Have you encountered unfair discrimination while trying to adopt a pet?

[mermaidwannabe]

As many of you know, I have made special accommodation for my cats so they can have a warm, cozy place to live despite hubby's refusal to allow them into our house.

The special cat-house I had built has everything they need -- food, water, beds, scratching posts, litter boxes, kitty condos and carpeted window ledges. Also, a heater in the ceiling governed by a thermostat and a heated water dish that won't freeze in winter. They also have tall cat trees so they can climb to carpeted ledges and look out over their domain.

It also has a built-in cat door so they can come and go as they please, as well as a full-sized human door so I can go in and scoop their litter, refill their feeder and waterer, etc.

In short, my kitties live in luxury.

Try convincing these animal rescue organizations that, despite they're not being allowed inside our main residence, any kitties I adopt will still be as well cared for and well loved as any other indoor cats, and maybe better.

Whenever I've tried to adopt from such organizations (who advertise regularly in the classifieds of area newspapers), I always get discriminated against and denied, simply because I can't keep my cats "indoors", THEIR definition meaning the same house we live in.

I think it's extremely unfair and hypocritical that these organizations CLAIM to want to find good homes for animals, but are very quick to turn down someone who offers exactly that and more.

Not only that, but I've found these people to be arrogant, snooty, condescending and not the least bit interested in the well-being of the animals, but instead only interested in THEIR OWN POINT OF VIEW.

If anyone from one of these organizations is reading this, please look at the photos I've attached of the accommodation I provide for my kitties. Most kitties would LOVE to live here!

[RiversGirl]

I do know you take excellent care of your cats. Thanks for sharing photos of their cat house - I'd like to move in there myself! You're right, any cat would be delighted to call it home.

[mac]

Very common in nz.
Zero common sense.

[WhistlingBadger]

Sheesh, MWB, that's nicer than a lot of places I've lived!

We were at a shelter one time looking for a kitten. I was holding one, getting to know it, and it started chewing on its own tail. I commented something like, "Aw, you aren't the smartest of God's creatures, are you?" The lady running the place took offense, and wouldn't let us adopt a kitten. The place was overrun with cats,but she kept making excuses not to let us take one. So, I guess I was being discriminated against for having a sense of humor? ha ha

Weird thing was, she kept repeatedly urging us to take a dog, even though we told her we weren't really set up for a dog yet. That's what you get for letting crazy cat lady run the shelter, I guess. As a lady at another shelter told us later, "A lot of people get into this business for the right reasons, but they get too emotionally close to what they're doing and end up staying in it for the wrong reasons." I suppose that's true of a lot of pursuits.

Thomas

[mermaidwannabe]

I've also found that when I try to adopt from a rescue organization operating in a larger city, as soon as they find out I live in a small town, right away, they become snooty and treat me like I am some kind of ignorant hick. Right away, they assume I have no idea how to properly care for a cat, even though I grew up with cats and have had them all of my life, and in mostly rural areas. It's more about a contemptuous attitude toward small town people than it is about my qualifications to care for a feline.

These people aren't doing the homeless animals any favors when they cop that kind of attitude.

The two kitties I now have I was able to adopt from our local shelter. They know me, there, and have no problem letting me adopt their cats. But I sometimes read the stories of and see pictures of cats up for adoption from out-of-town shelters, and i think, "Gee, I'd like to have that nice kitty. Hope he (or she) is prepared to be spoiled." But, as soon as I arrive at the PetCo where these larger city operations display the cats featured in the ads, right away, I am greeted with thinly veiled disdain. It's almost like they have their antennae up, ready to weed out people THEY consider "unsuitable", and it doesn't matter how much evidence I present to the contrary, their minds are made up.

So, I get discriminated against simply because of where I happen to live, and NOT because I'm in any way unqualified to give a kitty a wonderful life.

These people don't belong in the animal rescue business, and there should be some way of weeding THEM out!