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well bred purebred dog if one is a fan of that breed still has a value that is worth paying for secondhand. I don't think that its value suddenly plummets to zero,
The monetary value never plummeted to zero. It never had a monetary value in the first place. It's a living being. Too bad if you paid hundreds of dollars for your special little preferred brand of Canis familiaris. Next time buy some Abercrombie jeans, they're also fancy and come with a receipt and a return policy.
I'll say it again, a "rehoming fee" is supposed to cover expenses incurred by someone else who is taking responsibility for original owner's mess up. It's not a way to recoup for your mistake. You should be paying the people who take it off your hands and care for it. Kudos to Craigslist for adhering to some standard of morality as far as a living being's life is concerned.
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that purebred dog is worth more than a mangey mutt rescued off the streets because it won't need expensive veterinary care, housebreaking and training.
Well, I'm sure any legitimate purebred rescue can attest to the fact that many of these mess-ups do require quite a bit of veterinary care, training, housebreaking.
My own little mess-up is priceless, and I wouldn't sell her off to anyone for a million dollars.
I have rescued many dogs in my life and the best all around pets have been the ones I was not looking for! An example~I was looking for a Catahoula while traveling around Texas for my employer. While home for the weekend my co-worker calls to say there is a dog that fits the discription of what I have been looking for behind a tavern in the country side near his home. I travel the 40 miles to find an approx 4-6mo. female with a broken leg and mange so bad she smelt as if she was already dead and rotting. Carefullly placed in a beer box she was taken to a vet where I was glad to pay any price to save her life. Coco is 10 now Moderator cut: advertising personal web page
Last edited by leorah; 05-09-2009 at 07:53 AM..
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I prefer a rescue group for a couple reasons. Generally speaking the animals are better taken care of and are living in foster homes with a family instead of in a small cage. This not only means the animal will be better adjusted when it is adopted but that it will have already been evaluated. This is important to me. It is one thing to go pickup a cat from a shelter and hope for the best it is another thing entirely to pickup a large dog and hope for the best.
It is important I know the level of training the dog has had, how well socialized he is, if he can live well with other animals (I have a cat that is a deal breaker right there), any special medical needs, etc. They even go so far as to tell you what the dogs energy level is and certain quirks particular to that dog.
For example I looked at a beautiful lab yesterday that my sponsor brought over. If I had just seen the dog in the pound with no background I would've probably got her. She seemed gentle and was a great dog just standing there on a leash but she was a mommy (ha, the proper term got moderated) in a puppy mill most of her life so she doesn't understand anything most dogs would take for granted and has no socialization with other animals or people. I doubt I would have the time or patience to rehabilitate her and wouldn't have realized that until she had gotten back to my home and I'd started really bonding with her.
As for buying an animal I just can't see the reasoning. Unless your buying to breed and need papers there are plenty of animals in all shapes and sizes available at shelters and rescue organizations. Also, chipped, fixed and vaccinated are pretty much requirements in my book. At the very least fixed. There is no need to add to the problem. If your animal gets loose (for whatever reason) you're just adding to the stray/feral problem by not having them fixed.
I understand your confusion on why "rescue dogs" seem to cost so much over "shelter dogs". I'll see if I can help you to understand the differences, expecially if you are looking at a "pure bred rescue". Pure bred rescues come by their dogs in many ways. Most of the time they recieve a call from a shelter or a private owner that has a dog of their particular breed interest that is in need. The rescue goes and assesses the dog for health, temperment and to verify that it really is the breed that they say it is. (I dealt with Chesapeake Bay Retrievers and have had everything from Choclate Labs to Golden Retrievers being called Chessies. Once its accepted to rescue, it is either immediately put into a foster home or the rescue will board it at a boarding facility until placement at a private foster home is possible. Once in a foster home, the dogs is treated completely as part of the family except the rescue group still is responsible for its medical treatment. Rescue will pay to treat for any diseases or issues it has (heartworm, fleas, growths, vaccinations) while the foster family accept the costs for its care (nutrition, house training basic training) until the time that it is ready to be placed for adoption. Any good rescue is very careful about where their "fur-kids" are placed. As a foster you come to love all of them as if they are your own. Yes rescue is more expensive but you are getting a dog that now has a history that can be told to you. The foster will know personally the dogs likes and dislikes (i.e. children, other dogs, cats) while a shelter most of the time cannot give you that depth of info. Many foster dogs are with their foster families for months and sometimes years before the right "forever home" comes along. You cry a lot of tears when they go but we also know that another wonderful dog has found its forever home. Good pure bred puppies from reputable breeders can run into the thousands of dollars. Rescues run as a not for profit with all money recieved from donations and dog placement going right back into the next dog in need. Oh - and as for placing an "intact dog" The only time a recgnized rescue would do this is if the dog is too young for the surgery. Many will require a "spay or neuter deposit" until proof that the procedure has been done and will come and take the dog back if its not done as has been contracted in the adoption agreement.
