How can animal shelters be so picky?

Question

When I adopted my cat 3 years ago, I had to lie and say that I have no other animals and sign a contract stating that I would feed her only a specific, very expensive, brand of food. They also claim to do home visits to check on the pet. How can they made you comply with all of these demands, being so picky about who takes a cat, and then whine and say their shelters are so crowded? Don't you think more people would adopt if they weren't so picky and rude at these places? I don't think feeding my cat friskies constitues animal abuse. When they are begging for us to adopt them, how can they have so many demands?

Answer 1

well because they dont want them to get abused or left on the streets like maybe how they were and just to make sure they go to good homes.

Answer 2

Well, are you sure it was a regular shelter and not a 'no kill' rescue?

Rescues have all the time they need to find the best homes for the animals that come through.

Shelters, do not. They often have less requirements.

Also, be careful when you change a cat's diet when it's requested to feed them something specific. It could be due to an allergy or digestive issue!

The rescue I volunteer with, requires the cat to be indoor only, NO declawing, no toddlers/infants, list of other pets, list of regular veterinarian, and if you had pets in the past: what happened to them?

Seems like a lot to answer, but it's not about you. It's about finding the best home for the animals to ensure that they will get medical treatment when needed, and will not end up in a shelter again.

Answer 3

i do not know which animal shelter you adopted from, but not all animal shelters are like this. at the one where i work we have you fill out a survey, a liability/spay/neuter policy, and we get your general information just incase the pet ends up back there or gets lost or whatever. we do make sure all of our animals are spayed or neutered before they leave. we dont do house calls or anything like that. usually people willing to spend money on an animal from a shelter are good people. please dont base your negative opinion about animal shelters on one single shelter.

Answer 4

Well honestly, what would be the point of rescuing an animal and nursing it back to health only to send it away with a person that is going to mistreat it and feed it crappy food? There is absolutely nothing wrong with having standards and requirements for adopting out an animal. Those shelters put a lot of time and money into helping the animals that they save and I am sure they only want to see them go to good homes with loving families.

Answer 5

I know how you feel. I fell in love with this dog at the pound and wanted to adopt it. but the shelter had so many rules we had to follow. Can't have young children living at the home, i had a little brother and sister. Must have a fenced in yard, we live on a 100 acrer farm

Must always have someone home with the dog at all times. My dad tried his best to talk them into letting us adopt it but there exact words were " we will check up on the dog and if you aren't following the rules we will take it and sue you for everything you got" so we didn't adopt the dog and bought a puppy from a pet store instead

Answer 6

I totally aggree.  If they are whining about being so overcrowded, how can they try to demand that you feed them a certain brand of food?  I don't think there's anything wrong with feeding cheaper food or adopting mutliple pets.  All mine came from the shelter, and I had to answer 1000 questions.  They always seem to have an attitude, too.