How transparent should you be?

This past weekend my family had a frustrating and emotionally draining experience. We wanted to adopt some kittens from a rescue agency, so we found a local cat rescue and contacted them. I reviewed their web site ahead of time to ensure that our family would qualify as a “proper home” for some kittens and I even called ahead to confirm. We have six children, including a one-year old, a four-year old, and an almost seven-year old, and I wanted to be sure that they would be willing to let us adopt.  When we arrived the next day at the pet store where the adoption event was taking place, my children were allowed to play with some of the kittens and fell in love with a brother and sister kitten. I turned in the paperwork to the adoption “supervisor” and was immediately told that “we have a problem”. It seems that it is their policy to never place a cat in a home with children under the age of eight. As she tried to defend her policy, I stopped her and said that I understood the policy (didn’t agree, but understood) but that I was more upset about not being told this before I brought my family down here. I told her that I had called and checked the web site and this information was not posted anywhere. Her response: “we don’t post everything on the web site”. Further discussion brought out that they don’t post all their rules on the web site because then “people would just lie on their application”.  We left frustrated and with crying children. Needless to say, I won’t be planning on supporting or recommending that agency to anyone in the future.

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Tags: Ethics, transparency