Tough Love : Animal Agencies Adopt Stricter Policies in Effort to Protect Pets

You think it’s tough trying to adopt a child? Try adopting a pet nowadays.

For a variety of heretofore unfamiliar reasons--household animals ending up on the dinner table, as experiments in research laboratories, or in the hands of cultists--animal humane organizations, particularly the private ones, have gotten tough, perhaps even nosy.

Consider:

- Animal Alliance requires that the potential adopter sign a contract giving the organization visitation rights.

- Pet Pride Inc. requires a signed agreement that a cat will never be declawed.

- Actors and Others for Animals won’t relinquish a long-haired pet unless the person is willing to do the necessary grooming.

- Dedication & Everlasting Love To Animals will not give a pet to a single person under age 25.

- The Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals wants to know if anyone in the adopting family has allergies.

- The San Francisco SPCA asks permission to contact a renter’s landlord, to make sure pets are allowed.

- The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals won’t allow cats to go to homes without screened windows.

All of which might lead one to ask if shelters and animal protection societies haven’t become unnecessarily restrictive--possibly to the point of keeping otherwise doomed animals out of potentially good homes?

“No way!” replied Leeta Anderson, founder of Animal Alliance. “If a person doesn’t want to answer questions, we feel there may be a danger that person will become a negligent owner and the animal will be in jeopardy again. What’s the point of rescuing an animal and then giving it to an irresponsible owner?”

She added that private organizations such as hers have to be particularly cautious now, because not every community forbids the practice of using impounded animals for laboratory research. Eight years ago the City of Los Angeles rescinded a law that had permitted such usage.

Do the restraints--many of them imposed fairly recently by private humane organizations--mean that good homes are going to waste? “On the contrary, people who sincerely want to give good homes to pets have no protests about being asked questions,” Anderson said. “They want to show they will be responsible owners. . . . They commend us on our restrictions.”

The challenge of matching animals and humans is one the owners, employees and volunteers of local animal shelters face every day.

Consider the case of Boomer, a 3-month-old beige kitten, once homeless, but lately taken under the wing of Animal Alliance.

Like many other such groups in Southern California, the privately supported Animal Alliance uses an increasingly strict screening process which includes a prohibition against adoptions by families with very young children. In this case, however, a woman got temporary weeklong custody of Boomer, fell in love, and asked to keep him permanently. So a rule was bent.

“We wound up giving it to someone with a 19-month-old baby,” explained Anderson. “Apparently the baby threw itself on the cat, or did something, and the kitten reacted by scratching the child on the face. The mother brought Boomer back to us the next day.”

Boomer’s story has a happy ending: Last week, Angelika Bog, of Brentwood, showed up at the shelter seeking a furry companion. “I have a 7-year-old cat, Simon, at home,” said Bog, a holistic health practitioner. “I wanted him to have a companion when I am away from home. When I came to the shelter and opened Boomer’s large cage, he jumped on my shoulder--and every time I put him back, he would jump out on my shoulder again. He adopted me.”

Concerning the debate over who is suitable to adopt, many of the animal care people interviewed said it often boils down to whether a bad home is better than no home. And, almost to a person, their answer to that rock-and-a-hard-place question was no .

“For one thing, we want to avoid spontaneous adoptions,” said Ed Cubrda, executive director of the Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which operates shelters in Los Angeles and Hawthorne. “We don’t want a spur-of-the-moment decision. We want people to have given it thought, to have talked it over with their families--what, if any, kind of an animal is wanted. We don’t want the heart ruling the mind.”

When you are in his line of work long enough, Cubrda said, you are on the alert for certain reactions: “If someone says, ‘Wow, that dog sure looks like he can attack well,’ we say no, we aren’t in the guard business. We want placement in a loving home as a household pet.”

Also, Cubrda explained, the adopter must be age 18 or older, or be accompanied by an adult: “All of the questioning is because we want to avoid a revolving door with the animal.”

The Los Angeles SPCA (which keeps about 150 dogs and cats in its two shelters) also is interested in whether the prospective adopter lives in an apartment--since most apartment owners don’t permit pets and “if the person tries to sneak one in, there is a good possibility it will soon be back again at the shelter.”

“Another thing we ask about is allergies,” Cubrda disclosed. “If someone in the family is allergic to cat fur, perhaps that family should adopt a dog. Or maybe a bird.”

The private, nonprofit society, which also provides animal control for Beverly Hills and Culver City, frowns on giving pets as gifts: “When people get something free, they have a tendency to not attach value to it,” Cubrda said. “People like to select an animal themselves. I may not like the type of dog Uncle John got for me--and I’m going to have to live with it, and take care of it. Or, in the case of a child, perhaps Uncle John didn’t check with the parents beforehand--and they might be against such a gift.”

