What a great cover! The article is: "No, You Beg/Adopting used to be a good thing that good people could do. These days, you’re probably not good enough." Excerpt:
Danielle and Alexa were confident they would be leaving with Millie that day: After all, they had a 1,000-square-foot apartment within blocks of McCarren and full-time employment with the ability to work from home for the foreseeable future. But the volunteer kept posing questions that they hadn’t prepared for. What if they stopped living together? What if Danielle’s girlfriend’s collie mix didn’t get along with her new family member? What would be the solution if the dog needed expensive training for behavioral issues? Which vet were they planning to use?...
Is any of this good for the dogs? Depends on whom you ask. If the intense questions involved in securing the dog cause someone to reflect before making a decision they’ll regret — sure. Others note that the average dog’s life span has hovered around 11 years for decades. “I think it’s probably true that the majority of people who want to adopt a dog should not,” Jessica Pierce, a bioethicist who studies human-animal relationships, tells me. “They don’t have the wherewithal and don’t have what they need to give the animal a good life....
"You need to be ready to have a dog who doesn’t like people very much,” says Pierce. When Bella, the 11-year-old she got from the Humane Society, dies, she’s not sure she will get a replacement, noting that the pandemic puppy boom is “driven by a reflection of human narcissism and neurosis.”
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11 comments:
Tom writes:
"Having gone through it twice (but not for 12 years) I can agree that the process is ridiculous and from the article excerpt, seems to have gotten much worse. My favorite story involves my cousin who is a dairy farmer. His dog died and he needed a new farm dog. So he went to the pound. When they asked him where the dog would sleep he told them the barn. And that meant no dog for him.
Apparently, farm dogs sleeping in the barn is now mistreatment. I'm sure no one asked the dogs because my experience is that dogs like to sleep in the barn."
George writes (with links that I'm not reconstructing, sorry):
"The karma has flipped. In 1973 the dogma, so to speak, was "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog." That was the sell-line on the cover of The National Lampoon's notoriously best-selling January 1973 issue.
"The next issue's little-remembered cover showed a man on his knees like a dog struggling to tug the bikini bottom off a Coppertone-type bathing beauty. Inside the editors wrote: "This cover is further punishment for having us kill the dog on last month's cover."
"The editors went on to say: "Remember it? ...The dog that was going to be killed if you didn't buy the issue? You people are really incredible. You had us kill that sweet pooch. And don't for a minute go blaming us. The choice was yours entirely. We held the gun, but you sure as hell pulled the trigger ....""
Note: If you want links in your comment, it would be better just to paste the URL into the comment. Best would be to write out the code for the link so that it will copy and paste for me.
Tim writes:
"Where do these people live?! I can tell you for a fact that you don't go through any of that to adopt a dog in rural Tennessee. They have a month to get dogs placed, and for our last dog, my wife went in, picked out what had to be the homeliest dog in the joint, and brought him home after paying 120 USD to cover the shots and medicine they had given him. They were glad to get him homed, and he was sure glad to get a home. That was 7 years ago, and he is 14 now, and slowing down. As we are 63, I doubt we get another when his age and really rough first 7 years catch up to him. But if we wanted to, for 150 or so I can walk out with another dog in need 30 minutes after I walk in."
Brent writes:
Around 1998 my wife and I decided to get out first dogs. We both had dogs, and other, pets as children, so it was a natural thing to do. We did not yet have children.
We decided to get older dogs as our first pets, as we thought people would generally prefer puppies. We found two 9~ish year old Labs on a Lab specific adoption site. The two were ideally placed together according to the site. They had no medical issues at the time, they were just older and needed a home.
We filled out the application, and were stunned to be rejected. We owned 8 acres in a semi rural setting, and my wife was home most days, and I was home when she worked some weekends.
We called to appeal, and talked at length with a person. The reason for the rejection was that my wife was outside a lot during the day, and the agency assumed that we would make them live outside. We told them no, they would live with us.
The stunning answer was that they wanted to dogs to be able to be with my wife, and if she was outside, they would be outside. And that was bad. We told them that if they wanted to be inside we would of course let them.
Which apparently killed our chances, the only acceptable answer was for my wife to be inside, with the two dogs.
Temujin writes:
"My wife and I were still living in Atlanta when we got our dog, almost 12 years ago. We were looking for a hypoallergenic dog because one of us has an allergy to certain kinds of dog fur. So we found a good list of hypoallergenic breeds. Honestly, we should have gone to the local shelter, but not knowing the exact breed mix could have turned out to be a problem. Anyway, we found this obscure breed that sounded perfect. Small-mid sized terrier, loves people, kids, other dogs, can live indoors or outdoors (at the time we had a large fenced-in backyard), and does not bark much. We'd never heard of the breed: Lucas Terrier. But we contacted an organization that 'represents' the breed and got the info including names of the lone main breeder in the US. We contacted her and then had to go through a very real interview. First a written questionnaire that included a slew of questions about our living habits, our physical place, etc.. That was followed by a phone interview. I felt like we were applying to enroll into a northeastern prep academy. I smartly put my wife on the phone for the interview, so we were 'approved'. I'd never seen anything like that. Growing up we always had a dog or cat that we found on the street. Not today. The deal was that this breed had almost died out. It's an English breed and was making a slow, but sure comeback. They wanted to manage who had the dogs to make sure the breed survived.
