Remember the report of the cat allowed to die in the walls of the Dallas Animal Shelter? The commenters on this blurb say there are likely more cats in those walls.
Adoptions at the PA SPCA jumped almost 300% in July as compared with this time last year. They ran a $1 kitty special which no doubt helped promote the pets at the shelters. I bet August works out great too with their “name your price” cat adoption fee promo.
Orange Co Animal Services in FL is offering free cat adoptions for August. Maybe your local shelter is running a kitteh special too?
Pamela Anderson and PETA pull another publicity stunt although this one actually involves saving some shelter pets (which would be awesome, if it wasn’t tragically juxtaposed to PETA’s kill-em-all history)
RSPCA “rescues” a herd of ponies who did not need rescuing, owner commits suicide
FrogDogz shares a bunch of great Dollar Store dog buys
List of recalled Iams Veterinary Formulas and Eukanuba dry pet foods
Man passes out in drunken stupor, terrier eats toe, man hails dog as hero
Umm…so why was Ms. Floyd’s dog killed after eating her feelingless toe? Douthett was going to kill his dog too? Pourquoi?
Yay for sky rocketing adoption rates :)
$25,000 for a review? Damn.
Annnnnd, we (the PSPCA and Philadelphia area shelters) are seeing a large backlash from the $1 kitten adoptions. I’m trying to compile some statistics on the return rate to compare with that adoption rate, and include the number of kittens who have been adopted without screening, not provided with proper medical care, and dumped at the low-cost clinic to be euthanized or returned to the PSPCA to be euthanized. Remember, an adoption rate has to be compared to a return rate, or else we don’t get a full picture of the situation. Not to mention the PSPCA is hemorrhaging money like crazy, can’t make their budget, and can’t get more money from their city contract.
I am looking forward to seeing what the pay what you will adoptions bring though. I’m trying to convince the no kill I work with to offer a pay what you will special if the PSPCA’s works out. Psychologically, I find that to be a better strategy than just marketing $1 kittens. I do think the $1 kitten thing could have been run a lot better, but the PSPCA doesn’t have the staff necessary to do proper screenings and give adopters information. Such a balancing act!
“…kittens who have been adopted without screening, not provided with proper medical care, and dumped at the low-cost clinic to be euthanized or returned to the PSPCA to be euthanized.”
Wow – these are serious charges Jennie. Any details/sources/additional info to back those up?
Sure. There have been multiple kittens from the sale brought in to the low cost clinic where I volunteer, who did not know that the PSPCA should be providing medication for cats who get sick within 10 days of their adoption. The kittens were fairly ill because they hadn’t been treated, and several had to be put down by at clinic. Other adopters with sick kittens declined to treat them and instead returned them. The all came first hand from the managers of the clinic and adoption centers. Volunteers at the PSPCA have related similar stories. Because they sign a contract with the PSPCA that forbids them from talking to the press about anything they see, they obviously don’t want their names mentioned, but they have also related that the screening process leaves a lot to be desired and sometimes is skipped if they are crunched on staff and volunteers.
I’m not against adoption deals. I think the evidence for them, when done responsibly, is good. I’m not even sure they’re bad when handled like this, because it’s possible that the overall number of animals saved outweighs the number we’ll see returned/put down because someone adopted them hastily without thinking. I just believe we should all be aware of what happens on the flip side.
Even if the number of pets saved is greater than the number killed upon return, I can’t feel happy about that. I don’t understand why the cats would be killed when returned. Can’t they be adopted out again? They’re not all going to be medically hopeless I presume.
Hey, look what I saw when I went to the comments section on this blog posting:
http://bullmarketfrogs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/google_ad_fail.jpg
EPIC google ad placement fail of all time.
Heh, typical. Also: There’s Google ads on my blog?! @&%*$%#$#$! Dang, I hate that. I don’t see them but apparently WordPress sneaks them in to readers. I guess that’s what comes with “free” these days. : (