It would make sense that they would want to get as many pets adopted as possible since this would allow them to free up kennel space and save even more animals.

Now the shelter obviously wouldn’t want to give away animals to people convicted of cruelty to animals or to someone who wore satanic symbols on their person. I think that it is safe to assume most people going through the trouble of adoption actually want to take care of the animal they adopt. And even if someone purposely wanted to abuse a pet, there is absolutely no way for shelter attendants to know that or to prevent it. In fact, many serial killers like Ted Bundy were described as charming people.

I adopted my first dog from another animal shelter with ease and my wife and I eventually wanted to adopt a companion for our pet. The obvious answer was to get one from a shelter and save another puppy. The previous shelter simply asked me a few questions because they just wanted to verify that I actually lived somewhere that allowed animals. They didn’t want me to end up returning a puppy a few days later because the landlord didn’t allow it.

However, when my wife tried to adopt a puppy from the Animal Defense League of Texas located in San Antonio, she was denied!

Why, I ask myself? She is not a criminal and she doesn’t dress in weird clothes. She is a mild mannered, socially friendly person who loves animals and just wanted a furry puppy to love.

Then I realized the answer and it just hit me like a ton of bricks.

The shelter was run by bureaucrats and like everything else that paper pushers manage; it is a sorry bureaucratic mess run by well meaning but incompetent people. Think about it, what do bureaucrats usually do when they take control of any organization?

They add more red tape, create silly policies that have little basis in reality, and implement all kinds of dumb ideological control measures. In essence, they fail to focus on efficiency, performance, customer satisfaction, and many other indicators of a well run organization. But hey, they have big hearts!
 

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In order to adopt a puppy my wife had to fill out a ridiculous application that asked her for far more personal information than an animal shelter really needs to know. She wrote on the form that she would have the puppy outside for about eight hours a day. The application didn’t ask if this was going to happen every day out of the week or for just certain days (like for the work week).

After my wife turned the application in, she was denied. When she asked for the reason, they explained to her that the puppy shouldn’t be kept outside until it had all of its shots.

Now this is a reasonable request and we could easily keep the puppy indoors for a few weeks until it was completely vaccinated. So my wife did the sensible thing by mentioning that she would then keep the dog indoors and that she would change the application to reflect it. The girl at the counter still said no and in typical mindless bureaucratic fashion, she said that she had to use what was already on the application.

Now when a good business or organization has a policy that they want you to follow when you work there or when you enter a contractual obligation, they should tell you about it beforehand. Seriously, how do you follow a policy that you don’t even know about?

This facility had a rule in which unvaccinated puppies had to be kept indoors until they had all their shots. If they had told my wife this beforehand then she would have eagerly agreed to comply with it. And when she was made aware of it, she did offer to comply with it.

So I asked myself, why would they create a bogus red tape trap to block unsuspecting people from adopting a puppy?

Well, I suspect it all has to do with their intrinsic view of human nature. Perhaps they start with the premise that man is inherently evil and needs to be controlled by a big brother government.

Perhaps the application was also a trap designed to weed out people who do not necessarily think the right thoughts. I suppose that in the view of these bureaucrats, dogs shouldn’t be kept outside unless it is necessary. I mean God forbid that a domesticated animal, let alone a puppy has to live without air conditioning. Please let me know if I am just an evil person but haven’t dogs and humans survived for thousands of years with out air conditioning? Is there anything wrong with keeping a dog outside for a few hours so they can run around and play like they are supposed to?

Like most people, my wife and I have full time careers and we can’t be home during the day. My other dog is a Lab and likes to be outdoors most of the time so she can run around and bark at everything. Am I wrong here or are dogs just hyper playful animals. We let her out when we are at work unless the weather is extreme then we keep her inside. Even when it is hot I have plenty of shade in my backyard and big bowls of water to keep my dog cool and comfortable.

And since we were getting a puppy and puppies like to play and chew we intended to keep our new pet outside for most of the time to be with our older dog.

And do they also assume that the original answer people put on the application reveals someone’s true beliefs about animals and that it will also reveal if they are thinking the right thoughts. If a person doesn’t have the politically correct beliefs, then perhaps it does that mean that they are bad people who will abuse the dog.

Like so many other “well intentioned” social programs and agencies, the Animal Defense League is actually undermining their mission with crazy policies. They place importance to an inane ideology above the accomplishment of their mission.

First of all, any puppy we adopt will be healthy, well fed, and very much loved. Secondly, the adoption would have freed up resources that would have allowed the shelter to accept another homeless animal. Thirdly, my wife and I give generously to charity and we would have gladly donated to that shelter if they had asked but now that is out of the question because they simply do not deserve our money.

As for now, I am just going to buy a puppy from some guy on the side of the road who doesn’t want to know my name, let alone know what is in my public records. Gee, doesn’t the free market make everything so easy!

