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Ellen DeGeneres is a bully: Updated
Don't you just hate it when some entertainment type tries to her or his "star power" to set an entirely separate set of rules for herself? For example, the way Rosie O'Donnell advocates disarming everyone in the USA except criminals and her personal bodyguards.
Now Ellen DeGeneres, the Other Famous Hollywood Lesbian, is having a go at this practice.
It seems that DeGeneres adopted a dog from a nonprofit rescue organization, then decided that the dog did not fit in with her other pets; cats, I believe.
Language in the adoption agreement required DeGeneres to notify the rescue organization if any problem occurred, and by signing it, she had agreed to return the dog to them in the event of a problem. Instead, she chose to give it to the family of a friend, without notifying the rescue people. When they learned of this, they visited the new household, and found it unsuitable for the dog, at least in part because of young children there.
Degeneres then compounded her mistake by going on her national TV show, sobbing into the camera about how poor Iggy was literally ripped from the arms of three bawling children who had come to love him so. Never mind her own responsibility for having created this mess.
Now, a "Free Iggy" movement has appeared, with a petition circulating among all the hapless nitwits who have discovered the Worldwide Web of late. According to a TownHall article, the pet-adoption folks have received death and arson threats.
To give you an idea of the level of stupidity at work among the "Free Iggy" crowd, consider this excerpt from on web site hawking the petition:
Oct. 17th, 2007 02:31 am (UTC)
missymango wrote:And for the record, I don't take unsolicited advice from people who a) don't know my situation, and b) don't have the balls to post under their real user name.
blogger1947 wrote:As for my balls, if they were any bigger, I would not be able to wear trousers.
My name is Stan, I reside in Gwynn Oak, Maryland.
I don't need to "know your situation" any more than to know you admit that you let your cats roam outdoors.
That, from decades of experience, tells me you are one of those people who anthropomorphize their pets. I have known owners who refuse to spay or neuter, because they don't want to deprive the pet of a fulfilling sex life. That's projecting your own needs on the dog or cat.
And I have picked up enough "sail cats" off the highway to appreciate that there is absolutely no excuse for allowing an animal under your care to roam, thereby risking this horrible kind of death.
Of course, my years of experience with dog training, animal rescue, and being married to a former breeder and judge of show cats don't count for anything in your eyes. Nor does my experience of having lived among a colony of feral cats, I suppose.
It's amazing how many people like you are around, and how every one of you thinks he or she is an exception to the proven wisdom.
missymango wrote:I don't care about the qualifications you may or may not actually have regarding the care of animals. My decision has been made, and you Stan of Gwynn Oak, Maryland, the Diane Fossey of the feral cat colony, may continue to sit pretty on your high horse and judge me all you want, you are not changing my mind.
Unfortunately, not everyone adopting a pet has the purest motives, and in other cases, unforseen changes occur that are not in the animal's best interest. Here in Maryland, a springer spaniel was adopted out to a single woman whose household later became shared with a live-in boyfriend. The boyfriend beat and abused the dog to the point that he was prosecuted and jailed for animal cruelty.
Mutts and Mom has chosen to temporarily inactivate their website on Petfinder.com because their email inbox and voice mail are overwhelmed. Petfinder has 11,000 shelters and rescue groups posting over 260,000 pets that need homes. We do not dictate the adoption policies of our members. We do work with them to educate their volunteers and hope to professionalize the industry as a whole, providing a positive experience for adopters. Petfinder advocates for all parties: the pets, the adopters, and the shelter and rescue group workers and volunteers.
Pet Return Policies
Many shelters and rescue groups insist, through their adoption agreements, that if a pet cannot stay with his adoptive family, the adopters must return him to the group. Why do they do this?
Between 500,000 and 1 million pets adopted from shelters and rescue groups find themselves homeless and in the shelter once again.
One foster mom said it best, "I found the dog on the street, starving. I nursed her back to health. She slept in my bed. I sang her back to sleep when she had nightmares when she first came to me. Then I adopted her to a wonderful family. A year later, I got a call from animal control because she was at the shelter and she was going to be euthanized. The family had gotten divorced and she ended up on death row!"
This too-common experience leads rescue groups and shelter to put strict policies in place governing what happens if the adoption doesn't work out. In effect, the rescue group and shelters are promising to always be there as a safety net for the pets. This can be very comforting to adopters.
Finding a New Home for Your Pet
Some pet parents, who have the best intentions for their pets, feel that they can do a better job of finding a new home for their beloved pet than a shelter or rescue group. Their rationale is that they know their pet best, they can keep it in their home until the perfect new home is found, and they can help ease the transition for the pet. Often times, this is a natural transition - a family member, trusted friend, or a colleague gets to know the pet, falls in love, and the ownership of the pet is unofficially transferred to them.
This is a controversial point of view, even amongst shelters and rescue groups who may feel that they have more experience identifying pitfalls and risk factors when identifying new families. Research, however, suggests that there is no difference in the success rates of the adoptions between organizations that screen heavily versus those that have more open adoption policies.
It also bears noting that shelters and rescue groups, understandably, want to keep in contact with new families to be able to lend their support and continue to get updates about the pets they cared for. So we have two groups, the shelter and the pet parents, who both want what is best for the pet, but who may have very different points of view. The silver lining is that everyone really wants the best home possible for the pet. If we could ensure that same future for all the pets available on Petfinder.com, our job would be accomplished.
*I think Saki and Manhattan would disagree.