All rescue groups should do a Home Visit prior to adopting their dog out. Do a ref. check with their vet. It is crucial to insure the dog's safety vs putting the poor dog you just rescued and cared for into possible harmful conditions or death. There are many horrible cases of animal abuse/neglect and hoarders. The dog's life is in your hands. Most Animal Shelters (usually run by police dept.) have access to information about the person and their address so they can verify if they are legit and have any fines. Volunteer rescue groups do not have this access, therefore, they need to a home visit to truly verify.

I think that concern is warranted because in their haste to find dogs a home many rescues or groups, as well intentioned as they are, do not fully vet prospective owners. Hoarders and dog traffickers are out there and most are smart, savvy and convincing, and willing to lie through their teeth.

My dog's hoarder (477 dogs) was given the vocal & written support of different well known groups and persons before authorities busted her 'sanctuary'. Why? In some cases people did not have first hand knowledge of her site, in other cases I just couldn't say why she had the supporters she had, but she did and does to this day, nevermind that dogs were found dead in their cages.

So while I am all for finding homes for animals, there are fates that are worse than what we are all trying to avoid for dogs in kill shelters. Just my opinion. My own dog will never be like other dogs because of the care and treatment he received from his 'rescuer' who got most of her dogs from shelters or rescue groups.

I think Jenna has it right there. The rescue and shelter workers have to screen any applicant anyway, so "spreading the word" through social networking should just give them a broader number of people to chose from for one particular individual. Hopefully, the impulsive dog-parents-to-be will be identified and educated that way.

I think that this initiative it is to applauded. Sounds like a great way to not only to increase awareness for the need of adopting dogs, but more even more immediately that there might be a great dog for adoption NOW. With my recent experience in adopting two pups from a shelter in Kentucky, in a far from normal manner (read the article about how this came about at http://thebark.com/content/holly-and-kit-come-home), I learned a few things. Firstly that even a small shelter in Kentucky had a rescue coordinator who poses the right questions to potential adopters, and they “vetted” me thoroughly (I even had to provide them with references who had to vouch for the safety of my house and yard in Berkeley), and, secondly, since I adopted two pups with the intention of keeping one and finding a new home for the other, I learned how easy that could be accomplished with a personal “introduction.” I never did go through adopting out Kit, but I had many potential adopters interested in her. I think that there are people, including those with only one dog, who, when they hear of, or better still, see a dog who needs a new home, and that intro comes from someone they know, they are more likely to consider an adoption. There should always be the opportunity to “return” a dog to the agency or organization if an adoption doesn’t work out, but chances are, it will work. It certainly did in the case of our pups, Kit and Holly. Every day in this country there are thousands of dogs who are put “down” for want a home. So I applaud Social Petworking and hope that we’ll be hearing more about outreach programs like this.

As times get harder and ever more unpredictable, some dog owners might abandon their dogs for the simple reason that a temporary boarding arrangement is too costly. I am thinking of dogs left to fend for themselves while the owner has to go on a short trip or dogs being left alone 10 hours or more every day while the owner is at work. Of course the worst possibility, the dog is brought to a shelter because the owner has to go to a hospital or wants to go on a vacation where dogs are not allowed. While many of us have neighbors or friends who are willing to help out in such situations, many people today do not have time to find someone they can contact in such situations. For this and other reasons, I believe the website PetWatchClub.com could provide a very helpful link for dog owners to connect with other dog owners in their neighborhood. This social network site offers free membership and all the tools to start getting to know other pet owners in the neighborhood.

I think the likes of Twitter, Myspace etc etc are a superb way to find potential new homes for pets. I do however agree that their could be a great number of people who will be tempted adopt with their heart and not with their head! As long as potential adopters are properly assessed/screened in the usual way, I can't see there being any problems.If the end result is more pets finding new homes then it's fantastic.

It is the rescue's job to make sure the applicant is ready to adopt and capable of providing a good forever home for the pet. Spreading the word to more people about dogs in need will help deepen the pool of applicants, which is definitely a good thing!

The rescues responsible for the dogs being "advertised" should continue to do due diligence on adoption candidates and work to carefully match dogs and adopters appropriately. Rescue organizations use all sorts of advertising to spread the word about available dogs and this is just one more.

A buzz-kill? No. But I don't think there's anything to worry about. First of all, using Twitter to communicate doesn't suddenly change an organization's adoption and screening process for pet placement. It's either good, in which case it doesn't matter how people hear about them, or it sucks, in which case it doesn't matter how people hear about them. See what I mean, LOL?

Second, I always used to sing the "impulse adoption of pets is wrong and should be discouraged, we need to plan plan plan" song, too, but I've noticed lately it sounds a bit off-key. People have all kinds of impulses, including loving and charitable ones. I think it's time we recognized that there are many good and right ways to match human and animal family members, and stop being quite so rigid and fearful about it.

I read a blog post this morning by Shirley Thistlewaite. It was about pit bulls in Ontario, and had nothing to do with this topic, but she said something that struck me as both profound and true: "We are the real humane society."

The love of animals in this country, in our society, these days is staggering. More people have more pets than ever before. Spay/neuter rates are at an all-time high. Shelter intake and kill rates are a fraction of what they were 20 years ago and drop every year. Both animal philanthropy and spending on pet products and services are growing, even in these hard times -- in fact, animal philanthropy is the fastest-growing segment of charitable giving today.

Of course there are jerks, and of course we need to do some basic conversation-based screening to make sure that pets are placed in good forever homes by adoption groups. But this fearful, over-riding negativity that permeates so many of our adoption messages is neither helpful nor accurate.

People are the solution to pet homelessness. People are the cure. And we should honor their impulse to help, not be frightened of it. And we shouldn't treat social media any differently than any other form of communication. It is, in the end, just people talking. The behind the communication systems are the screening tool, not the medium in which the information is being disseminated.