Instead, the society suggests their gift certificates ($40 for dogs, $35.50 for a female cat, $28.50 for a male), so the recipient can come in and do his or her own selecting.

If the prospective adopter has a puppy in mind, the society requires somebody be at home to raise it. “Otherwise you may wind up with an adult dog that is disobedient and perhaps barks excessively. . . . . If both the husband and wife work, and nobody is at home, how can the puppy be house-broken, or trained not to chew on the furniture or shoes? Such a couple would be better off with an adult dog,” Cubrda said.

He acknowledged that the Los Angeles SPCA is wary that someone might be fronting for a research lab, or seeking animals to be sold for such purposes. “We play it by ear,” the executive director said. “In general, one dog and one cat per person. If additional ones are sought, the red flag goes up. We ask more questions.”

Another private group, Animal Alliance has strict rules--even to the point of requiring that the adopter sign a contract, among other things giving the organization visitation rights.

“We usually check up on the animal after the first month, and then again after about six months,” founder Anderson revealed. “The contract also stipulates that if the pet must be given up, it must be returned to us, not given to another person. And it says we have the right to take the animal back if the situation is determined by us to be unacceptable--such as if there is no litter box, or no food or fresh water, or if the animal is infested with fleas. You can tell when there is a proper home environment.

“And,” Anderson added, “we don’t allow cats to be taken if the person has declawing in mind.”

Animal Alliance, which keeps about 25 cats in its West Los Angeles facility and about 80 dogs at a Woodland Hills kennel, also prefers that cats be kept indoors. “Years ago, you could let cats outdoors,” Anderson recalled. “But now you shouldn’t--not with the increased traffic, the people stealing them for cultists, and those selling them for research.”

Also, she said, “if a person works all day and asks for a cat or dog, we suggest taking two of them. That way there won’t be any lonesomeness.”

Pet Pride Inc. is a private, nonprofit group in West Los Angeles that for the most part accepts (by appointment) cats which have been pets, and, for a minimum fee of $55, agrees to find new homes for them or keep them for the remainder of their lives. They call themselves a No-Kill Shelter.

Manager Nancy Mark said about 240 cats roam freely, uncaged, in a five-room house.

“If a person wishes to adopt, that person must read and sign an agreement,” Mark said. “He or she agrees to keep the cat strictly indoors, never to have it declawed, and, if the cat hasn’t been spayed or neutered, to have it done.

“There have been people who have argued, but I tell them, those are our criteria.”

Like so many of the other shelters, Pet Pride is firm about their indoors-only rule, citing increased instances of cruelty to cats who roam freely. “There was a day when children could go to a park alone freely, and it was safe,” Mark said. “You can’t allow that anymore.”

A spokesperson for Actors and Others for Animals, based in North Hollywood, said her group asks prospective owners such questions as whether they have owned pets in the past and, if so, “what happened to them.”

Willing to Groom Dog?

“We ask them whether they live in a house or an apartment, because we don’t want a large dog finding himself in an apartment situation,” she said. “And if the applicant wants a long-hair, we want to know if the person is willing to do grooming. If a puppy or kitten is sought, is the owner willing to go through all the baby stages?”

Dedication & Everlasting Love To Animals (DELTA) is a Glendale-based private nonprofit organization which concentrates on rescuing dogs and cats abandoned in wilderness areas of Los Angeles County.

Founded 10 years ago by Leo Grillo, it maintains about 600 animals in three no-kill shelters, and seeks homes for them--but with some of the most exacting requirements of any private animal organization.

According to Grillo, DELTA shelters use the same standards for screening prospective owners as it recommends in its pamphlet for private owners: “How To Find a Good Home for Your Beloved Pet (or a rescued one).”

A clue to DELTA’s point of view may be found in the publication, which asks, “How many people in your life love you as unselfishly or as deeply as your pet (whom you are about to betray)?”

The organization especially warns of:

- Con men who answer ads and, for donations, offer to find a home for a pet--and later kill or sell it.

- Third party adoptions (“it’s for my dear sweet invalid mother”). Instead, they say, let that person do the speaking.

- Single people under 25. They “are not good bets for a long-term relationship with your pet. Their lives change too rapidly, and what happens when they meet someone who doesn’t like pets?”

In order to adopt an animal from DELTA, a prospective owner must first be interviewed over the telephone by a representative armed with a score card which gives negative ratings for such replies as: - Gave previous animal to pound or to friends, or it ran away, or was killed in traffic.

- It didn’t have shots and died of disease.

