Yesterday's adoption event was crazy busy. 9 dogs were able to find homes which is AWESOME! But for the first time ever there were 4 people I turned down.. I mean I turn down people but usually one not 4!
The first one was CREEPY! And wanted one of my Pit Bulls. When I told him that we do criminal background checks on all of our Pits his reaction was "Oh" and not a good oh but a bad oh like oh SHIT! kind of oh.
Then a women with 2 dogs, 2 cats and the female dog is not fixed. I told her I am sorry I would not be able to adopt to her until her female is fixed. She walked away all upset. Came back about 10 minutes later and questioned me as to why. I explained to her that "accidents" happen... it took a few examples for her to then understand what I meant by "accidents" Hopefully she understands the importance of having her dog fixed.
Then her daughter who several volunteers heard her on the phone with someone saying "We just won't tell the landlord. he will never know we got a dog" Come on girl really! We call your landlord... he is going to know! Idiot! She also asked me before filling out an application "what would make someone not get approved to adopt." I told her I am not going to tell you those things because then you would lie on the application! I then said to her you have to be 21 years old and not currently in school in order to adopt. She walked away but then came back about 10 minutes later and interrupted me while I was talking to someone else to question me on that.
THEN the most ridiculous one yet. A 19 year old girl got her 19 year old boy friend to have his dad come up to the adoption event to LIE and say he was going to to adopt the puppy. Again volunteers over heard her talking to her boyfriend on how they were going to pull of this scheme. I explained to the boyfriend's father and to the girlfriend that the contract they sign is legally binding and that the dog can not go live with anyone else... meaning when the girlfriend and boyfriend decided to get a place of their own and live together they can't take the dog! All of a sudden the girlfriend didn't want the puppy any more. BIG FREAKING SURPRISE!
It was so funny b/c when we were standing in the parking lot after we had everything loaded up and ready to go home (we being the volunteers), the dad sped out of the parking lot making sure his truck was really loud and fast. I laughed b/c #1 is truck was a piece of shit #2 does he think that is going to change my mind??
A few volunteers are worried that the people we turned down will try to fill out applications on line and lie BUT I am going to be over the top with the applications that come through for the dogs who people were trying to lie to get and if I have one bad feeling about something the answer will be NO!
I don't think people understand how the internet works. There are websites to find if you really own your home, how much you paid for it, what your taxes are each year and what you still owe on it. CREEPY! I know! There are websites that show satellite pictures of your house so I know if you are lying about having a fence. AND there are websites that I can use to see if you have a criminal record.... Oh I can go on and on.
Sorry folks but I am not going to let (if I can help it) my dogs go to some a-hole!
3 comments:
Your instincts seem spot on!
How on earth do you get 9 adoptions in one day? We average less than one person per day visiting our shelter, and we can spend hours and hours at a pet store and get zero adoptions, even when we have spayed and vaccinated cats that are ultra-friendly, clean and gently playful. The puppies will get handled to death, and the well-behaved grown dogs, clean and affectionate, will be ignored. We display clean animals, and we keep "accidents" cleaned up. Our volunteers are nice and pleasant. Our only refusals are concerning pit bulls that require a home visit. People won't have it at all! But we feel a legal liability to work toward a safe situation, especially when there are already other animals in the household.
Congratulations on preventing bad adoptions. The people who act as though they are buying a can of beans amaze me. They show no concern for the dog, only for themselves. Selfishness is truly ugly.
Hey Bill!
We advertise in the paper and on PetFinder on each dog's bio saying we are going to have the adoption event and we have an event at the same location the 2nd Saturday of every month so people except us to be there.
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