So today, I saw the difference between the cat and the dog adoption contracts in the animal rescue that I foster for. The difference is pretty staggering. They have all these regulations for dog adopters. With cats, pretty much everyone can get one, unless you do really blatantly neglectful things.
The adopter of a dog has to pledge to never crop the dogs ears or dock their tail. They have to pledge to keep identification on the dog at all times. They have to pledge to keep the dog as a primarily indoor pet. If the dog ever dies or gets lost, they have to notify the rescue. They have to put them on heartworm preventative. They have to pledge never to let their kids ride the dog. The list goes on and on.
On the cat side, pretty much the only thing that one has to do is pledge to take them to the vet regularly, not to breed them, and to return them to the rescue if they can't keep them. People with cats are free to let them roam unattended, declaw them, don't have to notify the rescue if they get lost or die, don't have to microchip, etc.
I feel frustrated that cats are valued so little. I talked to the rescue and said that I would personally be unable to continue fostering if I'm forced to adopt out my cats to a home that would declaw. They agreed to allow me to refuse adoption to someone on that basis.
I then told them that I would really like to see the cats microchipped before adoption because so many lost cats never make it home and those lost cats just increase our workload. They argued that they can't because they're already losing money on the cats and can't raise the fee. I told them to raise the fee from $35 to $50. They don't think that they can do that. But I pointed out that if someone can afford $35, they can probably afford $50. I said that if we're having slow adoptions, $10 or $15 isn't going to make much difference. I explained to them that they are trapped in a vicious cycle of getting so many cats, because they're not often able to send cats home and end up fostering owned cats, as well as homeless ones.
I'm to the point where I feel like giving up fostering, because the psychological stress of seeing so little value placed on cats, even by the rescue, is wearing me down. Just because we're flooded with cats doesn't mean that we should give them less veterinary care than dogs and make looser standards for adoption. Just because they're cats doesn't mean that we shouldn't care whether they get home when lost.
The adopter of a dog has to pledge to never crop the dogs ears or dock their tail. They have to pledge to keep identification on the dog at all times. They have to pledge to keep the dog as a primarily indoor pet. If the dog ever dies or gets lost, they have to notify the rescue. They have to put them on heartworm preventative. They have to pledge never to let their kids ride the dog. The list goes on and on.
On the cat side, pretty much the only thing that one has to do is pledge to take them to the vet regularly, not to breed them, and to return them to the rescue if they can't keep them. People with cats are free to let them roam unattended, declaw them, don't have to notify the rescue if they get lost or die, don't have to microchip, etc.
I feel frustrated that cats are valued so little. I talked to the rescue and said that I would personally be unable to continue fostering if I'm forced to adopt out my cats to a home that would declaw. They agreed to allow me to refuse adoption to someone on that basis.
I then told them that I would really like to see the cats microchipped before adoption because so many lost cats never make it home and those lost cats just increase our workload. They argued that they can't because they're already losing money on the cats and can't raise the fee. I told them to raise the fee from $35 to $50. They don't think that they can do that. But I pointed out that if someone can afford $35, they can probably afford $50. I said that if we're having slow adoptions, $10 or $15 isn't going to make much difference. I explained to them that they are trapped in a vicious cycle of getting so many cats, because they're not often able to send cats home and end up fostering owned cats, as well as homeless ones.
I'm to the point where I feel like giving up fostering, because the psychological stress of seeing so little value placed on cats, even by the rescue, is wearing me down. Just because we're flooded with cats doesn't mean that we should give them less veterinary care than dogs and make looser standards for adoption. Just because they're cats doesn't mean that we shouldn't care whether they get home when lost.
