Awwwh, that's lovely. A coworker of mine recently adopted a cat. They assumed it was much younger than it was, so by the time they wanted it spayed, she already got pregnant. I think there is only one left, but they intended to keep one anyway.

But yeah, in a way I understand not wanting to deal with people potentially mess up your property/disappearing without taking their pets. (In my country it recently happened, some Chinese guy and his gal left a dog, a cat and some rabbits in a flat and disappeared).
It also sucks, because the people who want to do it right are the ones who get punished, as always.