PET ADOPTIONS: WOMAN FINDS RULES DIFFICULT TO SWALLOW

A Fruitland woman says her application to adopt a cat from the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri was unfairly rejected after she and her husband returned a dog they had adopted through the agency to its original owners.

In October 1995, Karen York adopted Jake, a German shepherd, through the Humane Society. The dog's original owners had given Jake up for adoption because they were moving and weren't sure they would be able to keep the animal at their new home, York said.

As it turned out, the Yorks were acquainted with a relative of the dog's original owners through their church.

The relative, through conversations with the Yorks, "realized this must have been the same dog, and told us they really wanted the dog back," York said. "They had had the dog for seven years. They went out to the Humane Society two days after we adopted the dog to see about getting it back."

Jake stayed with the Yorks -- and their 4-year-old miniature pinscher and two parakeets -- for two months, then went back to his old family.

"We pondered on it for a while," York said, but the couple finally decided the dog would be happier with his original owners.

"They cried when they got him back," she said.

Then, when she went to the Humane Society's Cape Girardeau shelter over the weekend to see about adopting a cat, she was turned down.

"We're on the `no future adoptions' list because we let the owners have the dog back," York said. "I don't think it's fair that they did this," she said. "They'd rather put that cat to sleep than let it be adopted."

"We hear that every day," said Jhan White, the Humane Society administrator. "And it's not true."

The Humane Society's adoption contract includes a clause that the applicant will return the animal to the agency if there are problems, White said. That clause "isn't stringently enforced, but it's a legally binding contract," she said.

The adoption contract also requires animals to be spayed or neutered.

Agency workers also encourage people adopting animals to contact them if the animal has behavioral problems or needs obedience training, she said.

Workers at the Humane Society want to make sure the animals are going to the right home rather than risk seeing the animal returned or turned loose, she said.

White says the Yorks aren't considered a good risk for adoption for a variety of reasons.

"What we're looking for here at the Humane Society is, we want to know that this animal is going into a home where it's going to remain for its lifetime," she said. "We want to know that for the next 10 or 15 years it's going to be in that home. That's even a question that we ask on our adoption questionnaire."

White said Humane Society officials were notified by a local veterinary clinic that the Yorks had given Jake up. Workers at the clinic expressed concern because the Yorks had had several other animals for a while before giving them away to other families, White said.

"We're seeing a really low level of commitment here that indicates that this is probably not someone who needs to take a pet home," she said.

"We've gotten other animals before, and if it hasn't worked out we've found other homes for them," York said. "The Humane Society gripes because they need money and so many animals are being put to sleep, but I think it's easier to adopt a child than to adopt an animal through them. If this cat gets put to sleep, I don't know what I'll do."

York said the only reason she was given for her application being turned down was the decision to return Jake. She and her husband, Robert, had adopted three other animals through the Human Society, she said.

White said the Humane Society worries about the effects being passed from home to home has on animals. She said she also worries that animals in such situations will eventually wind back up at the Humane Society because someone along the line won't want the responsibility of caring for them or won't want to put up with any bad behaviors of the animal.

"These animals basically being thrown around from home to home either end up dead on the highway or out here, which is a death sentence," she said.

In 1995, more than 4,500 animals were taken to the local Humane Society. About 1,000 were adopted, White said, and another 300 or so were returned to their owners. The rest -- more than 70 percent -- were euthanized.

White said she has several dogs and cats, "and I'm poor from trying to feed and care for all of them. The last thing I would ever do to a pet of mine -- and I work here -- is bring it here."

All of the animals brought to the Humane Society are kept for a minimum of five days, as mandated by state law. During that time workers try to find the owners. After five days the animals are available for adoption.

The length of time animals are kept before they are euthanized depends on the individual animal and the amount of space available at the shelter, White said.

Some -- like Wheezy, the cat York wanted to adopt -- are considered highly adoptable because they are already spayed or neutered, housebroken or trained.

Wheezy is fine, White said. She said she doubts they will have any trouble finding a home for the cat, who is spayed and declawed. Jake, the 8-year-old German shepherd, died about a month ago.

"We have animals that we've kept here literally for months," she said.

Others, because of health or behavioral problems that make them bad candidates for adoption, are euthanized sooner.

This time of year is the busiest at the shelter, White said. On Monday alone 31 animals -- 23 kittens and eight dogs -- were brought in.

Like the animals up for adoption, people looking for pets are considered on a case-by-case basis, White said.

Not everyone who places an animal for adoption through the Humane Society will be turned down if they apply to adopt a future pet. And not everyone who gives away or returns an animal after it has been adopted through the agency is rejected, she said. The Humane Society tries to review each applicant's personal circumstances to make sure he or she will be able to provide a stable and loving home for the animals, White said.