Do dog shelters make it too difficult to adopt?

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After trying for months to adopt a dog from a rescue shelter, we’re going to a greener and don’t feel bad about it at all. In have grown up with dogs my entire childhood and young adulthood all from pounds and shelters as my family has always valued rescuing dogs and are firmly against breeders and puppy mills. My partner and I are hard-working, college-educated people who’s own our home with a huge backyard. I am a teacher who is off by 3 and home in summer. My partner works from home two times a week. We can afford dog walkers and trainers. I’ve loved and taken care of dogs — and cats, guinea pigs, fish — for half of my life. I have always stood firmly against pet stores, breeders and any organizations that partner with puppy mills. When I was growing up, adopting a rescue dog felt feasible and joyful. We’re also pretty nice, respectful people. After Trying to jump through so many hoops with shelters and usually being completely dismissed by shelters or told that about half the dogs we inquire after are no longer available (bait-and-switch?) or made to feel that because we haven’t yet doesn’t thousands to build a fence, we would be a horrible home (though we’ve explained over and over that we are ready to build a fence once we actually know we can get a dog). I have reached a point where I feel zero guilt about contacting a breeder or going to a pet store. It’s sad that rescue shelters have made it so difficult for decent people to adopt a dog that they are driving many well-intended dog lovers to adopt from the organizations they most abhor. Why spend one or two years trying to adopt a dog from a shelter while being criticized for checking off all boxes (almost all of which we do) when we can start point and taking care of a pet now from a breeder who easily accepts that we’re just regular people who want to make a dog a part of our family. Rescuers have turned into a self-righteous racquet, and we’re not playing anymore.

I'm looking to adopt a cat but after looking at the hoops these shelters expect you to jump through I've decided to look on craigslist. Our last cat was adopted at a shelter at the age of nine and passed away from old age. He was a very beloved member of our family. Years ago when we adopted him it was a simple process. This is insane, they would rather kill an animal than risk it returning to the shelter. I would think it would be better that people take them back an not be penalised. Situations change, people lose jobs ,homes , get injured.

We had a terrible experience attempting to adopt a dog from a number of local rescues. Due to strict breed-restriction lists at the house we were renting at the time, we could not use the local human society. We tried breed rescue groups, large dog rescue groups, and several others. Each time we applied, we always read the rules. Most said that "in most cases they would not adopt to a home with no fence", but since the wording indicated they might, we tried anyway. Each adoption application was $25-$50 just to apply. After being rejected (or receiving no reply at all) from about 5 groups, we gave up and bought a dog from a breeder. We are very responsible, and while I understand the standards, the rescue groups should NOT rely on a piece of paper for rejecting applicants. We feed our dog top-grade food (she has a lot of allergies), keep her covered with health insurance, and give her plenty of exercise (now we have a fenced in yard but before that we walked her all the time & took her to the park). Our dogs are our children as we do not have any human kids. Just think, some poor dog has been sitting in a cage for 3 years just waiting for a loving home that we were willing to give it. My husband was so disgusted he's completely turned off by adopting a pet ever. I don't think we will ever go back to trying to rescue a dog due to our horrible (and expensive) lesson.

Thank you for this article. We were rejected once because we had been given two 'male' gerbils...turned out to be two pregnant females. Ended up with fifteen gerbils, found homes for 8....couldn't keep that may so we took them to the shelter (no pet store we could take them). 10 years later, we're 'suspicious' for adopting a dog.

A more serious concern I have is the shelter/rescue world in my area, at least, is very anti-child. Very rarely do they have dogs to adopt if you have children under 10, even less for children under seven. It's like they believe it's impossible to be a responsible dog owner if you have kids. It troubles me that they are adopting out dogs to the general population they don't trust around kids. Or what if those homes they adopt to have kids eventually?