Shelters: ALTER YOUR DOGS before adopting!

[BabyReba]

I have had it with irresponsible shelters. HAD IT.

I just got the lastest in an ongoing barrage of emails from people who have INTACT dogs that they've adopted from a shelter that they're looking to rehome.

The most recent came to me today from the Baltimore area. Intact 10-month-old male pit bull. Skittish. Seems it's ALWAYS a pit bull, the last breed of dog that shelters ought to be sending out the door intact. And skittish--fabulous.

The adopter contacted the shelter to let them know the dog wasn't working out. And the shelter told them--get this--not to bring it back, to rehome it themselves, because the dog would be put to sleep as an owner surrender if it was returned.

So, inexperienced new pit bull owner has an intact young, male pit bull dog that they're going to try to rehome themselves. So far, they're using Facebook and emailing friends. How is that likely to end for this dog? My best guess: Passed around, intact, growing increasingly skittish unless somebody with the proper dog experience picks him up. And more than likely, he'll be sent to his new home or homes intact ... and hey, maybe he'll even make puppies for somebody! So instead of having to deal with ONE dog to find a home for the shelters can take in, say, SIX dogs in about six months' time, after those "oops" puppies or BYB puppies start turning up in shelters too.

Dear animal shelter, whichever one of you it is that sent this dog home then refused to take it back when things weren't working out: Congratulations, you are now operating a backyard breeding operation. And chances are, it's a much bigger one that most BYB operations that exist, since most idiots only have two or three intact dogs they're responsible for. You are probably responsible for far more than any single person could ever be.

*facepalm*, as they say on the interwebs.

[Ilovethepits]

I am truly amazed that shelters adopt out unaltered animals. WTF? What's the point of even calling them shelters? Bluck.

[BabyReba]

Just blogged this. Maybe someone will read this and think about it. Probably not, though.

http://baltimorebulldogs.blogspot.com/2011/09/seriously-shelters-still-sending-dogs.html

[Megan]

Gavin was adopted to me intact. He came from a shelter here in pa. All they said is I had 4 weeks to fix him and had to turn in the voucher. I doubt they would have known if I never turned the voucher back in. Had I wanted to that four weeks could have given me ample time to see if he would breed...

[BabyReba]

I do know that there are certainly **some** good people out there who'd fix their dog and do the right thing. But you are right ... there's no followup and the shelter has no way of knowing, for certain, whether that dog was ever altered. Or whether it ran around it's neighborhood making more puppies, or used by someone who wanted to make money or whatever.

It's so very discouraging. And unneccessary. And it's so insanely hypocritical.

[Megan]

I agree it boggles my mind. It was even better that they sent an intact pit bill home with someone that just turned 18, and still lived at home with their parents. They lucked out that I was responsible and did right by my dog. God knows how many kids walk in and leave with a new dog.


I know funding is low but there are certain things that should be done prior to leaving. A little more screening (phone call to my parents at least?) and altering.

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

One of the local shelters here still hands out vouchers instead of actually doing the spay/neuter themselves. Problem is, the vouchers don't NEAR cover the cost and whats to stop people from avoiding the hassle?

It seems to me like theyre just shooting themselves in the foot?

[mypuppyJack]

Jack came from a humane society with a voucher. It was a pain to get an appt at the clinic and it only covered $ 50. Before I did take him to be neutered I took him back to the humane society to their vet to redo his rabies because the staff kept looking for it and never found it. said they would mail it to me. turns out jack was actually not supposed to have been adopted out. He failed his temperament test and was put in an adoption kennel by mistake by a weekend staff. He also was called a hound mix When I brought him back for the rabies the manager was shocked! Obviously not a well organized place at the time. Jack is a bit of a nut case but we love him and his resource guarding is well managed. Never will adopt from there again though

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[Celesteandthebullies]

This is why I love the shelter I volunteer and work at. They will not adopt out a dog that is not fixed, microchipped and up to date on everything. They charge around $135 for a dog, and that isn't paying for the dog it's paying for everything done to the dog before they go home. They also give a free bag of the food that they were fed at the shelter. They often fix dogs ahead of time and sponsor them so people can take them home the day they fill out papers. They accept all returns and give them 30 days to choose another dog.

[Zagari]

This is why I love the shelter I volunteer and work at. They will not adopt out a dog that is not fixed, microchipped and up to date on everything. They charge around $135 for a dog, and that isn't paying for the dog it's paying for everything done to the dog before they go home. They also give a free bag of the food that they were fed at the shelter. They often fix dogs ahead of time and sponsor them so people can take them home the day they fill out papers. They accept all returns and give them 30 days to choose another dog.

What she said!! My shelter does the exact same thing.

[mtlu]

I'm glad it's state law in CA that animals adopted out from shelters have to be spayed/neutered. There are some exceptions to the rule (like counties below a certain population are exempt) but I'm glad such a law exists. The shelter we adopted Molly from did not spay her until after all our paperwork cleared. They also called our landlord to make sure a dog is allowed and we had to show proof of enrollment in an obedience class to be able to pick her up the day she had been spayed. I can't remember now if her adoption fee was $80 or $85 but she was fully vetted, microchipped and licensed for one year in the city that the shelter is located. We still had to license her in SF though since that is where we live.

I'm also glad that SFSPCA has continued to offer free spay/neuter for pit bulls and pit mixes in San Francisco. Since the city has BSL in the form of mandatory spay/neuter for pit bull type dogs, it's nice that there is a resource available for those who want to heed the laws.

[buckaroo]

I can't believe any shelters or rescue hand out intact dogs and cats. It's totally insane.

We sometimes have people trying to get us to take animals adopted from the only local rescue who does adopt out intact animals. Sometimes they're pregnant and often times they're spraying male cats the original rescue refuses to take back.

[GoingPostal]

I gotta agree, our local shelter does vouchers way too much, at first because there is only one vet in town who works with them and he operates in 3 different towns so getting an appt. took months, but now they have enough vets it shouldn't be an issue, I think the cost is now and the vet doesn't want to fix kittens at all, told the shelter it'll lead to problems down the road. Like letting out kittens unfixed won't? So they send them out with $50 vouchers which leaves people to cover the other $150 locally and most probably don't. You can get it done cheap in a nearby town but not everyone can do that. The nice thing is now they have run 3-4 free spay/neuter clinics with a out of town vet so at least some people who want their animals fixed can get it down. Nero was intact when we got him, but the shelter doesn't hold dogs or fix them unless they are being adopted (kill shelter) so we drove 7 hours one way to find out they wanted us to come back in 2 days after he was fixed. Ended up paying $100 deposit and required to have him fixed within a month, I think it ended up being slightly longer because we couldn't get an appt but obviously if we wanted to breed him we could have in that time. I think I only got to make that deal because Jersey and all the other animals in my home are fixed and I had good vet references but you never know really.

[FBODGRL]

I am shocked sometimes by the number of places that adopt out unaltered dogs and cats...because really you can "trust" people to follow through and get them neutered! Tapanga (kitten) was adopted out to be unaltered. Her spay was included in her adoption fee and I had to drive way across towns...(shelter I adopted at was several cities over) to the clinic they use to get her done. I have no idea why she was not already spayed as she was old enough before I even adopted her

I know someone who adopted a pit bull through a rescue in my area and he was not neutered. He was still recovering and putting on weight (he had been found emaciated and abandoned). I know he will get him neutered, but it doesn't even seem the rescue is following up to see if he even does it or not.

[julie64]

I don't understand this policy either. What bothers me even more are the shelters that do adopt out unaltered pets are the ones who do no kind of checks either. They are clueless where these pets are going.