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Old 01-28-2009, 08:26 AM
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Maneki Neko Maneki Neko is offline
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Default Re: SPCA n PAWS Adoption Policy?

I want to start by acknowledging that the staff at SPCA Selangor is doing the best they can to help too many animals with too few resources, and bless them for that. Here was my experience adopting a cat there last year:

I picked out a young adult female, and I spoke with several SPCA staff/volunteers. All assured me repeatedly that the cat had been vaccinated and spayed. They encouraged me to take her to my local vet (Brickfields Vet Clinic) to be tested for FIV and feline leukemia.

Once at the clinic, Dr. Prem asked me what vaccinations, precisely, she had already gotten. I called the SPCA to confirm this, and the lady who took the call told me that my cat had not actually been vaccinated. I asked her, "Well, OK, but she has been spayed, right?" She replied that if a cat is surrendered to the SPCA, and the owner states it has been spayed, the SPCA takes the owner's word for it. And was my cat surrendered in this fashion? No one seemed to know. I got my definite answer when my cat went into heat several weeks later. Thank heaven she's an indoor cat, or I would have been dealing with a litter of unwanted kittens.

Again, I am grateful to the SPCA for the kind work they do under difficult circumstances. My advice to anyone adopting a pet from them is this:
1. Don't assume the pet is vaccinated unless you get an official certificate with a vet's stamp. (You'll need this if you ever want to board the pet, anyway.)
2. If the pet is female, do not assume that she is spayed; keep her indoors until you are certain she's not coming into heat.
3. Treat your adoption fee as a donation toward the SPCA in its efforts to save homeless animals, rather than as payment for a pet already vaccinated and neutered.

Last edited by Maneki Neko; 01-28-2009 at 08:06 PM.
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