- Don’t have fenced-in yard.

- Fence has holes in it, or a dog or cat can dig under it.

- Pet will sleep outdoors.

- Previously owned pet wasn’t spayed/neutered.

If the telephone interview results in an acceptable score, Grillo recommends setting up a personal meeting “a little inconvenient and at least 48 hours later. That way they are truly planning on finding a new pet. What’s a few hours when they’re embarking on a full 15-year commitment?

“If they don’t want to wait, I pass. Usually these people are impulse buyers--they make department stores rich, but they make very insecure homes.”

No Plans to Give Pet Away

During such a meeting, Grillo said, he tells the potential adoptees they must not be contemplating giving the pet away and, if that ever became necessary, they must first come back to DELTA for approval of the possible transfer. As he advises private owners in the pamphlet, “If they have any present intention of giving the pet away after they get him from you, catch them now and THROW THEM OUT!!”

Tax-supported public animal shelters, on the other hand, cannot have nearly the restrictions the private groups have.

The Los Angeles City Animal Regulation Department, according to spokesman Dyer Huston, requires that an adopter be age 18 or older, pay between a $9 and $11 impound fee for dogs, between $6 and $8 for cats, and a $20 spay fee for female dogs or cats, a $14 neuter fee for male dogs or cats.

Even with such relatively cheap prices and prevented from imposing stringent conditions, of 43,367 dogs and 33,647 cats at its six shelters in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1988, only 8,304 dogs and 5,161 cats were placed for adoption. “I think people are finding it more and more difficult, unfortunately, to own a dog or cat,” said Robert Rush, general manager of the city department. “Not only is there the factor of the cost of living, but in so many families, all the adults work, and don’t have the time for such a pet responsibility. That is probably why so many are getting birds and fish as household pets.”

Minimum Age Requirement

The Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control Department, which also is public and tax-supported and runs six shelters, has the age 18-minimum requirement, plus some others which reflect changing times:

“We try to determine that the applicant for a pet isn’t homeless,” said animal control Lt. Gail Miley. “We’ve had some impound animals wind up living in vehicles.”

In Miley’s opinion, “That isn’t a proper way of caring--especially since a lot of times the person can’t even care for himself.

“We do understand that for such people, an animal is their only companionship, but we prefer that it have a regular home.”

Miley said his organization charges a $65 fee for dogs and $24 for cats, and feels that discourages potentially abusive adopters or those interested in reselling the animal.

She said the workers are alert to the manner in which an adopter physically handles an animal: “We had one fellow who walked out with one of our dogs, dragged it along the parking lot on its leash, kicked it, and picked it up by the scruff of the neck to put it into his car.

“We saw it, ran out, took the dog back, and said, ‘Here’s your money back.’ ”

No Alcohol

The lieutenant said the department also looks for signs that a person may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. “The person may not be making a rational decision at that time, or may not provide a good home for the pet,” she said.

Of 48,425 dogs and 38,348 cats impounded this fiscal year, the county department placed 9,692 dogs and 5,223 cats for adoption, Miley said.

The increasingly wary attitude toward would-be pet adopters is national in scope. In San Francisco, the SPCA requires someone wishing an animal to fill out a questionnaire, and stipulates that giving false information may nullify the adoption.

“Do you rent?” the questionnaire asks. “May we contact your landlord (to make sure pets are allowed)?”

Also, “Are you aware of the cost of feeding and caring for a pet? Are you willing to be responsible for your pet’s entire life?”

In New York City, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (not associated with the SPCA) doesn’t give out kittens younger than 16 weeks unless somebody is at home during the day.

‘Dry Food Isn’t Adequate’

“A young kitten needs to be fed four times a day,” said ASPCA spokesman Jeffrey Hon . “Leaving dry food isn’t adequate. It can cause kidney problems in young males. For both males and females, dry food can get caught in their young throats.”

The ASPCA, which is New York’s official animal-control arm, doesn’t release a pet to a home unless everyone in the household approves. “I can’t tell you how many animals have been turned back in to us by angry husbands or wives,” the spokesman said. “Sometimes the spouse does it out of revenge--because the feeling is that the partner is spending too much time with the pet.”

Another no-no is a family that is about to move. Said Hon: “That can be upsetting to an animal. Furthermore, it is a common reason for pet returns. It is better for the people to wait until they are in their new area, and then adopt.”

The humane organization also doesn’t send cats to homes without screened windows.

“We worry about what we call the high-rise syndrome,” Hon explained. “A cat may see a bird fly past and jump out after it. We often treat cats at our hospital for falls from high rises.”

In other words, it wants both owners, and windows, screened.