ARIN GREENWOOD: ‘At any given time, U.S. animal shelters and rescue groups house millions of homeless animals, and hundreds of thousands are euthanized each year. So tough adoption processes can come as a shock to potential adopters. Typical reasons include those given to Patin – unfenced yards or long working hours – as well as having children or other pets. A Milwaukee-area NBC affiliate recently reported on a 70-year-old woman whose adoption application was denied because she was deemed too old.
Proponents of this high-bar approach say it’s in the animals’ best interest. Donna Darrell, founder of the New York City-based nonprofit organization Pound Hounds ResQ, said her group has a long and difficult adoption process by design. The seven-page application even begins with the warning that “not every person who desires to adopt a dog should do so.” Darrell said the criteria are so tough that she might not even adopt one herself. Her aim, she explained, is “to get the right dog in the right home. . . . If it’s not the right home, you’re setting up that dog for failure.”
But that view is increasingly being challenged by groups including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – whose own president and chief executive, Matthew Bershadker, says he was turned down when he and his family looked for a dog about a year and a half ago. In fact, he was rejected twice… It was an eye-opening experience, he said. If the process is this hard for the leader of one of the nation’s largest animal charities, “it’s clearly overly restrictive,” Bershadker said. “We have 1.5 million animals dying in shelters in our country, and these groups are putting barriers in between homes and their animals”.’ SOURCE…
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