Ever experienced opportunity being perfectly timed and propitious for a RANT you've been feeling a need to share?
My moment in the sun, TODAY!
In the midst of making myself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, my phone rang. It was Pasadena (CA) Humane Society calling, looking for a donation. I won’t go into the details of our lengthy conversation, where a young man patiently listened to my heartbreaking tale of losing my sweet pitbull terrier, Cleo nearly a year ago, that I’d adopted FIVE years before, from this shelter.
This kind and empathic fellow stated they “valued” me as an adopter, but I knew the donation pitch was coming, due to current, “overcrowded” conditions. I saw this as my long-awaited opportunity to bitch about PHS’s altered protocol for adoption, and forged ahead~ like the bull in a china shop, I’m sometimes known to be.
During “pandemic” days, the shelter stopped allowing people to browse for a lifetime companion. They still require a pre-appointment to visit an animal whose photo you find online during weekdays, and only allow spontaneous visits to the shelter on Saturdays and Sundays, between 2 - 5pm. If you hate crowds and parking challenges as much as I, you can imagine how this has taken the wind out of my sails, with respect to even considering adopting from them again!
I told the young man who’d called me, Pasadena Humane’s current protocol is infuriatingly like a dating app. Nobody can assess whether a dog or cat is a compatible fit for them, from seeing an online photo~ and if they CAN, I shudder to think how narcissistic they are! Who chooses a potential mate OR an animal companion, based solely on their looks for fuck’s sake?! Don’t answer that.
Anyway, I tried reasoning with this young man. I stated he was calling to encourage folks to pledge money, while all these poor, highly adoptable animals sat in cages for months, waiting for a kind hearted person to give ‘em a forever home. How does this make any sense?!
You allow the public a total of only 6 hours a week to come in and ‘browse’ for a much wanted dog or cat, give ‘em ZERO consideration for the impossible parking issues they’ll encounter on those time-abbreviated visits over the 2 weekend days, and ya whine about not having enough income to feed your 4 legged residents, and employ more staff members than just a skeleton crew?? Am I the ONLY human who sees this as ludicrous?
So, I say to this fellow, please pass my comments along to management~ because for the past year, when I’ve felt courageous enough to walk into a shelter again (‘cause I’m still mourning the loss of Cleo), and find another pup I might be able to fall in love with, it’s not even been feasible!
I am HOPING that shelters all over the country may read this and realize that I’m just one of tens of thousands of people who feel exactly as I do. If shelters are really committed to reducing their inventory by helping as many animals as possible get adopted out to good and loving homes, then QUIT MAKING IT SO FUCKING HARD ON US HUMANS, AND ENABLE IT!
Reasonable, RATIONAL minds all know, you have to approach a problem at its source or core~ (that’s how I’ve always worked) and resist getting tangled up in trying to treat the symptoms of a recurrent difficulty. This is absolutely a systemic issue!
Maybe they need to hire new ADMINISTRATION over at Pasadena Humane Society, so it can once again become a thriving shelter that actually cares about finding good homes for all those sweet animals they’re housing, and start celebrating having some empty cages for a change!
Needless to say, I told this young man I would absolutely NOT donate money to this organization on principle, because their adoption policies are inhumane, and I’m pissed off about it! By the way, he said he’s been hearing precisely the same complaints from a large number of others he’s called, on his “donation” list.
Have I made my point?