Pets at Home teaming up with cat charities to 'sell' cats?

[Sparklingbrook]

Here Daily mail link-sorry.

This sounds awful, so assume the DM has got it's facts wrong. How on earth will it work?

That just seems like the worst idea ever, I hope it doesn't go ahead. There must be another way to get people to consider adopting a cat.

There must be more to it surely? Pay the fee then pick up the cat the next day? No Home Visit then?

Agree. I have a stray on my hands at the minute and he will not go to any of these charities if this is what is happening. Would rather find him a good home myself

Apparently there will be someone in store to interview the people, but no home visits. CHAT are opposed to the idea.

I am a Home Visitor.

The home visits are really important though, you have no way of knowing if people are telling the truth. People would probably say yes to anything because they have seen a cat they like.

When we adopted Albert one of the things they wanted was proof the housing association was ok with us having a pet. I thought that was a really good idea as a lot of people get a pet even though their landlord doesn't allow it and those cats or dogs could potentially end up back in foster care when they get told to either get rid or move out.

We also got to discuss how we could help him settle in to our home and how we would ensure he had quiet time away from the children.

I did hear of some rescues where people have owned cats before checking with the vets instead of an HV.

But doing away with any sort of check would be awful. The area/busy roads for a start.

There is a PaH near me which has an RSPCA rescue centre "shopfront" within the store with 2 enclosures for cats - I only noticed it recently but apparently it's been there for 18 months. I went over to look at the cats, couldn't resist even though we can't adopt more at the moment, & spent quite a long time chatting to the RSPCA lady there. She said the cats are all from local branches and tend to be the cats which they are struggling to rehome for whatever reason. They all have homechecks etc as they would from any of the other RSPCA centres. On the day that I looked, there was a lovely black & white young adult female which had been approved for adoption and just waiting for homechecks etc. In the other enclosure were 2 younger cats together, both under 1 year, both black & white, who had been ignored at their first bigger centre because they were more timid and had sat back out of the way. They were quite playful in their pen and the lady had no doubt they would generate a lot of interest & she was hopeful they would be rehomed quickly. Apparently a lot of the cats they move to the PaH centre have been languishing in other RSPCA centres for longer than 6 months, after they have been moved they are usually adopted within a few weeks so as long as they are doing all the usual checks it sounds as if it could be a good thing for the cats from that point of view. They also had a folder of other "hard to rehome" cats from the local rescues, some of the stories were truly heartbreaking.

what I didn't like about the PaH setup was that the cats didn't have a great deal of privacy, they were in floor to ceiling glassfronted enclosures although there was a corner boarded off & there were ample beds, hideyholes and big scratching-post playcentres in the enclosures.

I know at least one breed rescue that asks for vet letters, Sparkling, but you also get quite a rigorous (albeit subtle) telephone grilling to see if they like the cut of your jib.

Oh right cozie, that's good then.

It doesn't sit well with me either sparkling, I can imagine lots of cats being very stressed by this.

My opinion of pah wasn't high anyway but it's less now.

I volunteer for CP locally, am going to be direct and ask outright.

Where do the cats go at night? If that's not too stupid a question.

And dogs too!!!

I think people are being a bit sanctimonious on this thread.

The promised pre- and post- adoption visit for our (reputable) rescue cat never materialised - and I presume a lot of rescues preserve resources by making private judgements about who needs extra checks.

Overall though, adopting a rescue cat is far, far more hassle than a kitten -the intrusive screening, the fact that you get much less choice (our rescue gave us a choice of two based on their view of cats temperament to our family set up) and also the fact that as an older cat, she hit expensive geriatric health troubles sooner than a kitten.

Putting rescue cats somewhere visible and accessible just makes it more likely they'll be placed and not just with martyr middle class do-gooders . There is no mention of the criteria being looser to adopt. Presumably it will be the process we went through, which was a face-to-face interview, ID checks and signing a waiver agreeing to spot-checks on the cats welfare.

I don't like the idea either.

But I have to say, I adopted a young cat from the RSPCA many moons ago. I was fairly young(about 20), was asked minimal questions and had no homecheck at all.

Luckily for them he had the life of riley for 16 years but they did nothing to help ensure this would happen at all.

I don't understand your crossed out bit Kif. I am not sure what you are trying to say.
Our local CP does their best to match cat to family as that's their job.They always do a Home Visit too.

If it is like similar programmes run in the US, the store provides an accessible space for people to come and see some of the animals that are looking for a home at xyz charity. You fill a form and the charity takes over from there.

The viewings are only once a week, usually on a weekend and the animals go back to the rescue after a few hours/end of the day. Fees you pay are to cover neutering expenses ( as you would if adopting directly from the rescue). The store is not "selling" the animals, just providing a space where people can see that there are, actually, some very nice cats and dogs looking for a new home.

It is easier for a person to find pets at home than going to far away and often not connected by public transport places where the animals are kept.
It is also less intimidating than going to a Rescue centre. I have to say that after being told by my local RSPCA that they won't consider us as they didn't give dogs to foreigners, I would be more likely to get a dog from a breeder/pets at home than trying to adopt one from a centre ever again.

I believe Battersea has just started doing this. If I've understood correctly it's just a bit of outreach - a way of attracting people who might not drop into battersea. But everything about the adoption process is the same as if people had started the process at one of the main centres, or online. The cats are just day visitors to pets at home - they are taken back to battersea at the end of the day.

Cats protection put out a press release about this on their fb today link they're getting a lot of bad reactions.

I think we need to give some established rescues a little credit. Hully was meant to be subject to a home check .... However the rescuer was pleased enough with the 40 minute grilling I gave her combined with Internet stalking.

In turn she had googled my property, checked I owned it and nosed my out on Facebook and Twitter.

We did have to bring Hully to visit her though :-D

So in some cases they may forgo a HC because they are happy already.

meMy my friend got told that by the RSPCA too despite being a British national.

DogsTrust were fine though actually took an interest beyond her accent.

I actually think it's a great idea if managed properly. Pah are offering a shop window to the charities so they'll hopefully get adoptions from people that wouldn't normally consider adopting.

By the sounds of it the charities will still be responsible for the animals and the rehoming process so it's not like pah are pimping kittens.

sparkling the martyr do-gooder crossed out bit is because you have be of a certain mind-set to think that it makes sense to jump through hoops, pay more and put up with intrusive questions in order to get an older cat, who is less cute, and may have imminent health problems. Yes, the perfect animal owner would go to the ends of the earth to support their moggie - but there are plenty of 'good enough' pet owners out there, that could give an abandoned cat a second chance.

Anything that removes unnecessary barriers has to be a good thing. Motorway miles are an unnecessary barrier!

(e.g. we were told they wouldn't place a young cat or a kitten with us since our youngest child was under 2. Which is fair enough... but, to be honest, I think when this old-lady pops her clogs I think I'll just get a kitten from a breeder, because I'd like to raise a cat from kitten. )

And yy that the rescues tend to be in the middle of nowhere, and you have to go there a few times to choose, be interviewed etc.

All issues that are understandable as stemming out of concern for the cats - which is why I think it's a good thing to try to reduce barriers in other areas - to make sure that the net effect is not that the cats simply remain unplaced.