An anonymous reader posted a comment over the weekend in response to our blog about community involvement in caring for feral cats. The comment questions our care for the pets at the Robins-Starr Humane Center.

The Richmond SPCA is committed to finding a loving home for every cat and dog in our care and for ending needless loss of life for homeless animals in our community. The writer is correct that we do not perform invasive background checks as part of our adoption process. The adoption procedure at the Richmond SPCA is one often referred to as “open adoptions.” This means that in most cases we try to find a way to make a placement work – by providing education and other tools to help a new adopter provide the best home possible for a pet – rather than seeking reasons to disqualify a person from bringing a pet into his or her home. 

While there are several reasons that our counselors can deny an adoption, we take any denial very seriously and would prefer to provide education to help the adopter become a better pet guardian whenever possible. Consider that being denied adoption by a humane group does not prevent a person from acquiring a pet. It simply sends him or her to seek another source. Pets available for sale through pet stores or newspaper and internet advertisements do not come with the education and training resources we provide and usually are not spayed/neutered and vaccinated, as are all pets adopted from the Richmond SPCA. We would rather a person chose adoption and be given the support we can provide, and every adoption at our center is two lives saved. When you adopt from the Richmond SPCA, you’ve enabled us to save the life of another homeless animal in our community.

Today’s blog author is Tabitha Hanes, community relations manager at the Richmond SPCA.

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