"Anyway- the dog barks like a maniac- sounds like a much larger dog. Is very active- duh...terrier. They were bred to go into burrows and get critters. She's run our life for almost 12 years now and she's a great dog and I love her, but next time around, there will be no next time around. I'll live vicariously through my friends' dogs. I'm done interviewing for anything.
"People living in small apartments in a densely packed urban area need to think twice about what kind of dog to get, and IF they should have a dog at all. Many do require attention, work, and activity (i.e. room to roam). And I would definitely recommend a local dog shelter if you can do it. They all need a home. I would absolutely do that the next time around. Wait...didn't I just say there would be no next time?"
Narr writes:
My wife and I adopted the best dog in the world--a little black 98% dachshund (the rest is boar)--
in 2012 from friends who were in the dackel rescue line. They always had a house full of more
or less temporary guests (a lot of old dogs died there) and after our previous pooch died in
2010 they kept offering us Murphy.
He could have been 3 or 4 years old at the time, and was on the verge of being deported to Brooklyn.
BROOKLYN! NEW YORK!
No way. That's no proper place for a hound from the South. $200 for him, his crate, some toys,
and the dossier. He hurt his back a few weeks after arriving, but was restored with some
surgery; a few years ago he baked himself on the patio in the August sun and had to spend
the night at the emergency vet.
But he springs back and we haven't regretted a moment of his life here. We thought he might
pine for the old house full of dogs, but that was foolish. The most difficult part of having him
is when we have to travel--ten days or two weeks in the care of our son and my brother can
make him standoffish for a day or two when we get back.
He's 20-21 pounds of kid-magnet, often mistaken for a puppy--a graying gelding, and very
possibly the last dog we ever have.
Maybe.
Hugh writes:
"I second the quote about needing to be ready to have a dog that doesn’t like people. We had a rescue dog for 14 years who had his quirks but was basically a very “good dog” including around people. When he passed we waited a year and got a new rescue puppy. A similar though not as rigorous interview process as described from a rescue shelter in a small Southern town 1 1/2 hours from our big city residence. New puppy came from a good home (we knew the background from the shelter and it was a stable situation) into our good home. Dog is not a people (or other dog) dog. He has fear-based anxiety which leads to aggression. He’s great with us, but can’t be trusted with just about anyone else, especially strangers who want to pet the cute dog, but even close friends and extended family members. Never expected to have such a difficult dog (although my sister’s dog is even worse, and she’s been around animals all of her life as a dog groomer), but here we are. Puppies are like boxes of chocolates—you never know what you’re going to get!"
Alex writes:
"It seems like any adoption organization, whether pets or children, is staffed by one of three types of people: tyrannical busybodies looking to wield power, corrupt grifters looking to make a buck, and emotionally broken individuals looking for an alternative to therapy."
Aggie writes:
"We ran afoul of both local shelters when we decided we wanted pets (empty nesters and retired). The local shelter must have been underwritten by an endowment, and clearly has a surfeit of volunteer labor, with a large university nearby.
"So many rules! One must have a fenced yard. One must have a program of walks and training. One must keep the pet indoors at all times or on a leash, or in an escape-proof yard. The Shelter reserves their right to show up at any time to inspect your premises (!!!), you are subject forever to their scrutiny. You must provide references. You must provide your veterinary care giver. They do not allow adoptions under 16 weeks of age. The Animals MUST have their litter socialization and then be neutered before adoption. A so on, with a hiss, a heel click, and a chop of the hand.
"Since this precludes early-age bonding within the home environment, we told them to go take a jump. I scoured Craig’s List and finally found a litter of Australian Sheepdog mixes, 4 weeks old. A bad situation, poor single woman, poor town, filthy house. We picked one and gave her money for their food and arranged to pick the puppy up the next week. When we returned, there was one other puppy left unclaimed, one that we had liked, so we took both, full of worms and fleas. Two weeks later, we heard of a barn cat litter. We brought the whole litter over to the house (5 weeks old) and put them with the puppies, and then took the two kittens that didn’t freak out.
"We’ve raised the four together as one litter. They are affectionate with each other and extremely happy. They’re 2+ years old now. They free range in our yard, we have an invisible fence setup for the dogs. The dogs protect the cats when other dogs visit the yard, forming a kind of a defensive line that nudges the visitors away and blocks undue attention. They groom each other and sleep together. Happy family.
"I can understand why shelters have such strict rules, it’s to alert people who are new to pet-owning to their expectation of the responsibilities of ownership. What is maddening is their utter inflexibility, their indifference to engaging with prospective adopters, and their insistence on viewing themselves as some kind of enforcer. They will never get my money or my support. They have the wrong idea."
Denever writes:
In the SF Bay Area, this has been going on for years. I had a friend who summed up her experience with a shelter for cats by saying, "It would have been easier to adopt a Romanian orphan." The stories you can read on Yelp are enough to discourage any sane person, and yet in some circles, those who go to breeders are scolded with a reminder about how many loving pets out there are in need of a good home.
Meanwhile, many conditions that shelters grade prospective owners* on can change. Couple A is in an apartment and the dog won't have a backyard? That's a no. Couple B with a big house and lovely fenced backyard? Sure! But then Couple A inherit enough money to buy their own home and now have room for a dog, while the breadwinner of Couple B becomes unemployed, they can't afford the mortgage any more, and have to move to an apartment.
There are few better examples of the perfect being the enemy of the good than current trends in pet adoptions.
*Yeah, I know -- we're supposed to call them "human companions" or something. Not doing that. And while I lean libertarian on most issues, I kind of think anyone who uses the term "fur baby" should be jailed. Or at least fined.
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