Car-centric pet shelters

[sonia]

Did you know the Oregon Humane Society requires newly adopted pets to be transported home in a car for "safety" and "comfort"? A bike trailer Just Won't Do. I found this out over the phone while inquiring about seeing another cat not at their main facility, fortunately before I fell in love with any particular animal.

I mentioned it on a local bike list and twitter. It's been ... It got picked up by bikeportland.org and a couple of local newspapers. A (fragrance-wearing) reporter showed up at my front door! Naturally I did not talk to her for long. I haven't said much online, because I'm not interested in internet fights, so people have merrily jumped to conclusions and emitted opinions.

A manager at OHS called and walked the policy back a little, but still tried to impose a bunch of conditions (secure plastic carrier, blanket on top (???) yadda yadda). I told him I wasn't interested in adopting from a place that pried into my business to that extent.

Other shelters around here conduct home visits and background checks. What the heck??? I think I will be adopting a cat privately or not at all.

These organizations ... I don't even know what to think. Too parental, too condescending, too convinced their way is the only right way. Controlling. Even as they bemoan that there aren't enough people adopting from them.

Comments

[tim]

I had some similar issues when I was fostering bunnies. The shelter wanted something like a $70 adoption fee and an extensive background check on people potentially adopting. I understand the reasons (covering the cost of spay/neuter; if you don't have $70 now, you probably can't afford to have a bunny for 10 years or more), but it meant nobody was interested, because you can get baby bunnies for free off Craig's List. I ended up covertly adopting out the bunnies via Craig's List, because I couldn't support 8 bunnies indefinitely.

I feel like making it as hard as possible to adopt animals just means people will adopt without shelters being involved... there has to be another way.

[sonia]

Thanks for the story. I did briefly consider fostering, but maybe not so much!

[jesse_the_k]

Very frustrating that they expect all adopters to be upper middle class.

(There's a "doggy taxi" service in my town which is happy to transport animals in emergencies.)

[sonia]

Yeah, I hear class dog-whistles in all this, which is a whole other rant.

Thing is, in Portland particularly, lots of people are car-free by choice, not necessity, and can perfectly well transport animals by bike.