My son can repair computers. People would want him to repair computers that were impossible to update. People don't seem to understand that old and new technology do not work together. It's like antiques and NASA space program.
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Adoption questionnaires and forms, screening adopters, and returned kittens
- Thread starter moxiewild
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In the back of my mind I am wondering if part of what your dealing with is a generational thing. You can buy anything on Amazon and then just return it if your not completely happy with it. Life didn't used to be that way. If something wasn't exactly what you liked then you "learned to live with it", a quote from my mom. The whole idea of customizing things comes from the fact that everybody's taste is different. Now this thinking has extended into social and family life also. Decide you don't like somebody on facebook, just dump them. The idea of negotiating with people and making real friends appears to only be being encouraged by therapists.
Maybe what you need to charge is a "restocking fee" , that is what it is called by many retailers. Of course the problem there is that they may just not bring them back.
Again going to the generation thing, it used to be that many suburban families had pets. It's the reason many of them moved out of the city to start with. Kids grew up with cats and dogs. They learned how they work. Today people don't want to be bothered so many kids were raised with out pets but rather TV and the internet. They don't understand them because they are alien to them. If you get tired of your phone you just dump it for something new, things have become a lot more disposable including pets. There may not be any easy way to change their thinking.
Maybe what you need to charge is a "restocking fee" , that is what it is called by many retailers. Of course the problem there is that they may just not bring them back.
Again going to the generation thing, it used to be that many suburban families had pets. It's the reason many of them moved out of the city to start with. Kids grew up with cats and dogs. They learned how they work. Today people don't want to be bothered so many kids were raised with out pets but rather TV and the internet. They don't understand them because they are alien to them. If you get tired of your phone you just dump it for something new, things have become a lot more disposable including pets. There may not be any easy way to change their thinking.
I have a 45 year old neighbor who rents next door. He bought a new pressure washer from Walmart, took a part off of it that he needed to repair his pressure washer, put his broken part on the new pressure washer, then, returned it. I remember when companies would look at what you were returning, but they don't anymore. Nothing like that has ever crossed my mind. I'm 60. The whole idea of trust and honesty seem to be diminishing in our society. And, how some people treat animals makes me cry.
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vyger
, I find some of your comments amusing here.I’m in my 20s, so I do know what you’re talking about, but I definitely don’t fit that mold personally
My boyfriend would be the first to tell you (or anyone he can complain to!) that my most prized possessions are “trash” I won’t get rid of (I used to fix up furniture and make things out of other things and sell at flea markets.... most of my materials came from picking those things off the side of the road that people were throwing out, or were cheaply sold at garage sales or flea markets), and that he can’t bring me into the 21st century to save his life
I’ve never had a smartphone or smart anything - I use a flip phone I’ve had for a decade that’s held together nicely with some colorful duct tape. Both my laptop and car are over 10 years old and were bought used. Even my parents are trying to get me to upgrade those/trade in now, but I’ve had no issues with them yet, so I don’t intend to.
My boyfriend calls me “The Millennial Who Couldn’t”
Obviously none of this is typical for my peers though, so I do understand where you’re coming from.
However, I think it’s only now that we have awareness of the situation, not that it’s something new. No-kill as a concept was virtually unheard of even in the 80s, but was no less needed back then. So from where I’m standing, I see monumental progress.
I don’t think the issue is “grew up with pets” vs “didn’t grow up with pets” - it’s more so how they were taught to care for and think of pets.
Of the people I know around my age who tend to discard pets, it has been 100% been because of how they were raised. They grew up in homes with parents who discarded pets, so they do too now.
For instance, one of my best friends grew up with rescued boxers who were given excellent care. Guess what she has now? Rescued boxers given excellent care.
Another friend grew up with a cat given borderline adequate care. Guess what she has now? One cat who receives borderline adequate care.
Friends who grew up with no pets? They have no pets.
I see these patterns among all my friends. Those raised with borderline animal hoarders, became borderline animal hoarders; those raised with purebreds, went to breeders; those raised with outdoor cats/dogs, have outdoor cats/dogs; those raised with declawed cats, declawed their cats; those raised with “disposable” pets, treat pets as “disposable” - and those raised learning that having a pet is a lifelong commitment and how to properly care for a pet have also followed suit.
I firmly believe it has to do with family and education more than anything else. We’re only more aware of it now for many of the same reasons we’re more aware of a lot of problems/issues now.
