When she first arrived, the standard policy encouraged counselors to check potential adopters on MyCase before releasing an animal into the adopter’s care.
That policy was first instated in 2022, after the gruesome hanging and stabbing death of a dog that had been adopted from Animal Care Services to an owner with a violent criminal history. The rule was changed about two weeks into Fox’s tenure at Animal Care Services.
“Within the first week or two of me being there, they took away the MyCase policy,” Fox said. “They argued that going to any home, no matter who it’s with, where it is, what not, is better than being in the shelter.”
For the shelter, maybe, but not always for the animals.
The shelter near me used to do similar. There was a whole process that included something akin to a soft background check before you could adopt. That was in ~2014 or so when I adopted my first dog from there. I remember the people one desk over being denied because they already had 3 dogs and none had received any rabies or other vaccines since they adopted them.
When I adopted again in 2021 and 2023, it was a totally different, in-and-out process both times. You had to fill out some basic paperwork, but they didn’t check anything or vet the adopter at all.
On one hand, they’re a no-kill shelter with limited resources. I’ve donated and volunteered when I could, but they do have a finite capacity. On the other hand, even the slim chance of some psycho animal abuser walking out with one of the animals should be avoided.
It’d be more merciful to euthanize the animal than send it to an abusive home for the rest of its life.
Legitimately if someone said “it’s better than the shelter no matter what” I’d tell them “okay then, you’re coming home with me. Every night I will kick you because you’re slightly too slow for my liking and in my way. Every morning I will forget to feed you because I don’t really care about you. I might give you my leftovers after dinner. No lunch because you only get two meals a day. Forgotten breakfast included. I will also tie you outside in 95 degree heat for a week and only fill your water every other day because I misplaced my shoe and blamed it on you. When you get sick, I’m just going to break your leg and leave you in the woods.” and tell them not to complain because at least they aren’t in a shelter.
If that isn’t the end of the discussion, then [REDACTED]
You left out “I’m going to lock you in a tiny cage for 14 hours a day rather than train you”, but otherwise, spot on.
There’s a lot that’s left out, but I only have so many hours in a day…
I know when I adopted my dog 3 yrs ago they required that we give them our vets info so they could call to see how well we took care of our animals. I think that is a decent check to make.
Absolutely. That was part of the adoption process I went through back in 2014, though I hadn’t had a dog for about a decade then, so was basically N/A for me.