To think animal shelter charities push potential pet adopters towards breeders with their absurdly stringent adoption criteria?

[Thepeopleversuswork]

OK so I’m probably being grumpy about this because I have had bad experiences and maybe unfair.

But I have just been turned down for a third time in five years trying the adopt a cat, apparently (as far as I can tell) because I have a job and live in a city.

I’m a middle aged woman living in a quiet street on the outskirts of SE London with my own home and a teenager and partner. I have sufficient income to support a cat. I have a large back garden. I am an animal lover who has had cats before.

The last two charities I have applied to had ridiculously detailed diligence procedures including several home visits and a dodgy quasi isometric test. Another agency which imports stray cats from overseas required me to send videos of the traffic on every street within a half mile radius and character references.

After weeks of consideration I was told in each case that I couldn’t adopt due to traffic risk.

I get that the volunteers at these places become very attached to their animals and of course it’s only right that people are vetted before taking an animal, especially one that has been mistreated. But the rigmarole in the application process is ludicrously over the top and it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that they basically don’t want you to adopt a cat unless you live in a huge rural stately home and don’t have a job. As soon as they hear the word “London“ or any indication that you work outside the home they basically rule you out in my experience.

I’ve now gone down the route of getting a cat via Gumtree but it makes me sad and it seems so self defeating; these charities are putting well meaning and committed animal lovers off applying and making it far easier for unscrupulous people to breed and sell animals.

Can anyone who works for one of these charities try to explain why it’s so difficult?

We adopted a cat from overseas through World Animal Friends. We had one visit to look at the house, then the cat was delivered in a carrying crate. No problem. I live just off a main road in Brighton.

I totally agree. Some rescues are completely unrealistic in their criteria.

I've had a similar problem but many of the rescues won't adopt to me because my garden is cat proofed and I won't let a cat roam. Another excuse for not allowing me to adopt is that I don't have a spare room (one rescue said surely I must have a room I don't use, as if I didn't know!). Another I didn't even bother applying to as although they were happy with cat proofing, it had to be done professionally. DH did ours and it's worked fine for years but I presumed they'd want proof. They also wanted to know whether we'd be trying for children in the next 10 years!

There are good rescues out there, I know that, but many seem to have too many tick box questions.

I think you’ve picked a couple of extreme examples. I don’t think they’re all like that.

I have no idea, but it might be worth your while finding out if there are any smaller independent charities; these are often more sensible in their approach. I have five rescue moggies from a small rescue that is local to me. They don't have the wherewithal to do extensive home checks, but operate on a referral system and it works well. They will adhere to what the cat needs, so some cannot go outside (Feline Leukaemia positive, not outdoor savvy (one of mine is like that), other neuro issues (I have one with wobbly cat syndrome) and will make it very clear that some cats have to be adopted in pairs while others have to be onlies, but the system works. If an adoption doesn't work, they will take the cat back. I now volunteer for them doing vet runs etc and helping with fundraising.

A similar group might work for you.

I've never had any problems. I got my first rescue cat about 15 years ago via a local rescue centre, second 2 kittens 2 years ago through CPL. I live on one of the main roads going into a small town in the East Midlands.
Saying that they did visits (first cat) and second 2 kittens didn't do a home check but did check out our home on Google maps ensuring we had fencing (which they clear in 1 jump lol )
We got a dog via breeder and they did ask lots of questions making sure we had good background, garden and time to walk the dog and groom her (Samoyed so somewhat of a handful of they're on full floofy bark mode)

I accidentally got three, when I only wanted one, from a local tiny charity. The asked for a video of the downstairs of the house (to show where the litter trays would go) and that was it! I went to the Foster carers house to collect, while I wS there, the charity manager called and said "Well the other two need a home too, you know!"
So I took all three!

They're fabulous cats. So glad I got bamboozled!

Good luck, it is possible with the small fb charities.

We have only ever had rescues and not had any problems. My cat is 5 now.

There was a lot of jumping through hoops looking for a dog rescue 6 years ago. Eventually we got a Rommie rescue.

A friend couldn't get a rescue dog from the larger charities because she works FT even though she had permission to take the dog in. She eventually got a Jack Russell cross that happily spends its days with her at her office.

I had no issue with cats protection- we didn’t mind what we rescued happy with older cats. Live in a quiet street in a busy town. Garden is average size & has - 6ft fence. The children were both young as well.

With dogs they have a tighter restriction- I’ve worked with a dog rescue and their aim is very much to match with the right family. This is so the dog doesn’t get rejected again -it horrible when a rescue dog is returned and then needs to find another home for them. They are also very honest with the dogs issue (biting, guarding etc) so will at times only rehome to a family with no children. An issue is often with the oversea rescues these checks aren’t fully done.

YANBU OP. I have experienced the same on a couple of occasions with shelters in London. Ridiculous.

