"How Could You?"

[Elaina]

As a former shelter volunteer, I wanted to point out the there is another factor to your adoption problems - it's that there are a million people who want little dogs. The little dogs go the fastest so the shelters are more choosy simply because they can be. If you were to try adopting a senior or a larger dog you might have more luck...but then of course then fence becomes a problem. Incidentally, why NOT install a fence in the back? Then you can get a doggy door too and have happy canines!

And I never once said I wanted a puppy. Far from it. However, there are a number of dogs under 20 lbs, and it's a bunch of BS that they want to get people with a lot of money in there to adopt. I don't want a 10 year old dog, but I don't want a young one either. I'd prefer it to be somewhere between 3-6. And after working at the shelter today (which coincidentally, I did get approved by the head honcho) he and I were talking about me being rejected before. It's all PR: it's better to get people with a lot of money to take the dogs, and not working class families so they can feature them as adopters. The rest of it is, and was bunk, for I play that little game too. For I too, am a current volunteer.

As to the fence, you want to come help me, I'll install it tomorrow. Otherwise, I have to wait for my husband to get more then 1 day a week off and isn't working 60+ hours, or I'll do what I've been doing and wait for his vacation or for the fence installers to get around to it in July.

 

[Tango Yankee]

Some very heart-rending experiences here...

I can empathize with Elaina's experience. We have four dogs and two cats (used to be three but we had to give one to our daughter--the cat refused to share a litter box and kept using the living room!) All of them were rescues in one form or another. Xander, the male cat, chose me to be his human by coming out from under a trash container to greet me outside a physical therapy facility. I was told he'd been there a week and that the local rescue wouldn't take him as they didn't have room. But I digress.

I found out last fall that my wife loves basset hounds, but had never had one as they are expensive. I suggested that we rescue one. We searched online for one and found Ohio Basset Rescue. We found one in their list and decided to adopt her. We filled out the questionaire and sent it to them along with a $10 processing fee. Despite the fact that they were informed by our vet that our animals got regular checkups and more when needed, that all our animals were well cared for, and that all our animals were rescues we were denied. Why?

Well, it turns out that they didn't like a. the fact we had other dogs; b. the fact that we noted on our form that sometimes the dogs sleep outside or in the garage (not normally when we're here-they're usually ranged around the bed; when we're away overnight) c. the fact that we use a radio fence.

Now, before I decided on the radio fence I did a lot of research. I came to the conclusion that they were like any other fence, i.e., not fool-proof. We live on 10 acres bordered on one side by a state route heavily travelled by tractor-trailer rigs (artics to those in the UK, I believe) running at 60mph or more. Until I came into the picture my wife had never thought of fencing in her dogs--she grew up here and the dogs were never fenced. Of course, they did lose one from time to time on the road. I didn't like the odds for the two dogs she got for me when I retired so I went with the radio fence. It allowed us to give the dogs 3 acres to roam in, and I don't have to have them on a leash to take them out of the house. With proper training the dogs quickly learned their boundries and now they don't even get close to the boundry. When I'm going to go work on the property outside of the boundry they go to a certain point with me, then stop and sit down to wait or run off to play on their own.

Yes, I've heard the stories of people who had radio fences whose dogs ignored the collars, got out of the boundry and was killed. I've also heard stories of dogs who managed to get out of regular fencing and were killed. When I pointed that out to the person who told us we had been denied they just said that the board would not let a dog go to a home with a radio fence.

That's too bad. From their decision it seems that we must either hope that a shelter gets a basset in that we hear about in time or buy one from a backyard breeder (unless we want to spend the big bucks for a papered purebreed.) We've put getting a basset on hold for now, but it grates that they had the opportunity to home an adult dog to a loving home and refused to do so. :rage:

I'll stop ranting now.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

And I never once said I wanted a puppy. Far from it. However, there are a number of dogs under 20 lbs, and it's a bunch of BS that they want to get people with a lot of money in there to adopt. I don't want a 10 year old dog, but I don't want a young one either. I'd prefer it to be somewhere between 3-6. And after working at the shelter today (which coincidentally, I did get approved by the head honcho) he and I were talking about me being rejected before. It's all PR: it's better to get people with a lot of money to take the dogs, and not working class families so they can feature them as adopters. The rest of it is, and was bunk, for I play that little game too. For I too, am a current volunteer.

As to the fence, you want to come help me, I'll install it tomorrow. Otherwise, I have to wait for my husband to get more then 1 day a week off and isn't working 60+ hours, or I'll do what I've been doing and wait for his vacation or for the fence installers to get around to it in July.

Look, in my shelter experience, the little dogs would have 20 people on a waiting list. If the head honcho at a shelter told you that they're discrimintaing against working class families, you should go to the *%%^&(# press.