Our rescue has met with some unsavory potential adopters and that's the reason for increased scrutiny. One person was adopting animals off craigslist and then selling them. The family that adopted a pit bull from them had a teenage monster who poured battery acid on the puppy. It died and they demanded another dog from the seller and she gave them the pit bull's brother. Three days later the father brought the puppy to the vet because his son had chopped off the dogs ears and tail and they couldn't get the bleeding to stop. The vet called the police and they seized the puppy and turned it over to the rescue to hold as evidence. We couldn't adopt it out because it was evidence and we also didn't have clear title to it. Frankie is still in the rescue five years later.
As a result, the woman who was getting the dogs from craigslist has been blacklisted from adopting because she wasn't doing any background checks. The parents of the kid who tortured the puppies sued the rescue and the local police department and they made physical threats against my daughters who run the rescue.
Another case happened last week in South Florida. This 20 year old was adopting pets off craigslist and them posting pictures on facebook of him torturing and killing them. He killed at least 14 dogs that they know of.
Two years ago our rescue had several cases of people who were evicted from rental propertied who left their animals when they moved. They were left in the house for two and three weeks with no food and they ate the sheetrock to stay alive.
Our rescue usually deals with a case like this a couple of times a year. It's made them overly cautious about adopters.
