No Suprise Here . . . Top Ten Reasons for Pet Surrender

I'm always amazed by people who move and don't take their dogs. How hard is it to put the dog in the car or on a plane so that it can move with you??

Ummm they forgot one for both cats and dogs that you hear ALL the time: HAVING A BABY. It seems that babies and pets can't live together. Who knew?

And If I were to put that list in order of the frequency you hear excuses, mine would go:

1. Moving
2. Having a baby
3. Allergies
4. No time for pet
5. Everything else

I actually haven't heard the biting one much. Usually people just can't handle that rowdy adolescent stage.

I have to wonder how much of the "having a baby" problems come from the increasing paranoia about pets and kids. Although my parents were careful not to leave me unsupervised with the dogs when I was very small (especially my mother's ancient poodle, who hated me) by the time I was in kindergarden I was pretty much allowed to play outside with the dogs, by myself. I stole my great aunt's pug when I was a bit younger than that, so I must have been alone with the little guy at least for a few minutes. And about the same time a Pembroke corgi was pretty much my constant guardian and companion. I'm not sure if I was alone with her much, but she was always there. Now, I wouldn't recommend doing it that way today, really, if only because the family pet hurting a child is SO terrible in the consequences for everyone involved.

But from the press and some rescues, even, you'd think family pets were walking menaces to children. "We only adopt to families without children" "No children under 14" "No large dogs with children" "NEVER leave your child alone with a dog, ever, even if they are 8/10/12/14 (I've seen up to 16!) "Don't let the cat near the baby or . . . <insert dire health consequence here>" You get the impression that if the family dog were to get into the baby's room, it would immediately leap into the crib, eat the baby, and then rampage through the house to get the other children. This is, simply, bunk. Pet attacks, particularly SEVERE attacks, on kids are actually pretty rare, and the perpetrator is usually not the well socialized, beloved family pet.

Note, I am NOT advocating people leaving small children, let alone infants, with ANY animal, for any length of time, unsupervised, for the sake of both the child and the animal. But in spreading the word that Fido may not immediately react to babies and children as we would like him to, I have to wonder if the idea has gotten into people's heads that children and pets don't mix . . . and that would be a tragedy.

that actually made me giggle pretty hard :rofl1:

Um.... wow, I think I can handle a dog thank you very much!!!

I do parrot rescue and have heard some doozies about why they can't keep that little parakeet, or cockatiel, macaw etc. Blows me away what people will say to get someone else to take their "troubles" off their hands.

As a mom to be with a visious breed, and a family breed, I say those who say that they cant have a dog because the are having a kid should be slapped.

Should something happen that one of the dogs did atack the kid for no reason or other behaviours that put the kid in jepordy then yes, re home. But simply because I am expecting. Arg

Yeah I'd say around 10, heck, even 8, and definately 12, that if you can't leave the kid and the and the dog alone, there is something wrong with a) the kid, b) the dog, c) your ability to plausabily assess risks.

I think there's definitely more paranoia and pampering of kids. They aren't allowed (or expected) to do as much as many generations past. Heck, a few hundred years ago things were at the other extreme--people were sending their seven year olds off to work in dangerous factories! I'm not saying we should go back to THAT but I don't think kids are idiots who are incapable of learning responsiblity and rules either. My grandma played with porcelain dolls and if those got broken or dropped, guess what--there was no money to buy a new one. If it's possible for a seven year old to learn to play nicely and carefully with a doll that will shatter into a million pieces if it's dropped, then it's possible to teach them to behave appropriately around dogs.

Yes, that saddens me. If your kid can't be trusted around the dog at age 16, then . . .



Heck, I got my dog when I was twelve. I trained her and fed her and walked her and read every dog book in the library while I was still convincing my parents to let me get a dog. To be sure I made some mistakes, but less mistakes than my parents would have made--they still thought shoving a dog's nose into her mess was a good housebreaking method. Oh, and my dad thought only small dogs belonged in the house and wanted to build a doghouse outside. Thankfully I was able to convince them not to do either of those things.

My mother insisted that Dad rehome a terrier that he'd gotten right before she got pregnant with me. He was a second-hand dog (rescue wasn't really said back then) and by all accounts, a nasty little thing. After he bit Mom, twice, she told Dad that the dog had to go before she gave birth. He ended up with an elderly couple with no kids. I think that was probably the right call, but they hadn't had that dog long, and he was a known biter.

