Comments on: Adopting our way out of pet overpopulation: Yes, we can

By: straybaby

straybaby — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:13:33 +0000

“Homeowners associations in California CANNOT ban pet ownership. They can limit size and number but cannot keep you from having a pet.Landlords are another story.”

I didn’t know this. Interesting. When I first started looking at places to live there, I did notice many “Pet Friendly” ads, but you could only have a small dog (25/30lbs seemed common limits). Or you could have more than one pet but they couldn’t weigh much combined. Generally it amounted to a toy breed or 2 or toy & cat or 2 cats. I don’t know if I would have a dog if it had to be a certain size.

By: Dutch

Dutch — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:49:47 +0000

It also doesn’t help when the shelter is - as our shelter is - dingy and smelly and staffed by people with bad attitudes. Even when people come in to adopt it can take over an hour for someone to be available to fill out the adoption paperwork. Volunteers are discouraged. Rescues are given a pile of grief. And then they have the audacity to whine in the local paper about their euthanasia numbers and insist that MSN is the only solution.

By: Brent

Brent — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:46:01 +0000

So if I’m reading this right, in year one following enactment of MSN, the county is looking at a 22% INCREASE (from $5 million to $6.1 million) in costs to pick up, house and euthanise animals. Seems like they’re using MSN as an excuse to pull animals from homes and kill them than as a way to end killing.

By: JenniferJ

JenniferJ — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:23:58 +0000

“Sorry, but telling the public how awful and hopeless the shelter situation is doves NOT bring people in in droves to adopt a new pet.”

My apologies for this sentence, not much sleep last night

By: JenniferJ

JenniferJ — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:17:13 +0000

Yerrg, one “turn off” for the public after another. Sorry, but telling the public how awful and hopeless the shelter situation is doves NOT bring people in in droves to adopt a new pet. (although they don’t particularly seem to want to actually bring folks in) A lot of individuals and families will not visit shelters because they are perceived to be to depressing already.

Instead of links describing how helpless the shelter is to save it’s inmates or links to articles that preach life style changes (also a turn off for the average citizen, guaranteed) How bout links to testimonials from happy adoptive families? Lists of offsite adoption events? Volunteer foster opportunities. Dates listed with extended hours?

I was in the neighboring county picking up a bulldog at their new shelter last weekend. Nice facility. Nice people, very very helpful and easy to work with. Not their fault they are working in the twilight zone. No signs for it’s exit off the highway. No signs for it’s exit off the frontage road. Way down off the frontage road. Lots of signs letting me know I was approaching the prison!! The shelter is tucked away, behind the County jail. That’ll make you want to bring the family to adopt a new pet alright. And crappy hours. Only open to the public on the weekend from 1-4. This all assumes you can find it in the first place, I ended up in the prison parking lot on my first attempt.

It reminded me of the beginning of HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy where the main character finds out that all the plans for his homes demolition were on public display, in a file cabinet, in a basement, behind a locked door with a sign on it saying “beware of the leopard”

Where are the signs? How bout a billboard on the highway advertising the great pets available? How bout nice long weekend hours listed on that sign with an 800 number and a website where folks can go take a looksee?

An awful lot of folks looking for a pet go to the paper or the internet. Gina is absolutely spot on! Using this sort of creativity to market the shelters would be such a good use of money and energy

By: Christie Keith

Christie Keith — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:05:00 +0000

You read it right, but it’s San Bernardino City, not county.

By: Gina Spadafori

Gina Spadafori — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:47:31 +0000

Did I read this right, Ms. Christie? This county ALREADY has forced spay-neuter? And this has helped them … how?

By: bestuvall

bestuvall — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:41:55 +0000

I would like to mention a law that few know about. Homeowners associations in California CANNOT ban pet ownership. They can limit size and number but cannot keep you from having a pet.Landlords are another story.
On another note. “Sits and Thinks” idea is brilliant. Hearing constantly about the faliures of shelters to adopt is disheartening but the blame alwys comes back from them that it is the “publics fault” and nothing that the shelters are doing can stem the tide of “unwanted animals”. YES THEY CAN.. and YES WE CAN. I would be willing to donate 200 “stuffies’ to any shelter to make a MOUNTAIN OF PRIDE.. or a MOUNTAIN OF HOPE.. and yes.. we need to make it easier for pets to be accepted into homes.. rental ( I ONLY rent to people wiht pets) Eliminate pet limts. Encourage pet placemnet with easier and simpler forms to fill out when “adopting ” a pet.
Heres’a fun idea.. let’s get Llyod Levien to “adopt” a pet.. after all he has a lot of spare time now !!! LOL

By: Raven's Mom

Raven's Mom — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:09:12 +0000

What about all of the people who would love to adopt more, but face landlord restrictions, county/city pet restrictions, etc? I don’t think killing the animals is the answer, but many people simply cannot adopt more. In my case, I have 2 cats and just finding an apartment that takes 2 cats is difficult.:( Many landlords require large deposits and pet rent. The city I live in also restricts people to a total of 4 pets (dogs/cats) total. And that’s pretty liberal compared to some surrounding cities. I know at least one allows only 2 pets.

I think a LOT of changes need to be made to solve this problem. One needs to be rolling back pet restrictions since they don’t stop hoarders and bad pet owners anyway. I get tracked because my pets see the vet regularly. Hoarders and bad pet owners don’t even bother taking theirs to the vet anyway. And don’t get me going on the licensing fees.

By: slt

slt — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:43:19 +0000

How about offering the community a way to reduce the number of bags in the mountain? How about a publicity stunt/adoption drive where the shelter stays open all weekend and encourages/promotes adopters to come by. If people find a pet to adopt, they can go out to the mountain in front of the shelter and remove one of the body bags. Then they can add one stuffy - or whatever - to the mountain of saved lives. Let the community see the difference they can make in a graphical representation of “mountains”.

I’m not a PR guy. Sometimes I just sits and thinks.