Regarding the letters by Felisha Powell (“She opposes Humane Society’s fence rule,” Saturday, Jan 28) and Justin Gardner (“Apartment beats no home at all for shelter pets,” Sunday, Jan. 22), this is in defense of the Lauderdale County Humane Society.

Humane Society volunteers work long, hard hours preparing for adoption days at Bonita Lakes Mall. The five-hour-long adoption event requires many hours of preparation and cleanup afterward. Volunteers start Friday morning bathing and getting dogs and cats ready to transport; Friday night they bring crates and supplies to the mall, then they are up early Saturday morning loading last-minute supplies and animals onto their own trucks and arrive at the mall by about 9:30 a.m.

A crowd usually starts to gather before the animals are all out for viewing. Everyone has questions and comments, and then there are “window shoppers,” who have no intention of adopting an animal but have no qualms at all about taking up 20 or 30 minutes of the short five hours just to give their opinion. Then when it’s all over around 3 p.m., these same volunteers have to reload all of the animals not adopted and all of the crates and supplies back into their trucks, drive home, unload everything and feed animals.

It’s almost 5 p.m. by this time and volunteers have put in 12 to 16 hours in two days preparing for and putting on this adoption day. Does this sound like people who would rather put a dog down than find it a good home?

As to Ms. Powell’s comment about discrimination, she needs to remember that the Lauderdale County Humane Society operates for the benefit of the animals — not to make people or their children happy! If volunteers feel (for whatever reason) that the prospective adopter and/or their home situation is not the best possible outcome for the dog, then they are turned down. I don’t think that is discrimination; I think it’s doing the best that can be done for the animal.

They see too many animals come through the society that have been neglected simply because people didn’t think. Pet ownership is a big responsibility if done properly.

The Humane Society is an all-volunteer organization that operates entirely on private donations and volunteer efforts. If anyone would like to adopt an animal no questions asked and with no regard by the adopting agency as to what will happen to the animal in the future, then I suggest you visit the county-funded shelter on Cooper Avenue where anyone with $15 can get whatever they want — almost no questions asked!

Is life at the end of a logging chain — caged for life as a breeder in a puppy mill or being thrown out to starve and reproduce litter after litter all of its time on this earth — really “life” for an animal? I don’t think so. And if someone gets offended by a Humane Society volunteer’s efforts to make sure this doesn’t happen, then so be it. Volunteers are only human; they make mistakes just like everyone else.

But what would you think if you went to someone’s home and saw an animal that was clearly being neglected and/or abused and they proudly told you they had adopted it from the Lauderdale County Humane Society? Now, that should make you mad!

Cathy Moore

Meridian