TERRIBLE Reasons given for giving an animal up at shelters

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Why owners dump their petsExcuses appall animal rescuers
Denise Flaim, Newsday
What is the most pathetic excuse for giving up an animal? Living as we do amid an epidemic of tepid commitment and laser-sharp detachment, people routinely discard their companion animals. Some reasons -- like a child's allergies or sudden homelessness -- are understandable. But many are not -- at least not to those who consider their animals family members, a status that is not usually negotiable.
Folks in the animal-adoption community -- you know them by the plastic airline crates in their hatchbacks, and the Milk-Bones in their glove compartments -- are in the nonprofit business of cleaning up the messes people make with the sentient beings they've brought into their lives. With big hearts and tiny budgets, they grit their teeth as clueless, oftentimes obnoxious owners hand over the leash -- or cage, or tank.
People need to have realistic expectations when bringing home an animal, said Mondy Lamb, marketing director for the SPCA of Wake County. When they don't, lame stories can result.
"I think a lot of these excuses come from people being embarrassed at their own failure," she said.
Frustrated owners last week returned a cocker spaniel mix named Bailey to the SPCA. Having adopted the dog when he was about 3 months old, the owners brought back Bailey five months later because, among other things, he chewed on stuff, wasn't housebroken and -- get this -- bothered the owners when they watched TV.
"This was the last straw for those people," said Molly Stone, the animal behavior specialist at the SPCA. While telling this story, she noted a couple of (what should be) obvious facts: puppies chew on things and need to be taught to take their bathroom business outside.
Another dog was brought last week to the Durham County animal shelter after the owners disapproved of the way the pooch cooled himself during the heat wave.
"He kept lying down in the koi pond," said Susan Teer, president of the Animal Protection Society, the group that manages the shelter. The dog wasn't attacking the fish, but the owners didn't want to build a fence around the pond.
Excuses -- the animal adoption folks have heard them all before.
Moving is a perennial reason for dumping animals. "It's everyone's favorite," says Barbara Williamson of Best Friends Society, who polled staffers. "Nobody here can even begin to understand how you move into a place that doesn't accept pets when you have pets."
(Another head-scratcher: The person who returned a cat to the Utah sanctuary because its neurological condition "wasn't bad enough." In other words, the cat wasn't special-needs enough.)
Another catalyst is the arrival of a sweetheart. Lovers or spouses who hate dog hair or slobber issue ultimatums, and their not-so-better halves comply.
The dissolution of a marriage is a prime reason for relinquishing animals, as is the arrival of diminutive two-leggers.
"When the excuse is that the owner is having a baby, I send her to the president of Alaskan Malamute Rescue of New England," says Malamute fancier Susan Conant, who writes dog-centric mystery novels. "She is the mother of triplets."
Yep, family ties can be nooses for some animals. Marjorie Lipson of Long Island, N.Y.-based Second Chance Labrador Rescue offered up the interesting approach of blaming the kids: "My youngest child is now in college -- it was her dog that we purchased 14 years ago," one owner told her as he turned over his gray-faced dog. "We never wanted a dog -- the kids did."
Norwegian elkhound fancier Lexiann Grant of southeastern Ohio had this doozy: "An Akita was surrendered because the family decided to do away with their current 'Japanese landscaping' and go with a southwestern theme."
If you find it hard to believe that people can be that superficial, consider this chestnut from Barbara Sawyer-Brown, a Ridgeback breeder and longtime rescuer from Chicago: "We redecorated, and the dog no longer matches the decor."
File this under "craven compassion": Pam Dennison, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Positive Dog Training," had a friend who took in an 18-month-old schnauzer. "She had a kidney problem, and the owners 'loved her so much they couldn't bear to watch her die.' "
(Postscript: The friend kept the dog, switched her to a raw-food diet, and five years later, the dog is still going strong.)
People dump their bunny rabbits with such infuriating regularity that Mary Cotter of the House Rabbit Society keeps a list of common excuses. Some have simply performed a cold-hearted calculation: "He's sick -- we're not going to pay $50 for a vet visit for a pet that cost $15."
Debra J. White of Tempe, Ariz., started volunteering at animal shelters in 1989. "I have seen and heard the most dumb, pathetic and lame excuses," she says. "The cat meows. The dog barks."
But nothing prepared her for this beaut, delivered by a pregnant woman who was jettisoning her child substitute to make room for the real thing.
"My fetus," she proclaimed, "is allergic to the dog."
Staff writer Matt Ehlers contributed to this report.
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Staff writer Matt Ehlers contributed to this report