I hope that this info has helped! The main thing I want to say is whether from a rescue or from a shelter, thank you for considering taking one of these dogs in need!
I'm leery of petfinder.com . I now use www.petharbor.com - go and type in your zip code, then they allow you to choose where you want to search, as in only gov't animal control/shelters, or private rescues.
I've been looking for a while now, in multiple cities and I think there are more shelter dogs on petharbor then are on petfinder.
I'm on both sites with my rescue. I signed up first for PF and later got an e-mail that I could also be added to SH.
PF is wonderfully active in the rescue community. They have huge annual fundraisers and provide some wonderful services to rescues. I highly recommend them. I'm really interested in what you are leery of with Petfinder. They are strictly a listing site for rescues that have met the criteria for being a responsible rescue.
Another one is Pet Adoption – 100,000 Dogs & Cats in Need - Adopt A Pet Save A Life.. I used a few national search sites like that until I realized the dogs I was interested in all came from the same local group. From there I contacted the local group and have been using their resources since (events, contacting fosters, web site, etc) in my search for my new companion.
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PF is wonderfully active in the rescue community. They have huge annual fundraisers and provide some wonderful services to rescues. I highly recommend them.
Agreed!
I adopted my mixed breed dog (I think of her as an original limited edition) from a rescue group. I had done some research on the best dogs to suit my lifestyle, budget, etc., and then started searching PF for a good match. I would have adopted from a shelter as well --the thing is I wanted to rescue a dog that really needed a home. I paid $200 to the rescue and thought that it was a high fee at the time but they had spayed her and they had spent money to give her shots, a heartworm test and to perform a needed surgery-- plus they'd had her for quite a while since she was three years old and not many people are looking to adopt an older dog. I also was able to learn a bit of her history from the rescue.
She was shy at first, suffered from separation anxiety, and had a really bad kennel cough but with the help of a healthy diet, vet care, and lots of love she is now a beautiful, happy, and loving dog--the best $200 I've ever spent! She was also housetrained when I got her--one of the advantages of adopting an older dog.
I've had several people stop me on the street to tell me how beautiful she is. When I think back to how she had to wait for months upon months to get adopted, I really wish that people would wake up and stop paying money to breeders and pet stores when there are so many wonderful dogs at the shelters and rescue groups in dire need of good homes. Yes, they might require a bit of work to get them up to speed and they might have an unknown history or not be the designer dog you desire but the purebred and cross-breed dogs at shelters and rescue groups will return your love a million times over. The shelters and rescue groups can help you find either a purebred or cross-breed dog that is the best fit for you.
Sadly, I've since learned that there are some rescues on Petfinder that are .................. less than honest. I found two of them in my area that are breeders.
If you're looking into adopting, please thoroughly check out the rescue. Otherwise your good intentions could be supporting a back yard breeder.
For those of you in the north that are looking to adopt, look into southern rescues as well. Especially if you're in the northeast. There are weekly transports going up there for $150. Average adoption fees down here are the same. So for $300 you can have the puppy or other type of pet you'd like to adopt which is much less than the $400 to over a thousand some of the rescues up north charge. And for the record, the pet is the exact same one. Most of the northern rescues are bringing dogs from the south up there. Same dog, half the adoption fee and you're still saving a life!
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Rescue vs shelter dogs
I'm really interested in what you are leery of with Petfinder. They are strictly a listing site for rescues that have met the criteria for being a responsible rescue.
