THOUGHT URGED BEFORE BUYING PET

If you are thinking of shopping at the Humane Society for someone else's Christmas gift this year, think again.

The Humane Society of Southeast Missouri encourages families looking to adopt animals to come see its selection. But they don't allow adoptions on behalf of others.

"There are a lot of people coming in right now who want to adopt pets as Christmas gifts," said shelter administrator Jhan White. "We don't do adoptions that way. We always tell people we want adoption to be a family decision, because pets cost a lot of money and are a lot of responsibility. Animals need to be adopted by the primary care-giver."

White said that although giving a living creature as a gift sounds like a good idea, they are generally not well received. "You give a person a puppy because you thought it was a good idea, and they look at you like, 'Thanks a lot,'" she said.

Besides, said White, no one should take a new pet into a household at full holiday throttle.

"If a family is celebrating a quiet Christmas at home, it would be alright," she said. "But all too often, people are going away for the holidays, or they have a house full of guests.

"Then there's a big tree with lots of lights and colors and things. Why would you take a new pet into that?"

White said the holiday season always hits the shelter hard for a variety of reasons. First of all, she said, people often bring their pets in around the holidays because they are tired of them or can't handle caring for them during the holiday preparations. Many people just don't want to deal with pets when they've got so much else going on, she said.

Another reason the Humane Society is so busy is because of natural reproduction cycles. "We're seeing a lot of puppies 6 to 10 weeks old come in from the fall litters," White said. "We see this every spring with kittens and puppies, and every fall we get large numbers of puppies."

White said the shelter took in approximately 50 puppies during the two days prior to Thanksgiving. She said it will be close to Christmas before the onslaught begins to slow down.

"We are just inundated with puppies right now," she said.

White said she had a better suggestion for people wanting to give a pet as a Christmas or holiday gift. "Buy a small, stuffed animal, and tie a card around its neck that says 'Trade me in for the real thing,'" she suggested. "That way you and the person can come down and they can pick out their pet themselves.

"It's a much better gift that way because they get what they want."