IME breed-specific rescues can be unbelievably over-zealous; however I adopted a dog from the local council-run dogs home in 2021 and they were brilliant. Wanted pictures of the garden to be sure it was secure, 2 meetings with the dog and then he was ours! He’s a total knob but we adore him.

I don't disagree. I ended up privately adopting one in the second lockdown. Her owner at the time had a change in circumstances and was not able to keep her. She was on the list to go to Battersea but they were not taking any more animals in at the time. She lives her absolute best life here, wanders into the semi- cat proofed garden but not further (she's a middle aged lady), and has me entirely under her paw.
I had been turned down by two national organisations previously for similarly profiled cats (timid, not known to wander far) because I live 200m from a motorway and an A road. They seem to have blanket rules for all cats regardless of profile/character.

Weird.
We recently adopted a pair of cats via Battersea. They were practically throwing them at us! We called to make an enquiry, the following day we all went to see the cats and took them home. We live in suburbia, only have a small garden and two children.
I'd expected they'd want a home visit, but no.

I'm 67 and have had cats since I was five, with only about four cat free years during that time. My previous two cats died at 20 and 21 respectively, and after a couple of months without a cat, the house just didn't seem right. I have a fairly big house with a large garden, and although it's not cat proofed, a cat would have to travel through many gardens before it could easily find a way through to the road. I contacted probably the biggest animal adoption organisation in London and filled in a detailed questionnaire. They replied to say that they didn't think I was suitably experienced for one of their cats! Another major cat rescue told me that unless I would provide a guarantee that I would never let a cat outside, they wouldn't let me have one of their cats or kittens because I live in a main road. The branch is quite local and they would know that it's not a very busy main road. I tried several other rescues, local vets, etc but I particularly wanted a kitten and none of them had any at that time (it was January a couple of years ago). The big cat rescue organisations made it so difficult that Im afraid I gave up and got a kitten from an online advert.

Yes we had a problem with adopting a dog due to house and garden layout. We are semi-rural backing onto a hill but they didn't like the garden being terraced.

So we went for a puppy in the end. So short sighted!

Never had the same problem with a cat though even when did live on busy road some years back.

It was Battersea I was referring to in my post above who said I was too inexperienced - after around 60 years of living with a cat!

We got our 3 from Workd Animal Friends as well because no local charities would let us adopt as we have dogs.

So easy and straightforward.

3 years on and they're all still alive, in one piece and haven't been savaged by the dogs so we must be doing something right 😂

The rescue centre tried to tell me a child under 8 couldn’t live safely with a dog. I pointed out we’d had a dog since before the kids were born so they’d been around dogs since they were babies. But they insisted we would have to wait three years until our youngest was eight. So we went “fuck that” and bought a puppy. Yes, their criteria are ridiculous.

I agree. Several friends have been turned down by a range of charities for reasons including having a child or living in an upstairs flat (with a stairs down to the garden). I know these people well, and any cat would be lucky to find such owners and homes.

It creates a market not only for pedigree breeders but also for people to sell kittens and puppies on Gumtree or similar sites.

@Growlybear83 We went to the Old Windsor branch and they were inundated with cats. I'd have taken more than two if DH had let me!

…I follow a lot of these charities on Facebook, as we wanted a dog at one point. Seems to me that a number of these charities aren’t too interested in rehoming pets, but very interested in getting money sent to them. In other words they are people who own a lot of animals, have no intention of rehoming any, and badge themselves as a “rescue” to get money, to pay for their pets.

I tried contacting rescues and never got response to my enquiry - I unexpectedly got a kitten last week because my friends friend was selling the litter plus she lived really close to me and I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity as I didn’t know when I’d get another one.

I get why the checks are in place but it was so much easier forking out under £100 for a kitten and being able to get her within a couple of days.

@CeratopsofthePharoahs I contacted the main Battersea branch as we don't live very far away. I was amazed by their response. I was less surprised by Celia Hammond refusing us a cat on the grounds of our road because a number of other people on our road have been refused too. I've lived in this road for almost 50 years and can only remember three cats having been run over in that time. Most people in the road are in our street WhatsApp group and there have been no injured cats in the four years it's been going.

Have you tried Celia Hammond OP? They rehome very sensibly I hear. They might only rehome in pairs if they think you won’t be home often enough.

We must have gone to the same charity - I was turned down because I did not have a spare room as well, I worked full-time and the cat would be LONELY. Another charity thought that children (not toddler age, sensible and used to cats) is a danger, and that it was suspicious that our previous cat died aged 15, as cats are supposed to live much longer.

I got my cat from a breeder who is well known in the breed, and she did not ask even a tenth of the questions. I let her have kittens (mixed breed) once for all the people who don't want to buy a purebred for £0000 or go to the backyard for-profit breeders. All went for free, to families who similarly struggled to adopt.