Ellen's Emotional Plea — Page 2

My cousin was adopted. My parents are in my aunt and uncle's wills to get custody of him should anything happen to them. So if God forbid, my aunt and uncle died and we took my 8-year-old cousin into our home, the adoption agency could then take him back?


Did the adoption paperwork they signed say they couldn't do that? Did they read the paperwork before they signed it?

Updated On: 10/16/07 at 03:49 PM

i dont know how things are in other states, but out of the 10 rescue animals my family has adopted from actual shelters, we've never had to have a follow up visit with any of the shelters we got them from.
i've heard of shelters doing that, but we've never even gotten a phone call saying "how is patches doing?" or "are shawn and kyle working out for you?"

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I'm on the same page as Kringas and Elphaba. This is not the end of it. We don't know if the agency said there is absolutely no chance that this family will get the dog. However, if you are truly concerned about the best interest of the dog then the agency would, at the very least, take the dog and go through their normal screening process.

The fact that they bonded with the animal is sad and it adds an emotional aspect to the story, but ultimately it's irrelevant. Ellen was exactly right in her plea. She made a mistake. It's her fault and sometimes when people make mistakes there are consequences involved that can sometimes impact innocent bystanders. It's unfortunate and sad, but it's all the way of the world.

There is no way the agency could have handled this that would have been a win for everyone. The best interest for the dog was being considered - imo.

All that being said, there is no doubt in my mind that the family will get the dog back, probably due to the pressure that will be placed on them due to Ellen's plea because that is the type of culture we live in. Fortunately, it seems that in this case that is probably the best outcome.

What if it had been Britney Spears adopting a dog and giving it to one of her friends? I'm guessing that people wouldn't be so quick to talk about the "best interests of the puppy" even though there is no way for any of us to know whether Ellen's friends are any more responsible and right for the puppy then Brit Brit's would be.

The rules are there for a reason.

Updated On: 10/16/07 at 03:59 PM

is the humane society a shelter or a rescue organization?

mindy, patches, oreo, richard, lily and izabelle are all from the humane society or from the huname society's petco van (the humane society has a van that goes around to the different petcos with animals)

the other 4 were from the labradore rescue agency (i dont know if they are still around... this was almost 15 years ago), the shelter room at the kensington bird hospital, and from a privet bird rescue.

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Skittles, the point is that if she agreed to all this when she signed it, she agreed to it. If she had read the paperwork and had an issue with it then she should have taken it up with them before the adoption was complete. Animal rescue organizations are a real pain in the ass, that's just the way it is. I don't know why they are the way they are - probably to prevent people from adopting dogs to race, or make fight, or to use as work dogs, etc. It still doesn't have anything to do with human adoption. She didn't read what she signed and now everyone wants the rules bent for her because she's famous.

ETA - With any resuce orgnazition, they do home visits before you are allowed to take the pet.

And Abba, I finally had to give up with your last post. My eyes got tired of turning the words you typed into actual words.

Updated On: 10/16/07 at 04:06 PM

Why does this stipulation exist on an animal adoption contract in the first place?

They do it with good intention. This is just a case of mis-use. Those stipulations exist because the powers that be worry that if the adoption doesn't work out, the owner would just dump the pet out on the street, or put it in an unsuitable home just to get it off his or her hands. And that is absolutely a valid concern, but that doesn't mean everyone who can't keep an adopted pet will do that. I don't think that the knowledge that some people WILL do good things for pets they can't keep means the stipulations should be dropped completely, or that people should be exempt from them. But in this case, I think it's potentially counterintuitive to have adhered invariably to a related stipulation. What's done is done and rather than stick to the rules just for the sake of sticking to the rules, I think they should be evaluating the situation from a very different standpoint.

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'She didn't read what she signed and now everyone wants the rules bent for her because she's famous.'

Well...actually, we KNOW about it because she's famous. But, were it just Suzy Q. Nobody and it was the exact same situation, I'd feel the same as emcee does. I think at some point you say, 'These are the rules...but as applied in this situation, does strict adherence cause more harm than good?'

In many aspects of the law, there is great room for nuance and interpretation. Otherwise we wouldn't have lawyers.

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But, really, what is this agency supposed to do? If they bend the rules here and then some non-famous person pulls a stunt like this they'll cry that there are double-standards for the famous.

I dunno. We have a dog in our home that came from a rescue, so I know how this works.

Many do.

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And what's so bad about that? Should they just hand the dogs off to people simply because they want them?

Most Rescues, are just that - dogs that have been rescued. If they're saving the dog from a SH*Tty life don't they have a responsibility to try and make sure they don't send it off to a life that's equally SH*Tty?

Updated On: 10/16/07 at 04:30 PM

Or get one from a pet store or from people giving them away outside of Wal-Mart.

Sorry. Ill choice of words.

my sister is the coordinator for a dog rescue & adoption group (www.frenchbulldogrescue.org) & they are VERY STRICT about ALL the rules....& there are a lot of them.

Ellen's clip made me cry but she broke the rules.

there is a reason for those rules & even tho i am sure Ellen had nothing but the best intentions towards both the family & the dog, those rules need to be maintained.