News

Ellen DeGeneres's tearful showdown with a dog rescue group is shining a spotlight on the strict rules of pet-adoption agencies - and on complaints from those who say these rules end up hurting animals.

The popular talk show host had an on-air meltdown Tuesday, sobbing as she talked about her puppy, Iggy, whom she adopted from a rescue organization. He fought with her cats so she gave him to her hairdresser. That violated the contract she signed with the rescue group, which reclaimed the dog.

The intense attention surrounding Iggy may be a Hollywood thing, but the underlying controversy isn't. Canadian shelters and rescue groups often put strict conditions on adoptions - requiring that cats stay indoors at all times, for example, or banning people who work outside the home from adopting dogs.

Animal workers say the rules protect pets. But do they go too far?

Christy Harper of Mississauga thinks so. Public shelters in Ontario wouldn't let her adopt a large dog because she has small children - even though she's owned big dogs all her life, and already had a Doberman/German shepherd mix.

Then five private rescue agencies turned her down because she works outside the home for six hours a day - even though a dog walker visits her home daily. "They're missing a lot of good homes for these dogs," Ms. Harper says.

Eventually, she adopted a sweet German shepherd mix from a New York rescue group.

Sheila and Jason Bulman discovered how strict pet adoption rules are when their cat was repossessed this week.

They adopted from the Toronto Humane Society, which requires that people sign a contract promising to keep their cat indoors. But the grey tabby, Georgia, let the Bulmans know she wanted to be an outdoor cat.

"She howled and howled," Ms. Bulman says, "to the point the neighbours thought we were abusing her."

After a month of trying to retrain her, and with their veterinarian's blessing, they let her outside.

On Monday, Ms. Bulman let Georgia out when she took her son to school, and returned to find a notice telling her the humane society had taken her cat in response to a neighbour's complaint.

She says the animal control officer told her the cat would be better off at the humane society in a cage than with her.

Now, she says, she's struggling to explain to her 3-year-old why Georgia doesn't sleep on his bed any more. She and Mr. Bulman have tried to appeal their case, but so far they say no one at the humane society has returned their calls.

"They treat you like you're a criminal," Ms. Bulman says.

Many animal-welfare workers treat adoption interviews "like the Spanish Inquisition," says Pierre Barnoti, executive director of the Montreal SPCA. "I'll be crucified for saying this, but a lot of people are convinced this is the only way of doing it," he says.

Animal-welfare workers become overzealous because they see the worst cases of animal abuse and neglect, Mr. Barnoti says, and feel they must be hard on people to protect animals.

Montreal shelter workers try to offer options instead of rejecting applicants who don't fit the perfect profile, Mr. Barnoti says. For someone who works outside the home, for example, workers might suggest adopting two dogs so they can keep each other company. And the Montreal SPCA no longer makes adopters promise to keep cats inside.

"It would be totally unfair to say, 'Here is a cat who will meow at the door 24 hours,' " Mr. Barnoti says.

Instead, Montreal SPCA workers teach owners how to keep outdoor cats safe - by putting butter on their paws, for instance, so they can smell their way back home.

Careful screening is the best way to ensure pets are not abandoned repeatedly, animal-welfare experts say.

"Probably the only reason we would remove a dog after adoption is if someone lied in the application and the pet's safety was in jeopardy," says Lorie Chortyk, spokeswoman for the B.C. SPCA.

Situations like the DeGeneres case are rare, she says. "The reality is, we probably wouldn't have adopted a dog that doesn't like cats to an owner with cats."

Lee Oliver, spokesman for the Toronto Humane Society, says he knows the rules on indoor cats and other adoption requirements aren't always popular. But he says the society's mission isn't to please people - it's to care for animals.

"You have to provide a safe environment for the animal," Mr. Oliver says. "We do turn people down and they do get upset and they say, 'Better with me than in this horrible place.' Well, not necessarily."