Should rescues loosen their criteria?

[TheOGCCL]

I'm a cat lover and involved remotely with supporting a few rescues get their cats online. I also know how many cats are killed on the roads each year. And that if you've gone to the trouble of rescuing a cat, you don't want it coming to harm. Of course some cats are also not suitable for outdoors.

But there seem to be so many cats in care at the moment and more coming via the cost of living crisis and rescues are still so strict. My parents are open to having a cat and one rescue said 'we can see you live in a built up area' so not safe. My parents live in London, the whole place is built up and they have a big terraced house and leafy garden. People like that this are likely to get a cat privately, which perpetuates the idea that this is OK and there'll always be people to give kittens to.

Are there enough perfect homes?

Perhaps for some cats, better a new home, with some level of risk, than a shelter cell?

Ugh, yes - my cat (now 16) was bought as a kitten, after we'd gone from rescue to rescue and being turned down for spurious reasons, including me being 15 (we had a fenced garden, not a main road etc). In the end we ended up responding to an ad in the pet shop. Obviously love my cat to pieces but it would have been lovely to rehome a cat.

Yes they definately do need to relax their criteria. Because now people are looking elsewhere and thats why Gumtree etc are exploiting the situation, l know lots of people who struggled with trying to rehome a rescue animal so they went down other routes. l
l have two sisters, all have us have rehomed and taken on strays past 25 yrs, we have 12 cats between us, mostly rescue and strays all of these cats intergrated without any problems and live happily alongside one another, they live a life of luxury and are spoilt, so l think the rescue centres are way too strict about not rehoming if you already have a cat, obviously there will be some instances where not suitable.

I live in London and was turned down by all of the cat rescue centres because we lived too near a main road. Not on a main road, but at it. Wth. It’s London. Every where has a main road. I tried to explain we lived in an area with huge communal gardens that had high fences but it wasn’t good enough.

It was incredibly frustrating because the last thing I wanted to do was buy off Gumtree or something because that felt like belong monetising people irresponsibly selling animals. So I was trying to do something in the best interest of the animal but turned down.

In the end a woman on an FB group offered me her kittens because she had seen me asking about adopting from abroad. She was an absolute Diamond of a woman and drove them over from Cambridge - she just wanted to make sure they were going to a good home. Didn’t trust cat rescue centres to not just leave them to languish in kennels because of their stringent rules. They have never left our communal gardens and have a wonderful life.

We just adopted another kitten recently from a local woman who had the same reasoning - she knew how strict the centres are and just wanted to make sure he had a forever home.

The irony that we got all 3 of our cats from people who didn’t want them to go to rescue centres is not lost on me.

Just to say I also live in London and have not had any issues getting a rescue cat - and I live in central London. I guess shelters have the right to decide exactly who gets their cats, I just think sometimes it's 'perfect world' mentality.

I agree with a pp that it's a shame you often can't visit shelters now to look around. I remember going to a large RSPCA one pre Covid with a friend and she ended up with two cats she wouldn't have imagined as they caught her eye.

A long time ago now but CPL were so rude, dismissive and unhelpful to me that I went to an “unofficial” rescue and got my lovely kittens, who lived happily to 16 and 17 respectively. I’m trying not to be tempted into having any more cats, but if I do, I won’t go near any of the bigger rehoming charities.

We ended up getting a kitten even though I wanted an older cat. Some of the reasons for us being turned down by an independent rescue are below...

We were a married couple in our 20's with no children. What if we had children and they're allergic to cats?

We lived near a (shallow) stream.

There was a railway two roads away.

There were already cats living on our road who would have already claimed their territory, there would be no territory for our cat to claim without fighting.

It was a (quiet) cul-de-sac with a pedestrian passage at the end. Footfall could scare the cat.

Almost 10 years later our old boy is doing fine and both of our children love him. I would have liked to have rescued a cat and not bought a kitten but it wasn't meant to be.

The rescue I got mine from
Were really chilled out. They checked I had an enclosed garden. And that was it. Though the fact I was willing to pay a hefty adoption fee, and drive over a 100 miles to pick them up probably helped!

Agreed. I do think however, it does depend on the people representing the Rescue centres and how fussy they are. When I approached CPL it seemed they wanted:

• No dogs


• No other cats (but please take at least 2 of our rescues)


• Private garden


• Not on or near a busy road


• High fences surrounding the garden


• No children under 8


• Previous experience as a cat owner


• Cat owner who does not work full time

With such stringent rules no wonder the cats all have difficulty being rehomed! I do understand that some of those rules would be applicable to some cats - but surely not all?

I ended up adopting a feral cat who decided to live with me and then lived for over 18 years. None of the criteria above has ever been detrimental to my cats.

When my first cat passed away however, the CPL did approve my application despite once again not meeting all the rules above. That cat is now 10 years.