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COMMENTS FROM READERS

6 months ago I went to our local animal rescue to look at some new pups they had advertised in the paper. They weren't ready yet for viewing, but a volunteer raved about an older dog, female, house trained, good with kids, so I said, "Okay, so let's take a look at her." Her snotty reply, "Oh, I couldn't do that, you are only really interested in a puppy and this dog would be 'devastated 'if you didn’t adopt her." My thought: "How would she KNOW? Is she Little Orphan Annie? With this attitude, they'll never find this animal a home!" Nevertheless, I was not granted even a far away glance at the pooch. My parting thought: "What other type of "animals as humans" nonsense would this organization foist upon me if I ever adopted an animal from them?" I went home, checked in our weekly freebie local Pennysaver, found a wonderful woman who does private adoptions, had a few informational conversations about dogs I had previously owned, and agreed that she'd bring the dog to my home to see if it was a good match. We closed the deal that very day. I paid the dog's spay and vaccine fees, plus a nominal donation to the woman for her general dog expenses. I signed a sensible contract and the dog is ours! She was a 13 month old, regally gorgeous, full blooded American Foxhound, spayed, house trained, sweet disposition, great with children, hardly ever barks, originally saved from a high kill shelter in Virginia. What a gem. Whew! Now I appreciate that overall, in the dog adoption process scheme of things, I was actually one of the very lucky ones. -Marybel

I agree that adopting an animal with any type of government agency has become a joke. My wife and I wanted to adopt a puppy at the local animal control center. We went through the very prying application process as well. We were finally approved, but we were not allowed to take the dog that day because we did not bring an approved car traveling kennel. It was explained to us that if we got in an accident that the dog could be hurt. I offered to put him in a seat belt, but that was not good enough. We own two other dogs that have traveled extensively in our vehicle and love it... all without being cooped up in a kennel. They love to hang their heads out of the window. We had to buy a kennel and go back the next day to get the dog. A kennel we have used ONE TIME. What if I didn't want to pay for a kennel and gave up on adopting the dog? Sure, there is a slight risk in the dog being injured by an accident... but I bet there is a 100% mortality rate for animals that are not adopted. If you could ask the dog... I bet he would take his chances in driving with me as opposed to staying at the dog pound. Finally, a year or so later, we went to a cat shelter to adopt a cat. After selecting one and again going thru the tedious questionnaire, we were denied. WHY? Because I owned a 12 year old German Shepard that was NOT neutered. The shelter stated it was their policy to not give animals to people who do not spay or neuter their pets. We owned three dogs and one cat at time and all were spayed/neutered however, this elderly German Shepard was a stray we took in and due to his age was unable to undergo neutering. He was kept in a fenced in yard and the likelihood of him reproducing was low. Furthermore, I don't think he was interested in mating with our new kitten. Anyway, we were denied for this reason so, there is now one extra cat that needs a home as we gave up on this. I am sure this caged kitten would have loved to have a loving home with plenty of food, shelter and love. However, according to the shelter policy, living with dog testicles would have been too much for this poor feline. Much better to have him live in a single cramped metal cage with a dozen others waiting for a home. -Sdkar

It's not just the shelters. We attempted to rescue a cat from a private cat rescue group, and filled in their intrusive questionnaire. They had us under consideration for over two weeks, and gave my wife the runaround until we gave up and went to our local shelter and walked out with a purebred Siamese kitten! You really need to find a place that wants to help animals, and not one staffed by sub-humans that just want to take home their meager paychecks without regard for their inhumane treatment of animals. My breed registry is in the process of working with another shelter where the people there really seem to care, and they are working with us to make sure that pets are being placed quickly and appropriately. I'd like the bureaucrats and nut jobs (including PETA) to find something else to do and leave animal care to those who want to find homes for animals in need. -Mitch

I agree as well. I had adopted dogs as well in the past with no problem. I researched and looked for weeks and found a perfect dog in a city over an hour away. Me and my wife called in advance to see if the dog was there and drove all the way down on a Saturday morning. It was a sweet dog and very loving. We couldn't wait to make this pet part of our family. We walked the dog and she was so sweet. They made us fill out an application and then proceeded to tell us they do not do same day adoptions and someone would call us in 2 days simply to see "if my wife and I were decent people." We were so anxious to get the puppy, 2 days later. I left work early (which is not an easy thing at all to do at my work) so we could make it there. I rushed home to find out the woman called and denied us the dog simply because "the dog had never been in a home or around children before." It makes me sick and I'm outraged that we had driven all the way there on Saturday and none of this was said when we applied to adopt the dog (we even asked), simply all that was stated was "the dog was a stray and needs a home." I have given up on hope for these animal shelters and never again will I give a penny to any of them. They all want money to help the dogs in there but are not willing to give any of them out. -Markus