Archive: Opinions

EditorialEvery so often I see a plea for families to adopt a cat or a dog from the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).  When it is a cat I am tugged until I remember that we already have four cats and a dog, and as families go I think we are doing our part to save animals and give them a loving home.  All but one of the dogs and cats we have ever had have come from the SPCA.  The one was a stray, a skinny little kitten that obviously was not good at fending for herself, and who has since decided that a nice warm house with free meals, no predators, ample petting, and clean litter is a much better deal.

The SPCA puts you through a screening before they will release an animal into your care, and I think that is a good idea.  After all, what good would it do if they sent an animal to someone who would abuse it or let it go free, only to find itself back at the shelter?  But in a time when it seems like there are more homeless animals, I was surprised at what a hassle it was to get our number three cat, despite our record of having happy, long lived pets, spayed or neutered, all from SPCAs.

That experience was reminiscent of one we had when our first child was born.  A group of nearly militant breast feeders tried to impose their view of child rearing on anyone who would listen and many who didn't want to.  They (and, to be fair, others with agendas) made what should be a joyous experience into one that was annoying and irritating.  Well, of course the ultimate result wasn't annoying and irritating.  Just their part of it.  From their point of view they were helping, but from ours they were ruining it.

Or how about the NYSEG representative at last year's Chamber of Commerce Showcase Tompkins event?  I was walking by his booth when he aggressively stopped me and started grilling me on whether I was using wind power.  He tried to guilt me into paying NYSEG more for a product that to the consumer is identical to the conventional alternative.  He was obnoxious and clingy.  I finally smiled and walked away.  Little did he know that he was talking to a journalist who might write about it some day!  But the point is that he made doing something good for the world into something annoying and obnoxious and undesirable.

Granted, our kitten came from the Schuyler SPCA, not the Tompkins one where we have gotten pets over a 20 year period.  She was at Petsmart, which has adoptable animals from multiple shelters.  But what I don't understand is why my wife suffered so many accusatory phone calls (are you going to do this?  are you going to do that?) that she viewed as intrusive and controlling (and I did too, when she told me about them).  She liked the animal and knew she would have a loving home with us.  She also knew that I was still mourning my beloved gray tabby Gracie, and that this gray tabby, while very different, was a nice reminder as well as being independently delightful.  So she persisted, and they finally relented and released the kitten to her.

Why do organizations that mean well make the right thing to do so hard to do?  I suppose in some way they are like religious fanatics who pretty much insist that it is their way or the downward express elevator. 

Guilt may have been the only way to get people to do the right thing in the past, but these days people who still think that should take a lesson from B&W Supply, who is selling great quality biodegradable 'plastic' and 'paper' plates, glasses, cups, and silverware at reasonable prices.  Or Tompkins County Solid Waste that has come up with ways to make what was hard, such as getting rid of paint or pesticides, as easy as driving by their facility on designated days.  Weekend days when most people can actually do it.  Or even Walmart when they offer those squiggly fluorescent light bulbs that use considerably less energy at an amazing price.

As I said, I don't object to the SPCA screening.  I endorse it.  Unfortunately there are people out there who shouldn't have pets.  But what if they had a national registry of approved humans?  People with a record of adopting and responsibly caring for animals adopted from SPCAs (and other shelters)?  By making it easier for people with a proven record to adopt, more probably would.

Last summer the Tompkins County SPCA offered a two for one sale of kittens months because there were so many abandoned animals.  Think about it -- if every human who has ever adopted a cat from that SPCA were offered a fast track adoption, wouldn't more cats have been placed faster?  The power of direct mail that makes an offer you can't refuse to an audience that has already demonstrated a willingness to do what you are asking!

There are two parts of getting people to do the right thing.  One part is helping them understand what the right thing is, why it is right, and how they can participate in doing it.  The other part, the part that is rarely followed up on, is finding ways to make them want to do it.  And not turning people who already want to do it away.  Leveraging human nature is a powerful approach.

I was impressed at last year's recycling fair at how many organizations now make it easy, economical, and even fun to recycle.  I believe that is the only approach that is really going to work.  And it can result in a lot of happy people.  And animals.

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