And, along with many of my clients, have first-hand very bad experiences with them. This includes them flat out lying about a breed of dog, telling a client that if they drop their dog off at the shelther the dog would be "taken out back and shot"--and this was when they had the humane ways of euthanizing available. I could go on, but I won't.

But my experience has gone full circle and now, much to even my own amazment, I am working at Kitsap Humane Society. It's a medium sized facility. But best of all I am working with VERY sane anmimal welfare, caregivers, veterinary staff, and other trainers. This is the best run shelter I have had personal knowledge of.

Working there has given me a lot of perspective on the how's and why's of the adoption process. It really doens't explain to me why some shelters are so un-bending and down right insulting to the person going in to adopt a dog or cat. I am happy to say we have some basic rules to follow when adopting but they are not excessive at all. Some of these rules include: fenced yard or large kennel, no dog or cat can be an "outdoor only" pet, dogs who were surrendered for behavior issues are required to have continuing education after adoption in the form of private training or class training, all puppies come the requirement of a basic obedience class, and they won't adopt to families with children under 4 years old (I have seen exceptions to that rule though).

I think all of these rules keep our shelter adopting at a very high rate, and also keep the rate of dogs brought back to the shelter at a minimum.

We are a No-Kill shelter and our euthanisia rate is about 5%. All dogs that are euth'ed have an animal welfare group that meets and votes for intervention methods, then progress reports, and if the behavior or medical issue is too great for us to risk, we will euthanize the dog. This doesn't happen very often and its not taken lightly at all.

On the flip side of this coin is the really rediculous people who come in to the shelter "for the love of the animals" to adopt. But yet, you know after spending some time with them they really don't care about the animals--they care about their own agenda. Its not about the animals its about themselves. I have to say this also applies to some people working for shelters. One example of this was potential adopter came in to look at the dogs in the kennel a few weeks ago. He saw one mixed breed dog that was very skinny (she had severe kennel cough and is very high energy so tough to keep weight on). He snagged a kennel attendent and asked some questions about her condition. The dog's situation was explained well. He left. He came back a while later and was caught throwing a whole bag of Beggin-strips over the top of the dog's kennel. When he was confronted he said he felt sorry that we weren't feeding her. Guess what this caused? The dog ate several peices of the Beggin-strips and ended up with a severely messed up digestive tract, bloody stool, and even more weight loss. HE caused this, the dog was already compromised from being sick so he thought he'd do a "hero's work" and help. He did just the opposite. And was this really for the dog? I don't think so, I think he did it only to make himself feel good.

The poor dog suffered for days after that. I would love to say this is an isolated situation but it's not.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Aye, haven't been there since I was a teen, but at least back then, you guys did awesome work cleaning up abused horses even and adopting them out. VERY volunteer friendly too, which I think helps the whole atmosphere.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
I have to agree. They don't know how responsible you will be.
I'd rather everyone who had a dog had a fence, bet my dead chickens would prefer it too.

 

[pbjmaker]

Quote:
See - the local ARL here makes you pay to be a volunteer - red flag to me. It's only $20, but why should I have to pay to donate my time? Everytime I been out there too they only have lab mix and pitbull mix dogs up for adoption. Never puppies or small dogs. I have come to find out that it's because those get "reserved" by people who know people there. We adopted my old newfie mix there in 2003. She had been returned 2 times previously. Turns out she also had heartworm (we treated for lots of $$$), food aggression issues towards other animals and severe allergies - we were told the complete opposite. She is 13 now has led a good life with us but would we have picked if we had been told the truth - not even remotely.

Here the shelters are all about the almighty $$ and why I would never adopt from them again.

To the OP - I hope you find the perfect boxer as a companion to the one you have. My neighbor has two boxers and they are such goof balls! I am sorry that turning in a stray has affected your credibility too - it's sad that you are being punished for someone else's heartless act of cruelty.

 

[Missymac]

The boxer found a home, not with me, but at least she is out of that aweful place

 

[Diamond Wire Farms]

Two years ago we adopted a kitten from the county shelter. We intentionally picked an all black teenage cat that had been at the shelter for a while.
After 2 weeks of being at our house, the cat got sick. Our vet diagnosed it with a highly contagious strain of FEV. We don't have other cats and we live on acreage. The vet tried to contact the shelter to warn them about the virus that was circulating in their facility. THEY HUNG UP ON HIM. Needless to say in the next 3-4 months he treated and then euthanized many other kittens that were adopted from the shelter. They still have FEV circulating in their facility. This year we received a courtesy visit from a Shelter Animal Control officer (the county contracts through them) because our dogs licenses were overdue. I handed her our $600 vet bill from the kitten we adopted. Told her that we should be even in about 10 years...

 

[kemclaughlin]

I avoid shelters too. There are plenty of animals looking to be re-homed where you don't have to deal with that insanity. We adopted a dog once that was aggressive toward males. It bit a neighbor and it tried to attack my friends toddler son. We had another one that needed so much exercise that we simply could not keep it. When it almost accidentally killed my baby, we had to take it back. I felt bad, but they did readopt her. They had to know about these problems when they adopted them to us. They have men working at the shelter, and there is no way that dog was not bouncing off the walls in the little kennels they have. I had a friend who was turned away because she did not have vet records for a pet rabbit.

Also, we were looking for a cat to adopt and they charge way too much money. I know that charging for a pet is supposed to ensure that they find a good home, but who is going to pay $60 for a cat? We rescued a stray that someone found. I made an appointment for her to get fixed, but she was pregnant. They tried to talk me into terminating, but I refused. Then she ended up having her kittens a week before her appointment to get fixed. We kept the kittens and got all three of them fixed. So now we have three cats. They are excellent mousers and we love them.

We got a dog from someone on craigslist who had a dog that they could not keep. She had some pretty bad behavioral issues that we fixed with good training. She has a few behaviors that we are a little lost on how to handle, but she is a good dog and we did not have to pay an outrageous amount of money for her. We did not have to deal with the people at the shelter either.