[kreuer]

Originally Posted by pstinard

They play fast and loose with the law in my town. Either that, or the law doesn't care about cats. I found a stray cat in the countryside with no ID on it, but she was obviously healthy, except for a few fleas. I took her to the humane society so they could look for the owner, and told them I wanted to adopt her if the owner didn't come forward. That was on a Friday. They told me to come pick her up the following Monday, and on Monday they told me they had already euthanized her. I was so angry. They told me that they had more than enough healthy adoptable cats at the shelter, and basically that the cost of vaccinating her, deworming her, and making sure that she didn't have any pre-existing conditions made her undesirable as a shelter pet. I told them when I dropped her off that I was planning on taking care of all of that, and they told me well, it's too late now. So yes, there are chattel laws on the books, but evidently they are only for the "desirable" animals and to protect the owners if they actually look for their pets. In most instances, though, I seriously doubt that those laws are enforced, and even animal control is willing to look the other way and make their own determination on how the law should be enforced. Now you've got me interested in reading up on the Illinois law...

Sorry, this post isn't explicitly about Yorkies. I'm still bitter about that cat. But you can be sure that I take no chances with Bella. She has an ID collar and is microchipped, and I do not let her out of my reach when I take her outdoors--she is always on a leash or in her stroller.

I think the euthanization rate of cats is greater than dogs overall. Some reason there always seem to be way more cats in shelters than dogs, at least in my experience. I live in a pretty small town and I saw on my local humane society website when I was looking for a pet, that they were not accepting any cats because they already had too many. It's sad, but seems to be the reality.