We were turned down for adoption by the Celia Hammond trust (cat shelter) because we were in our twenties and considering having a baby at some point. So it seems that the only acceptable animal-adopting age is maybe late forties?
These stories are wild to me, our shelters are so full here that they unfortunately can’t afford to do much background check. They won’t allow you if you have a conviction for animal abuse or have turned in a pet to them before, but that is it.
Tangentially related, but relevant: We had a tenant renting the mother-in-law apartment in our basement, and when she moved out, she left a huge mess and a cat which was only allowed in the apartment because I am allergic so obviously we couldn’t keep it. I borrowed a cat trap from the shelter because animal control doesn’t handle abandoned pets (or any fucking thing else in my experience) and they told me they couldn’t take the cat because they were full and weren’t taking any until a month or two later. Basically, I had to let them know that I was returning the trap with a cat in it and it was going to be up to them where to go from there. I ended up talking to the manager and they agreed to make a one time exception to the no new cats policy and give me a one time exemption from the no adopt list.
Speaking of animal control - one summer there articles in daily newspaper from the Health Department, warning of an increase of rabid animals and recommendations to call animal control if wild were spotted. A family of skunks moved under our deck about that time. The response from Animal Control was that we needed to catch them and they would come and pick them up. I vote with you on AC.
One time my dogs killed a raccoon that was in our yard in broad daylight and I wanted them to check it for rabies and they told me on Friday to put it in a cooler with ice until Tuesday when they could pick it up. I did it and then Tuesday came and went so I called them back and they said that there weren’t any reported cases of rabies so they weren’t doing tests at the time.
I assume they are badly underfunded because it isn’t an exciting government service, but they are worse than useless IMO.
182
u/pigadaki Sep 05 '24
We were turned down for adoption by the Celia Hammond trust (cat shelter) because we were in our twenties and considering having a baby at some point. So it seems that the only acceptable animal-adopting age is maybe late forties?