I’ve just had my elderly chocolate Asian PTS - lymphoma amongst other problems - would be delighted to offer a rescue a home ( any age ) - briefly looked at rescues yesterday but the majority of kittens / cats say no to other cats - we have a cat and an old softy dog and in London so looks like I’ll be off to a breeder - shame

I think the 'previous cat experience' and 'no young DC' are the big ones. We live on a busy road, but the RSPCA had no problem letting us have a cat. I suspect that people who've never had cats before regularly dump them because they're being cats i.e. they catch and dismember small rodents/birds, they scratch the furniture, puke up fur balls, etc. Any previous owner knows and accepts that those things are just part of being a cat owner.

Primary aged children was the big blocker for us. What was really annoying was that is wasn't explicit. 'We will home our animals to families with children of any age, as long as the animal will suit this'. And guess what? In months of looking absolutely none of the animals would suit that.

We have a large house with a secure private garden in a cul-de-sac location. We are experienced cat owners, with over 30 years of cat ownership between us. Our primary aged children spent their early years living with those cats, then cantankerous and elderly, learning to be patient and respectful.

But still - all five of the rescues close to us (both small local ones and big nationals) rejected/ignored us, over and over. We ended up adopting from overseas.

We got a cat from Wood Green Animal Shelter and it was all very straightforward - they seem to strike a good balance.

Definitely. I have a big house with a walled garden on a quiet residential road. I was told I couldn’t rescue as my house was on a road. All houses are on a road unless you live in a stately home or a on a farm. I have no idea how anyone ever managed to adopt a cat from them. I went to a breeder instead 🤷‍♀️. I wanted a cat, knew I could offer a good home, tried to do the responsible thing but was rejected.

I can see their point though, main roads aren’t ideal and young kids can be really rough with animals, they’d easily kill a kitten.

Our girl was up for adoption for a year because people with kids kept trying to apply for her despite the bio clearly stating this cat does not like kids.

She likes food, sleep and quiet. She’s me in feline form.

I've adopted from both Cats Protection and the RSPCA in the past and had no issues. Maybe it varies by area?

@Fluffycloudland77 main roads aren’t ideal, no. My house is on a quiet road in a residential area. My kids often play footie in the road and rarely have to move to the pavement for the 45 minutes or so that they’re out there. I was declined as a potential adopter simply because my house (with an entirely walled garden anyway that I was willing to cat proof) was on a road at all.

Totally agree. We were refused because we worked full time. Bought a cat who was perfectly content sleeping on the wall outside / prowling about / sleeping on our sofa while we were at work.

Absolutely agree. Unfortunately I live on a busy road into a small town. 17 years ago, the CPL cleared me to adopt 2 kittens. One is still alive and well, the other died of kidney disease last year. Neither has ever had a run in with the road. I back on to open land and they prefer to go that way rather than out front on to the road.

Last year I tried to adopt more kittens. Not a single charity or sanctuary would countenance me doing so because of the road. I was forced to give money to a private owner of an unneutered cat. I would far rather have been allowed to rescue some kittens. I do think my large garden backing on to open land, my decades of experience of owning cats, my grown up family of cat lovers, and all sorts of other factors far outweigh the slight chance one cat might get run over on a busy road that most cats would naturally avoid anyway.

Also, people move house. There's no guarantee that the "perfect" adopters won't then move onto a busy main road.

Our rescue organisations have criteria, they also do home and

The thing is, there are risks everywhere. Cats could catch a disease, fall from a height, be attacked by another animal or round here, they’re at risk from that fucking cat killer.

Rescue centres, by trying to mitigate against every scenario of harm, are actually causing animals to languish for unnecessarily long periods in their kennels. How is that in the best interests of their animals? The vast majority of people that didn’t meet the stringent criteria are highly likely to have been able to provide a high living standard for their pet - as proven by all of us that did get turned down, found a car by other means, and had it live happily ever after.

Cat, not car 😳

Yes they should. I had a cat killed by a car so when I went to get another cat I wanted it to be indoor. None of my local rescues would entertain it at all, not even come for an interview, despite my house being full of cat trees, shelves etc and a catio. It’s completely bonkers, some cats have been in cages with no outside access in rescues for years and that’s better than a loving home? My house is probably more cat friendly than a lot of homes that they go to!

I have two spoilt pedigrees now but it still annoys me, 5 years later, that I couldn’t rescue!

Our cat has lived on two very busy main roads. My experience is that it’s actually safer than intermittent traffic. Our road in London, every neighbour around us has a cat and has children. If they are ruling out anyone in a town or city (because of the road) or families then that is madness. Is that really the case?

It is hard when I see our local shelter begging for homes for their kittens and they never even came and did a home check for me. Just looked on a map, dismissed our road and wouldn't listen to me when I explained that the new road changes in our area meant our road was quiet.

Another shelter were fine with us though. They had a rule about distance from A roads and bus routes which was pretty minimal. We adopted our cat and he barely leaves our back garden.