I was fortunate enough to find my cat as a stray in a motel parking lot when she was a tiny kitten. I hate the thought of dealing with people like this, many of whom seem to be in the position because they like the power and enjoy being judgemental rather than because they love animals. They are just another branch of the "conservative" idiots who want to tell you how to live your life while trying to claim Republicans want government out of your life.

When an American is legally put to death for killing an animal. I just you to remember that one point.

Look: if you worked for a child adoption agency, and you allowed a couple to adopt a child after doing a veeeery careful screening of them...

...only to find out that a week after the adoption, they gave the kid away to another person/family you knew NOTHING about...

...wouldn't you be infuriated as well?

What if the family Ellen gave the dog to ended up abusing the hell out of the poor pooch? How would all of you who are defending her actions have felt about that?

Adoption agencies - whether animal- or human-related - are brutal in their screening process because these animals/kids deserve to go to the best possible new home.

And turning around and giving away an adoptee to another family without AT LEAST consulting the adoption shelter/agency first is foolish - and possibly dangerous for the adoptee.

that this is the ninth dog she has done this with.

No idea if it's true, but there it is.

I was turned down by a rescue group. My older female basset needed a companion. I thought rescue would be the way to provide. My 3 acre, fenced yard was fine. The house that is raised off the ground, insulated from below, sheltered on 2 sides and under a deck for rain protection was fine. The age of my current dog and consistent vet care was fine. What killed my chances was the fact that both dogs would sleep OUTSIDE at night.

Not unlike the author, I considered lying. But I don't lie about stupid things. And requiring a 50+ lb dog who has been wallowing in dirt all day to sleep inside every night is, well....more than I could take.

A friend of mine wanted to adopt a rescued mastiff. She too has a nice, large fenced yard where the dog would run and play during the day with her other dog. She too was turned down because that rescue org thought it was "unfit" for a 150+lb dog to EVER be outside.

I realize both these rescue folks were doing good work. I know they really cared about their charges. But dogs have lived outside for thousands of years and I'm not going to feel like a criminal because I don't keep one in the house 24 X 7.

Look: if you worked for a child adoption agency, and you allowed a couple to adopt a child after doing a veeeery careful screening of them...

...only to find out that a week after the adoption, they gave the kid away to another person/family you knew NOTHING about...

...wouldn't you be infuriated as well?

This has nothing to do with pet adoption.

What if the family Ellen gave the dog to ended up abusing the hell out of the poor pooch? How would all of you who are defending her actions have felt about that?

They weren't. What if the family were Martians who could only survive Earth's atmosphere by drinking puppy blood? That question makes us much sense as yours.

Adoption agencies - whether animal- or human-related - are brutal in their screening process because these animals/kids deserve to go to the best possible new home.

Since an animal is not a child and there are plenty of animals in pounds everywhere in the country, pet adoption agencies should be completely avoided. My childhood dog came from the pound and she was with me from kindergarten to college. You want a pet, not irrational tyrants tied to you forever.

And turning around and giving away an adoptee to another family without AT LEAST consulting the adoption shelter/agency first is foolish - and possibly dangerous for the adoptee.

As the dog was placed in a loving home, your nightmare scenario has nothing to do with this case. And there is nothing foolish in acting in the best interest of the pet and not the whims of the pet adoption agency.

The fool in this case is so clearly not Ellen DeGeneres. She wasn't the one lying her way into a private home and stealing the family pet from the arms of little girls.

The lesson from this case -- and your post -- is simply do not use private pet adoption agencies. Problem solved.

Article excerpt: Now granted, we all want Oscar to find a home, and we applaud the good, generous soul who is bighearted enough to take him in and shell out thousands for his dialysis and his special food. But a tiny voice in my head still wonders why shelters should spend big piles of cash to get Oscar his dialysis when hundreds of healthy young dogs are dying in the pound every day.

So the shelter was pushing you to adopt a dog that was older, sicker and that the vast majority of people would never ever adopt or give a home to -- and you felt insulted because, hey, like 99 percent of America all you wanted was a cute puppy.

The cute puppy that has 50 people a day begging to adopt it.

You wanted THAT dog as opposed to the other,older dog that absolutely no one wanted to be "bothered" with because he needed eye drops administered.

I agree with the shelters.

People really are assholes. Let's just be real and honest.

Every time someone gets a dog and swears a blood oath to Jesus Himself to love that dog forever -- almost without fail these same people get bored with the dog or move away or just can't be bothered dealing with a no longer cute grown up dog --- and they give the dog away to someone lese

"Sure I'll take yer dog," says Cletus the slack jawed yokle. "I got a nice length of chain and spot in the middle of the yard all picked out. Don't worry. I promise to fed the critter every other day. And I'll try to remember to water it."

So, yeah, shelters get pissed off when you people freaking just give the dog away to people they would never give a dog to because those people think owning a dog mean chaining it to the middle of the backyard and feeding it once a week.

More power to the shelters!

Getting dogs out of shelters just so they can starve to death (or get daily beatings) from some hillbilly rednecks is NOT a freaking improvement over being put to sleep.

I for one think it is more humane to put a dog to sleep than have it subjected to starvation and/or daily beatings from freaking rednecks.

This lady is a whiny withc that doesn't care about anyone but herself.

"I don't want the old dog!" the author whines. "Cuz that dog sounds like a lot of work!"

And to babble on about how the shelters are to blame?

My god.