If someone cannot keep an anumal they may not have put a lot of thought into getting it in the 1st place. They should not pass it along, they should have it euthanized, that will gaurantee it wont be passed around another 10 times. Dont you ever wonder how so many irresponsible people end up with children? Now there is a REAL problem

Ok you had me up until the "they should be euthanized" part

Why? would you rather they eat it? That might make more sense, depending on the type of pet.

I just cant take all of this stuff serious, not when there are kids around the world being treated worse than many animals.

At least there is harsh punishment for parents of abused kids. And some one always steps in if it's found out.

Animals suffer silently.

Oh, COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look how many kids/spouses suffer daily abuse for months or years before---or if---they get or ask for help. And no one knows.

Any person abusing an animal of which I know will get some kind of action---by me or by the authorities. That is the easy part.

Getting action taken against child/spousal abusers is MUCH more difficult. And I have worked with kids for years----and am currently a school bus driver now.

I got both my wonderful dogs through Craigslist. Both previous owners screened us carefully. I like to keep two dogs at a time. Ideally I like to introduce a third or a puppy when common sense tells me my eldest dog may not be with me that long.

Our local shelter policies make it extremely difficult to adopt if you already have dogs at home. Another issue is that because I have large breeds I refuse to neuter males until they're 18 months old so their growth plates have closed.

Shelters and rescue want the pup spayed or neutered immediately.

I got my Rottie when she was 18 months old. She went straight from one loving home into mine. I have been criticized for not going to a rescue and also told her first family should of given her to a rescue.

Right. That would have been devastating for this high spirited trusting dog. A month of being crated and paraded around may well have destroyed her with her personality.

My best friend has worked at the local humane society for years and even she has the opinion that sometimes the best owners for the dogs are overlooked because of policies that don't take individual dogs and potential families are pushed out due to one size fits all policies.

My brother recently told me that years ago they went to the humane society to get a dog and they were refused because their current cat did not have vaccinations up to date.

My cat NEVER goes outside and was vaccinated at age 4 months. I see no point in vaccinating him when he is terrified of any door leading to the outside and never comes into contact with other animals. A dog to me is totally different.

So... I too would have a problem with this restriction. A person on Craigslist may understand this but a shelter that has to follow policies may not.

PS: I also get sad when I read how many people give up their pets.

We recently found a stray mother cat and her two kittens. Before we knew she had kittens we fell in love with her. We decided to keep her and then found the two week old kittens the next day. We took the kittens in, took them to the vet, got them the first shots, but listed them on craigslist as soon as they were ready to leave their mother. I would have LOVED to keep them but we already had another cat and my husband is NOT a cat person. I have cats (that he tolerates) because he loves me and wants me to be happy. But even he has fallen in love with this mother cat. Four cats would have been way too much for us. One of the kittens went to my neighbor's co-worker and the other went to a doctor and his wife. We checked vet references to make sure these people were established pet owners and had records of good pet care. We would not have just given them away to anyone. Since then we have gotten pictures and updates e-mailed to us about the kittens. Craigslist worked for us because we were diligent about screening potential adopters.

I was just complaining about the bad posters in Craigslist.

And every adoption of an unwanted animal to me is a rescue. It doesn't have to be through a shelter.

I just noticed this post, and I won't even TOUCH on what Fancifowl said. What a ridiculous statement - a dog should be KILLED instead of trying to be placed in a new home?? What an idiotic statment.

And Handy...you MUST be kidding.
"Getting action taken against child/spousal abusers is MUCH more difficult"...uh, no it's not. It's so much easier to get CPS involved and take kids away from their parents than it is to put someone who abuses animals behind bars.
In terms of spousal abuse, if an abused spouse would actually take action (they usually don't because many psychological factors make them stay in the relationship), then action against the abuser would be taken immediately.
"And I have worked with kids for years----and am currently a school bus driver now." Oh...I didn't realize that a school bus driver is considered someone who "works" with kids. Give me a break...you just drive them from point A to point B. I love how you use your so-called experience to prove a point, when your experience isn't even relevant! Do you really think that your "experience" as a bus driver gives you knowledge of child abuse laws and punishment? Where is the relevance?

