Impulse Adoptions

We all know about those impulse buys in the check-out line at the store. We see something we totally didn't need or plan to purchase, but it just looks so good or fun or helpful we decide to buy it anyway. The same phenomenon can occur with animal adoptions. Dogs can be so adorable and appealing when seen at adoption events or in the newspaper, they often tug at people's heartstrings and end up with a new home.

While impulse adoptions are great for moving dogs quickly in the short term, they aren't always the best long term situation. People who haven't prepared for bringing a new pet into their home often aren't prepared for the amount work having a new member of the family will be. Week after week at the shelter we see dogs returned when the adoptive family discovers that adopting a dog or puppy is a lot more work than they anticipated.

A couple of weeks ago at the shelter, there were what seemed to be a record number of impulse adoptions. An article was printed in Friday's paper about 49 dogs who were confiscated from a puppy mill in north central Kansas and brought to the Lawrence Humane Society by the Kansas Animal Health Department. On Saturday, people came out to the shelter in droves to look specifically at those 49 dogs. Volunteers who were there that day said there were people lined up to get into the building and visitors packing the aisles in the adoption areas. People were applying to adopt dogs they had seen through the bars of their kennels but had never met. By the end of the day, the staff had received 56 applications for those 49 dogs.

While it's wonderful that the community came out in full force to help these neglected and abused animals, I have to admit it made me really sad. I felt so terrible for all the dogs who've been at the shelter for months and months but had no one looking at them for lack of an interesting back story or a purebred heritage. Where were all of these people who were supposedly wanting to adopt on all the other weekends of the year? Do they not realize that there are hundreds of dogs every month who are just as worthy of a loving home as the puppy mill dogs?

The good news is, even though people were really there to see the recent state rescues, the other dogs at the shelter definitely received more exposure because of the exceptionally large crowds. Adoptions of the "regular" residents seemed to be up a little last week as well. Hopefully all of those adopted last week won't be replaced this week by people returning their impulse adoptions!