# is this weird?



## aquafin (Feb 10, 2014)

There is a no kill dog/cat rescue in my area. They are promoting adopting the dogs/cats as gifts for the holidays. Is that weird? Ive always known shelters/rescues to discourage this.


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## Rosewynn (Apr 9, 2013)

It probably is just encouragement to adopt versus buy a pet if you're going to get a pet as a gift. I can see how it could turn out to be a bad message for some people as I personally feel you shouldn't 'gift' pets as a surprise though.


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## Tress (Jun 6, 2014)

Ugh.. I really dislike when anything promotes giving pets as gifts. Adopting is nice but bringing an animal into your life during the busy holidays is not fair to the animal and is really stressful on you. Getting pets as gifts is probably the worst gift idea ever - unless the person is already prepared and you are just paying for the animal. I find a lot of people think it's a great idea to get their niece/nephew a pet before talking to the parents... nothing could make me facepalm harder.


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## Cheshire117 (Nov 15, 2014)

Unexpected pets as gifts end up as unwanted animals lots of times....it's so sad.


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## Rubedo (Jan 14, 2015)

It's not always a bad thing though! I received my tortoise as a Christmas gift when i was younger and we have lived happily every since ^^


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## SplashyBetta (Jul 28, 2014)

Being an animal shelter volunteer, I've seen way too many "Christmas puppies" and the like end up unwanted and dropped off at the shelter. My shelter actually closes adoption during the weeks before Christmas.


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## Nyri (Sep 23, 2014)

The no kill shelter here does the same thing, and even puts their animals on sale for the holidays. On one hand, it IS better than just buying from a backyard breeder or pet store, but at the same time, like everyone else has mentioned, pets make horrible gifts. 

I'm hoping a lot of the ones that get adopted as gifts are from parents to their own kids, so they can prepare the house for them and get the supplies needed and take care of the animal if the kids don't. I got a ferret from my parents for christmas once... but they did not pick it out for me, they took me in to pick my own, plus they already knew I wanted one. That seemed like the perfect gift for me at the time. The ferret was well loved and taken care of, and the one my sister picked out for her gift was his friend. 

Another thing that this sort of advertisement might be good for is self gifts, like getting yourself a dog so you're not alone during the holidays. Of course it should involve much more thought than that, though.


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## Nyri (Sep 23, 2014)

I forgot to add, if it is for kids, to me it seems like the perfect time of year besides summer. They are usually out of school for a week or two, so they have time to get used to taking care of the pet before school starts back up, so it's not as hard to incorporate into their schedule once they do go back to school.


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## Strawberry12 (Mar 6, 2015)

Yeah, this usually ends badly. My dog was a birthday present- but it was more that I picked him out, and my folks were like "ok, we'll pay for him" 

I wound up with my Guinea Pig because someone had gotten him for the kids and they got bored with it. She then proceeded to tell me "I think we're getting a puppy!" A GPig is too much work so you're going to get a puppy? good grief.


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