My brother recently told me that years ago they went to the humane society to get a dog and they were refused because their current cat did not have vaccinations up to date.
In that case, visit the local city pound. They usually have many more dogs than they can handle and have to put them down frequently - so you really are saving a life. Plus usually the only requirement is having a driver's license and $50 or so.

gabro, you will argue against anything I say. So, I say nothing in the interest of peace.

Except this---the childrens parents appreciate some of the things I have helped their kids with and it is much more than transportation. Oh, and so do the teachers at the schools. They have told me so face to face.

Nice try Handy. It's impossible for you to "say nothing".

Once again, IRRELEVANT. So you are a wonderful bus driver who is very helpful to the kids...great for you. Who cares?

It's almost like you see a word (like "child") that you can somehow link to an experience you've had in your 61 years of life, and then you take that one word and combine it with that one experience to say something like "I have experience with kids, so I know all about child abuse laws". It doesn't work that way.

Try using real sources to prove a point, especially when you are talking about laws. Instead, you think people are going to buy what you're saying because you have "experience" with kids. That doesn't qualify you to know a thing about child abuse laws. You just don't get it and you never will.

I forgot, livvysmom, it's important that all animals that are required to be up to date on vaccinations, like cats, have to be because the dog could catch something and also, the shelter would worry that if the animals already in the residence aren't vaccinated, would you vaccinate the dog in the future when it's need?

I'm not saying that your brother wouldn't do all of the above, it's just that the rescues don't know him personally and have to be skeptical for the good of the animals.

The answer is to heavily regulate dog breeding and sales and trading of dogs. And also cats. I know the thought of regulation is real scary to some, especially to republicans but that, coupled with some education programs, limiting the amount of new dogs produced will fix this problem once and for all. Our society can't be relied upon to do what is right all the time. We must be forced to comply.

You seem to start fights in every thread you pop up in gabro14.

No, a bus driver isn't an expert but I'm sure they over hear a lot of things that the kids are talking about with their friends. And if they care, which it sounds like he does, will actually tell people that can intervene.

But that doesn't mean that I agree with your first reply to the post. People can speak out, animals can't. They're shut up in some one's backyard or house or basement or a cage or a closet (like a guinea pig at a person's house I babysat for *shudders*) and no one even knows about what is going on, unless they're lucky and some one finds out.

I'm outspoken, what can I say? But just do a search for my posts and you'll see that you're first statement is just not true...I am outspoken on occasion, that's all. And there are only a few people that say ridiculous things (in my eyes), and in those cases I won't hesitate to speak up. You are one of those people that I spoke to in a way you didn't like, so of course you are going to have a problem with me. That's fine, I can take it :)

I have no clue what your last paragraph was referring to, because obviously you have some reading difficulty. Are you saying that in my first reply to the post I was saying I don't care about animal abuse? What I was saying is that people don't get what they deserve for abusing animals, which is not the case with human abusers. So basically what you said in your last paragraph is the same thing I stand for. So where's the debate??

Out spoken? Actually, I was thinking hostile is the perfect word.

And I don't know what you're going on about. Where did I disagree with you in any of my paragraphs before this one?

Here, let me remind you where you disagreed with me. You wrote:
"But that doesn't mean that I agree with your first reply to the post. People can speak out, animals can't." Saying you don't agree with me is the SAME as saying you "disagree" with me, so what is your reading deficit? You STILL don't see where you disagreed with me?

Get it yet or do I need to clarify it even more?? Here, let me spell it out: i - never - said - animals - abuse - is - ok - so - your - last -paragraph - in - that - post - was - meaningless.

I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU. I forgot to write in Handymac's name.