Surrendering animals

[bellasmommy]

I'm sure many of you have heard of programs where people can surrender their firearms, no questions asked.

Do you think there should be a similar program for surrendering animals? Just drop the animal off, no questions asked, no charges pressed.

Comments

[gindaisy]

Forgive my ignorance but do shelters require an explanation in most circumstances?

[bellasmommy]

It depends on the shelter.

The shelter I volunteer for has a backlog for owner surrenders. Meaning, they can't take owner surrenders for at least two or three months. They also charge a fee for surrenders. From their web site:

If you must surrender your dog, please contact the York County SPCA to set up an appointment. The cost to surrender a dog is $50. The goal of the York County SPCA is to find a home for every adoptable animal. Therefore, we are unable to accept dogs with serious aggressive behavior or untreatable medical conditions

[box_of_rocks]

What would make this place able to handle the number of animals if shelters can't?

[bellasmommy]

I didn't get that far in my thinking. :)

[thexphial]

I think it's a shame that people would want to do this, but it's a better option than the animal being neglected or abused. There are safe places for people to leave babies with no questions asked, so having them for pets seems logical to me.

[wolfden]

People do that anyways. It's sad and I hate it but people do it all the time. It's worse now I think because of the economy.

I have 5 stray cats living in my basement because when I found them last summer no rescue would take them and the county shelter was my only other option (kill shelter). In theory, they were supposed to find homes, but haven't even tho they went to countless adopt-o-thons and such. Now, I can't turn them into rescue here because I've had them more than 6 months so I am now the "owner" and no place here will take owner surrenders.

[nevadamoon]

I wouldn't consider it a bad idea to let people drop their animals off for free or for a small fee depending on their financial situation. Might stop animals being dropped off after hours, only to end up being hit by cars or worse.

I don't think they should get a free pass to dump an animal. If the animal had been obviously mistreated or abused, the option should be there to bring the people to justice.

[stormslegacy]

I thought you were talking about the exotics days that some places have, where you can drop off illegal animals no questions asked for collection at specific places (I believe Connecticut is a state that does this) I was going to say, YES that can be great for exotics.

For dogs and cats? Free, but if that animal is suffering gross neglect or abuse there derned well be consequences.

[amazonvera]

I'm torn on that. On a certain level, it seems like a good idea, but I'm not sure it would work in practice. What's realistically going to happen to that dog after it's surrendered? Does this plan somehow come with funding to care for that animal that shelters and rescues don't already need to care for the animals already in the system?

I think it sucks when animals are in homes where they aren't being properly cared for, but when the alternative is likely death, it seems like charging people $50 to make them think twice isn't such a bad idea.

[amazonvera]

I agree, but that's not always the dichotomy. There are a lot of people out there raising their dogs in some non-preferable, semi-neglectful way (people who chain the dog up in the yard all day, feed them low quality food, etc.) but not outright abusing them, and I don't think that's worse than being put down or turned over to an over-loaded animal authority where good, adoptable dogs get put down every day. Then you have the parents who got their kid a dog, but now the novelty has worn off and everyone is taking care of their basic needs but little more, etc.

In a situation where you announce open season for people to drop off pets they're bored with or inconvenienced by, you're going to get a flood of dogs from those situations, too, not just (or even primarily, I'd guess) from situations where they would have been killed or abandoned.