Yuen: What does racial bias have to do with pet adoptions?

It’s been said that it’s easier to buy a firearm than to adopt a rescue animal in this country.

Once your internet search has steered you to a pup who pinches your heart, congratulations! You’ve found The One. Now get ready to be questioned.

The vetting may include lengthy application forms, in-home visits and intense competition from other families. You might be asked whether you own your home and if your yard is fenced, how tall is said fence, and how many hours in a day the dog will be left alone.

The scrutiny is well-meaning, intended to prioritize the well-being of the animal. But at what cost?

Millions of dogs and cats enter animal shelters every year in the United States. Meanwhile, rescue organizations say it’s become increasingly hard to re-home the animals, said Heidi Marston, who oversees pet placement initiatives for PetSmart Charities.

Marston said she’s even seen smaller rescue groups state in the application that their pets won’t be placed with families in certain ZIP codes; others ask for applicants’ immigration status.

“When we dig in more, we see that there are a lot of what we would call barriers put in place to make sure that pets are finding the perfect fit,” Marston said. “It’s very easy for pets to come into the shelter and rescue system, and we are making it really difficult in some cases for them to get out.”

Backed by a grant from Marston’s foundation, researchers with a national nonprofit whose mission is to combat bias in the animal welfare field are surveying families of color in Minneapolis and three other U.S. cities to gather their experiences with pet adoptions. Part of the study will document reports of discrimination in shelters and rescues.

Admittedly I hadn’t thought much about racial inequity in this space, even though I recently hopped on the emotional roller coaster of adopting my own pet. A few months ago we brought home our sweet Frankie, a Doberman mix who was rescued from a kill shelter in Arkansas.

The volunteers I encountered during the application process were kind and big-hearted. And they have a lot of discretion over who gets a puppy and who gets none. Even experienced pet owners who work with animals as part of their vocations, from veterinarians to dog trainers, have had their hopes dashed after their applications were denied.

Count James Evans as one of them. He told me that he and his wife have had their pet adoption applications rejected on 14 separate occasions. Evans, who is Black, said on the 13th time, the person vetting Evans asked to see his criminal record.

“There’s bias at the core,” said Evans of Baltimore, who along with his wife, Jen, run the advocacy group Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity (CARE). “If Jen and I lived in Beverly Hills, would we have a better shot?”

Evans founded his group in 2019, in part to diversify an animal welfare world that he says is primarily composed of white women. Unconscious attitudes reside in all of us, and a study spearheaded by his organization and Project Implicit found that workers in the animal welfare industry on the whole carried implicit preferences for white over Black people and rich over poor, for example.

Evans says it’s been hard to convince people who are wholeheartedly passionate about saving animals that they’re doing those very creatures a disservice by imposing such strict barriers to adoption.

Preferences for families with a fence will weed out those who can’t afford to build one, he said. He’d like to see the industry put more resources into supporting families to keep their pets when vet bills and other costs become out of reach.

“Almost 99% of the animal welfare organizations in this country are focused on neglect and cruelty,” even though intentional abuse or neglect is not the norm, he said.

Sharon Nordrum, who lives in the north-central Minnesota town of Laporte, said over the years caring for animals, she has encountered blatant bias. An enrolled member of Red Lake Nation, she said a couple of Minnesota-based rescue groups seemed willing to re-home a pet with her until they learned she was Native American. One told her she didn’t want the dog “going to a Native home,” Nordrum recalled.

Strays are more common on reservations, but Nordrum doesn’t live on one. All of her animals are spayed or neutered, and she’s won numerous awards in dog shows and sporting competitions.

Ironically, a breeder once gave her a discount on a Lab puppy because he knew of Nordrum’s reputation working with dogs. She purchased that pup, Valor, who now boasts dozens of titles in scent work and other categories.

“But I’m not good enough to adopt a dog from a shelter,” Nordrum said.

Nordrum, who now works for CARE, said it would help if there were more people of color working in the animal welfare field. “As soon as you have minorities in there, they bring a new outlook and a new way of thinking on what that cat or dog needs,” she said. “It might not be that white picket fence with a white mom and dad and 2.5 kids playing in the yard.”

The irony is that overly selective application processes can keep already at-risk animals in shelters and in further jeopardy of being euthanized due to a lack of space. (Many pets re-homed in Minnesota come from Southern states overwhelmed with stray animals that can breed and live year-round outside in the warm weather.)

Beyond Minneapolis, CARE is conducting its surveys in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Miami. It hopes to identify solutions that make pet ownership more accessible. Those solutions likely involve spreading some of the compassion, so it’s not strictly for the animals, but toward humans, as well.

Evans thinks about the nicest animal shelters in the country, and how they are often loud and stressful, with small, confined spaces. It’s not the same as seeing your dog laze on the sofa, knowing it has found its forever family.

A person applying to adopt a pet might not have the nicest home, but a loving home is better than none.

“Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good is advice I’ve given the whole field,” Evans said.