December 21, 2008

Though giving pets as gifts may be tempting, the allure can quickly wear off and result in surrenders, shelters warn. (Pet Pulse Illustration by Tim Mattson)

NEW YORK -- It's a gift that keeps on giving -- at least 12 years, on average, of walks, feedings, and, of course, snuggles and licks.

But to those people who think a puppy or a kitten would make for the ultimate Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa present, a few shelters would recommend considering an iPod touch, instead.

"We don't do adoptions from Dec. 22 through Dec. 26," said Pat Wallace, executive director of the Jersey Shore Animal Shelter, in Brick, N.J. "We don't want anyone to adopt a pet to give away as a gift. If someone wants a pet, they can certainly wait until after Christmas time.

"We are worried that people will get animals for the wrong reason."

Yet, the need to maintain a steady rate of adoptions remains across the county, especially as many shelters are seeing their output rates dip, right alongside the Dow Jones.

"There is a tremendous need this year for people to adopt during the holidays because finances are really taking a toll on our numbers," said Steve Gruber, spokesman for the NYC Mayor's Alliance, a coalition that encompasses 140 rescues and shelters in the city region.

"We are really encouraging that people who can adopt and make that commitment, please do so during the holiday season. That is our message."

That assessment is a personal one, however, and should not be made for others -- in other words, shelters say, "adopt for yourself, but not for others."

Even if holiday shoppers want to adopt an animal for a friend or family member, they probably will get turned away at the door.

If a person visits a New York City shelter with the intention of acquiring an animal for someone else, "we will just politely tell them that they can't adopt today," said Richard Gentles, spokesman of New York City's Animal Care and Control.

"We will tell them that we can place a courtesy hold on the animal, but that the eventual owner will have to come in and meet the pet, first," he said. "This is something you need to do in person. We want to make sure there is a good match."

Don't bother trying to snag a puppy as a gift at most other shelters -- from Michigan to Iowa, a similar anti-gift policy holds strong.

"We want to keep our regular adoptions going, but we don't adopt pets out as gifts," said Heather Mehi, shelter manager of the Dearborn Animal Shelter in Dearborn, Mich. "The pet you chose for someone else might not be the pet that would chose them, or vice versa."

Like many other centers, the Dearborn Animal Shelter offers gift certificates, giving people the chance to return at a later date and personally select their pet.

The practice has worked well for the Humane Society of the Black Hills, in Black Hills, Iowa, says office manager Becky Rossum.

"The gift certificates let people come back and get an animal when they are ready to," she said. "It helps us weed out people who are really serious about this."

The goal isn't to make the adoption process so intensive that it prevents any matches, let alone successful ones, says John Van Zante, spokesman of Home 4 the Holidays, an organization that is striving to place one million animals in homes by Jan. 5.

The effort is international, with shelters, organizations and even U.S. Marines on board in more than 30 countries, including Iran, Iraq, Cyrpus, India, Guam and Australia.

"We realized that some shelters and rescue groups have been traditionally turning away families, it doesn't mean the families don't get pets," Van Zante explained.

"It just meant that they weren't getting pets from us. With that logic, you might as well draw up a map and show them how to get to the puppy store at the nearest mall."

The organization launched in 1999, after it was reported that 40,000 orphaned dogs and cats were euthanized in San Diego the previous year.

Instead of shying away from adoptions during the holiday season, Van Dante and the Helen Woodward Animal Shelter, located in San Diego, decided to use the holiday spirit to their benefit.

Potentially facing a few returns of animals to shelters following the holiday season would be worth it, they reasoned.

"We knew that the holiday season generally had a lot of adoptions," Van Dante said. "Our question was, 'Were there many returns after the first of the year?' "

There weren't actually high percentages of returns, animal shelters across the country informed the organization.

"We realized, that even if two out of 100 pets adopted during this time got returned, it still beat all the euthanasia of other animals that never got adopted to begin with," Van Dante said.

One hundred and thirty shelters and rescue groups adopted Home 4 the Holiday's message in 2000, facilitating 19,998 adoptions across the country. Last year, Home 4 the Holidays saw 491,612 adoptions across the world.

This year, it is hoping one million animals will find forever homes.

While Home 4 the Holidays advocates for adoptions during this time of the year, it is a stickler in trying to ensure that the term "forever home" actually holds true.

"It simply isn't a decision that you can make for someone else," Van Dante said of giving a pet as a gift.

The intentions behind selecting a pet as a present are often pure, he says, but misguided.

Van Dante recalled seeing an elderly woman in January 2001, struggling to control a "gorgeous" bull dog that pulled her down a San Diego street.

When he asked if he could help her, the woman opened up about all the assistance she really needed, but her grandchildren had failed to anticipate when they got her the puppy for Christmas.

"She said to me, 'My grandkids decided I was lonely. My husband died, my other dog died and they thought I needed some company. They got me this puppy, but it came into my house not housebroken. I get out of bed in the morning and step in poo. I have to go to the chiropractor because it is hurting my shoulder and hip,' " he recalled.

The dog wasn't a bad dog, the woman concluded, but it just wasn't "her dog."

She wound up surrendering the puppy that afternoon.

"It's the perfect example of why you can't buy a new best friend for someone else," Van Dante explained. "It's not a thing. It's a life."

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