anyone in Surrey area ....

michi_30885 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 01, 2011 4:28 pm

i understand they're cautious to possibly reduce the number of cats and dogs and other domestic pets being returned for one reason or another, maybe with having another pet at home, they might fight, owners get worried and return the newly rehomed pet? but with people owning more than one bengal, surely that's experience enough for them to reconsider?! :evil:

i really don't understand it, especially with people not doing their research on different breeds, people who don't know bengals have their expectations on 'what a bengal should be like' and when it doesn't fit their ideal, they get returned anyway!

what's not to say that an owner with more than one will be a better owner than one who's never owned a bengal? or shall i say, owned by a bengal :lol:

shebajet · **Posted:** Thu Dec 01, 2011 7:35 pm

Ah, I should admit something here - I volunteer for the RSPCA in quite a few roles, but one of the most important is the fact that I am one of the dreaded "home checkers"!!!

Admittedly, to date after 5 years of doing this, I have only had to turn down 3 families - 2 wanted a puppy but had a tiny baby (under 3 months old), which would have been Ok with the right dog, but they wanted a very boisterious young and very big pup. In the end I managed to persuade them to have a slightly older dog each on a 2nd visit (these dogs both settled really well and the families adore them).

The last case was very sad. On the application form (she applied for 2 kittens) she said that she lived on a quiet road. Luckily I knew the area, and at night it is quiet, but during the day it's used as a "rat run" by very fast traffic. Also, on visiting, I discovered that she had another 10 (yes, TEN) cats - 6 of which were pregnant. This lady became the subject of an RSPCA investigation and she was later found to have 14 outstanding bans on keeping animals as well as 17 dogs.

A puppy & kitten farm which was immediately closed down. The lady was jailed and all animals found new homes apart from one dog who sadly passed on during the birth of her pups - but all 4 pups survived as another dog started feeding them & took on the role of Mum.

miki129 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 01, 2011 7:46 pm

that may be the case for you but i can assure you i know of people turned down for the dumbest reasons, and quite a few others on here do too... im not a fan of the rspca im afraid.

michi_30885 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 01, 2011 10:55 pm

as miki says, i don't think it's unreasonable to turn down families/prospective pet owners for legitimate reasons, but to think that some are being rejected because they state that the cat is to go to a family without any pets and the prospective owner has a bengal already? that's just wrong

shebajet · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 10:01 am

shebajet · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 10:02 am

michi_30885 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 11:31 am

SiobhanL · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 3:53 pm

miki129 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 6:12 pm

Very glad to hear you are trying to bring about a change, definitely needed... good on you for doing that..... mmm will enquire at my local RSPCA after xmas re volunteering xx

brianj12 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:35 pm

I'm actually real glad to hear that they are erring on the "being too careful" side, and not just blindly stamping approvals on re-homing cats to multi-cat households. For a stressed out middle-aged cat, such a transition has got to be tough, and I'm sure they tire of getting these cats returned to them over and over after stressful encounters where cats are not properly introduced and the owners show no patience in such matters. That's got to be rough for the shelters to deal with.

miki129 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 10:17 pm

anyone in Surrey area ....

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