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I wouldn't have a problem adopting a pet from a shelter, if not for the shelter's own policies and staff. I am sure they are not all so bad but I have had contact with several shelters, as I have dealt with some of them while employed by a premium pet food company, and I have considered -- but opted against -- adopting a cat three different times. I much prefer private adoptions.
As pet stores are going out of the business of actually offering pets for sale, the shelters have taken over, asking even higher prices and, in many cases, offering far less in the way of treatment for the animals in their care. Most of the animal shelters that I've been in were horrible; actually, they were all horrible but some were more horrible than others.
Then, they impose all sorts of rules on anyone wanting to adopt an animal. One even insisted that I sign a paper agreeing to feed the cat Science Diet food, although I was working for a pet food company that offered far healthier food than that. Regardless of conditions or areas, they insist that the cat never be allowed outdoors, and I don't agree with that. There are often yearly home visits, in which I would have to pay someone to come by my house every year to ascertain whether the cat is in a healthy environment after having rescued it from life in a cage, or euthanasia. I have raised three cats into their twenties; I think I know what I'm doing and I don't need a shelter volunteer to make decision for me, particularly when they have more than enough neglected cats still sitting in cages that they could otherwise be spending their time with.
Each time, I tried another shelter thinking that, surely they couldn't all be so bad, but they were.
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