"As growing numbers of people find their perfect mates with the help of screening services like EHarmony or Match.com, animal lovers can now turn to personality tests to help find their perfect pet."
The article is what it sounds like: People who are interested in adopting a pet fill out a questionnaire about what they would desire in a pet. Meanwhile, each adoptable pet is watched for a few days by shelter workers and behavioral characteristics are recorded. The two profiles are compared to find the best possible match.
"More than 150 animal shelters now successfully use what are called Canine-ality and Feline-ality assessments to match prospective pet owners with just the right dog or cat. The quizzes have been so successful that euthanasia rates have been cut by 40%."
Part of me wants to laugh, and the other part thinks this is such a great idea! I think that pets have their own personalities, and helping the pet find a good fit could be good for both parties. Of course, I wouldn't want a pet to be passed up on a potentially great home just because of a personality test. Sometimes you just don't know things about yourself until you're there. For example, my cats could scratch the furniture and chew up my ipod headphones and I would still say that the benefits of having them outweigh the negatives. With Zoey, it was different - I really don't think her personality fit in with our family as well. (I also think that Jera's personality fit with us better, but perhaps I just don't remember anymore.)
When I first read this article, I found a link that talked about the different "categories" of pet personalities. I can't find it now, but I'm going to hunt around a little and see if I can find it.
What do you think? Personality tests for pets: good idea, or does it seem overkill because they're just animals?
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