Do animal rescue groups make it too hard to adopt pets?

I have recently realized that animal rescue groups are caring, well-meaning — and making it way too hard to save homeless animals.

You see, like the new First Family, our family has been researching pets — and with so many homeless animals euthanized (72 percent of cats, according to the National Council on Pet Population), we decided to adopt two “rescue kittens.” But after dozens of frustrating phone calls to rescue groups and shelters, no one would adopt to us. Why? We are going to allow our cats outside once they’re older. These groups all refuse you if you don’t agree in writing to keep cats indoors and follow pages of other stipulations (dog provisions are equally extensive).

We live on a quiet cul-de-sac and I want my children to be able to play outside with our cats, as I did. Yet modern rescue groups have become so opposed to that that they will, by default, allow cats to be euthanized instead. Most rescue groups run “no-kill” shelters — but they’re usually full. Every animal they won’t adopt to a caring family means another being killed somewhere. Even a local county government shelter that actually euthanizes cats wouldn’t adopt once we said we’d allow them outside!

I firmly support spaying, neutering, and requiring assurance that the pet will be cared for. But beyond that, this culture of micromanagement isn’t just offensive — it discourages only the responsible owners. Others will just lie and sign the form.

More critically, the “no-outdoor” policy is based on wrong information. Every shelter quoted the same statistic: cats allowed outside live less than three years. “Bunk,” my veterinarian said. After days of research I could find no source for that statistic, and believe that if it exists, it must apply to feral (wild) cats. By contrast, the oldest and largest pet insurer, Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI), says the top 10 reasons for treatment are almost the same whether the cat is indoor or outdoor. As spokesman Brian Iannessa put it, “We just don’t differentiate.”

We finally found a county shelter that willingly gave us two kittens. I urge all other rescue groups to stop relying on urban-legend data and recognize that good homes come in many different forms.

Do animal rescue groups make it too hard to adopt pets?

Marley and Me”? Just change the title to “Milo and Me” and you have a glimpse of our life since we adopted an adorable black lab/mix puppy in front of a pet store last fall. He loves to eat straps — leashes, purses and favorite shoes have gone to meet their maker. And the vet bills! We’ve dealt with fleas, mange, kennel cough, even an overnight stay after he found an old bar of rat poison left in the fireplace grate.

But, so what? We adore this dog, and thanks to the thorough vetting done by the animal rescue group that let us adopt Milo, we knew exactly what we were getting into. Sure, at first the amount of questions the intake woman asked seemed extreme. “We’re not adopting a baby”, I remember thinking.

Yet the more she asked, the more I realized the depth of this new commitment. By the time we left the pet store, (where we were personally escorted around, to make sure we had everything we needed) I saw this puppy not as an adorable new friend, but as a growing dog that would be with our family for many years to come, in good times and bad.

Unfortunately, too many new owners don’t fully comprehend this responsibility. An estimated 8 to10 million animals are sent to shelters each year, and many are older dogs and cats. What rescue groups are trying to do is stop the cycle of adoption and abandonment, a cycle that has increased in this economy due to rampant foreclosures and evictions, according to a 2008 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, as foreclosures rise, more pets are abandoned.

Rescue groups can afford to have stricter standards than larger organizations, like our local humane society. Though the one in our town strongly advises against letting cats go outside — disease, dogs and traffic pose too great a peril — they don’t bar prospective adoptions for that reason.

I’m a huge fan of animal rescue groups; they help new owners truly understand the pet/human relationship. As for “Milo and Me,” things are going well. We’ve been training him and he’s been training us, and though life continues to be a roller coaster of chaos and cuddles, I can’t imagine it any other way.

After all, he’s our baby.

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