Some people are malicious and uncaring, for all sorts of reasons.
However, as much as I loathe - and fear - people who do not take pet guardianship seriously, i do believe most people like this were just raised a certain way and don’t know any better - I also think the way they are communicated with has a lot to do with whether or how well re-educating them works.
And I am just thankful that I had parents who raised me better.
They’re dog people now, but they were TNRing ferals and strays in the late 80s and early 90s - before Alley Cat Allies and before TNR was even a “thing”.
They cared for a colony of 16 when I was a toddler, and when we moved, they trapped and wrangled every last cat and found the whole colony a barn home so they could stay together and continue to have shelter and food provided for them (I doubt relocation was done properly since they wouldn’t have known otherwise back then, but at least they tried and refused to abandon the colony).
I'm writing this from the perspective of somebody who works at a no-kill shelter (all of them are no kill here in Germany) and is also peripherally involved with two rescue organizations, one that's for (sometimes feral) cats only and regional, the other which pulls mainly dogs from kill shelters in other countries and finds homes for them here.
The shelter and the "local" cat rescue get few "returns", but that's not the case with the dog rescue, which has almost identical adoption procedures, often with the same people doing the counseling and pre-adoption checks as for the shelter. Our shelter has had to take in "adoption failures" from the above-mentioned dog rescue and several others like it.
Personally, I don't believe that the returns are due to inadequate procedures or some kind of "throwaway mentality" ascribed to certain generations. A lot of people are in love with the idea of saving a pet from euthanasia and insist that they will adopt such animals only, but obviously at times their expectations, even subconscious ones, aren't fulfilled once they have the pet. Even if they denied it, deep down they might have expected that the pet was going to be so grateful to have a loving home that it would fit right in and bond quickly, and they're deeply disappointed when potential problems they were warned might happen do in fact arise. In other words, they overestimated their own patience and ability to cope and then gave up on the pet. This very rarely happens when they've already had a former feral cat or street dog or have had many pets in their lives, so taking their experience into account is vital.
The shelter and the "local" cat rescue get few "returns", but that's not the case with the dog rescue, which has almost identical adoption procedures, often with the same people doing the counseling and pre-adoption checks as for the shelter. Our shelter has had to take in "adoption failures" from the above-mentioned dog rescue and several others like it.
Personally, I don't believe that the returns are due to inadequate procedures or some kind of "throwaway mentality" ascribed to certain generations. A lot of people are in love with the idea of saving a pet from euthanasia and insist that they will adopt such animals only, but obviously at times their expectations, even subconscious ones, aren't fulfilled once they have the pet. Even if they denied it, deep down they might have expected that the pet was going to be so grateful to have a loving home that it would fit right in and bond quickly, and they're deeply disappointed when potential problems they were warned might happen do in fact arise. In other words, they overestimated their own patience and ability to cope and then gave up on the pet. This very rarely happens when they've already had a former feral cat or street dog or have had many pets in their lives, so taking their experience into account is vital.
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But the vast majority of people don’t have much or any experience with behaviorally special needs animals, so what then?
Like I said, I haven’t yet had trouble with the types of animals I usually take in because people just don’t tend to impulse adopt those types of animals (and most already come to me having had an animal with the same exact “issues” that inspired them to seek mine out). And in my situation - where there is no E list and they’re in a home environment - there’s also an absence of any of that external pressure of needing to “rescue” them, so to speak.
My issue is the puppies and kittens. All have been well socialized except the tripod (but her primary issue isn't actually socialization, it’s just being separated from her mother). So we’re talking very normal puppy and kitten behaviors. I actually had someone who had cats since they were kittens ask if my kittens scratched...
I did mention earlier that people seem to like the idea of a pet more than the actual responsibility, and that can cloud their judgement during the adoption process. So I definitely agree with you on that.
I actually do think that fielding questions and such does get through to some of them though, based on their visible reaction to certain questions/comments and subsequent change of heart. Sure, it won’t get through to all of them, but it will some of them. Which is why I’d really like to try and expand and tweak what questions I do ask.
Your comment definitely seems to support why a trial adoption might be a good idea, too. I found several rescues in the US and Canada who implement trial adoptions, and I’ve emailed them to ask for input, advice, and direction for how to word a contract. Hopefully they’ll get back to me soon!
