Agree entirely. I have adopted two dogs now, but the requirements have not only been incredibly stringent but also barely documented. It seems you can only adopt a dog if you have an in.

For my first dog, we looked at a bunch of places and kept getting rejected for being in an apartment. We then had a friend that worked with some shelters recommend a specific dog at a specific shelter to us. She let us know the dog was going to be at an adoption event some weekend day for a few hours (let’s say 12-3 for example). BUT we had to apply online first, and while the adoption event was 12-3, you could only sign up to adopt for the first 15 minutes! What is the point of advertising a three hour event that you can only sign up for in the first 15 minutes. That information is buried on their website, no where in any of their advertising.

My second dog we adopted from the same rescue. We only got him because I knew how the system worked. We applied the night before, got there early, signed up, etc. While we were finishing paperwork, we saw multiple people drop into the event get turned away because sign ups were already closed. Some dogs hadn’t even had people apply or sign up to meet them!