I never get the moving one. We used to live in NSW, had 2 dogs and a cat, moved to North QLD, pakced them all into the car and drove with them, they were all soo good about it to, Panda became a fantastic traveller (just hated be crated int eh car, had to be allowed out)

Then we flew them all to the top end, by the tiem we left there to come back to QLD we had 4 dogs and a cat and they ALL flew with us. Absolute terror when we got to the airport to put our baggage in and they said "sorry, your 5 minutes late, we can't let you on" with some swearing comeing from all of us (not at her) and telling her we had 5 animals on the plane and no one to pick them up at the other end they rushed us through thank god.

When we got to the other end they all came out on a trailer thing, the guy asked "which one is yours?" and we said all of them, the look on his face was pricelss but got even better when we said "and the cat"

Its amazing the amount of people that are shocked when they relise we brought them all down wiht us.

And I keep having friends tell me that I simply won't be able to take Buster when I move out because I won't possibly find a place to live with him.
Okay, so I'll leave him at home where he isn't particularily attached to anyone else, won't get the training, excercise or time he needs and we'll miss eahc other like hell. No thanks, I'll make it work.

I don't gethe baby thing either, we were all raised with animals. We got knocked down a lot by tails because all 3 dogs were big dogs but it taught us good balance lol.

Buster hasn't had much exposure to kids, but he did meet a few toddlers when he was younger and had no issues whatsoever. If I ever do have a kid while I still have him it will be very closely supervised. Iknow once Buster relises its "his" kid though, it would be the safest kid on the planet

I think there are "dog lovers" even "pet lovers" and "not really dog lovers". None of us would consider any of these reasons a good enough reason to not live with and love your dog/pet.

Others just dont love them to the degree we do. It's easy for them to let go of them without a second thought. They would not spend hours talking about the dogs, sharing pictures, training hem etc. They are not "dog lovers."

I think that's very perceptive. I think its not just dogs, but all pets. I have the attitude, received from my parents, that once you take a creature into your care, it is your responsibility for life. Even if you can't keep it (and you do everything, everything in your power to do so) then you make sure it goes to a good home. If that's not possible, then you take the responsibility for having it put to sleep.

Even that nasty little terrier, which, from what I heard, Mom wanted out of the house right then after the second bite, was found a good home (or at least one were they'd put up with him!). When I moved from Charlottesville to DC, I boarded my fish, at an outrageous price, because I had Oscars, and grown Oscars can't be rehomed . . . no one wants an agressive 12 inch fish for some reason! I've moved all over the country, from Virginia to Kentucky to Arizona (3 times in Arizona) to Chicago to Virginia to Northern Virgina with the same cats, and for most of that time, a chinchilla, and it never occured to me to leave any of them behind. I know many other people, not just on Chaz, who have this philosophy.

But I'm afraid that many people don't. Some are worse than others, to be sure, but many, many people don't think of a pet relationship as a "until death do us part" relationship. It strikes me as very odd that people just give up pets for virtually no reason . . .but they do.

The only reason that is slightly excusable is the landlord issues. But I would try my **** best to find a place that will accept my dog. If not I guess we'll be sleeping in the car

You would have to pry my dog from my cold dead fingers. That is all I will say.

same here.

Well, to be fair, I think having a baby can be a valid "excuse" sometimes. I mean, if it's unplanned it might place the parents in a financial situation they just weren't anticipating and they may be unable to afford their dog anymore. I'm really talking about the people who are already in a precarious financial spot without the baby

I dunno in some cases I say I agree with that one Pam but at the same time Im a single mother to a infant and a big dog and I found a way to make it work. Yea I may have to live without some of the things I would like to have but thats the price I pay to have them.

There may be situations where people are even worse off, though if they are, they should be taking every precaution not to get pregnant. There will be always be understandable situations where dogs have to be rehomed, and some of those situations will involve someone having a baby. I don't think my parents did the wrong thing rehoming a known biter when Mom became pregnant. There might have been other options, but I think that was a reasonable choice, especially because they did right by the dog and found it another home. There are definately cases were finances might come into play, or landlord issues. Its just that many people don't look at the other options, don't try to find a solution, and simply dump their pet at a shelter (if its lucky) without a backwards look.