MA/RI/CT/ME/NH Animal Shelters?

[FrugalYankee]

Originally Posted by miu

Can you give some examples? What breeds and how much for their rescued dogs? And what do you think would be a fair price to pay instead?

For obvious reasons I am not about to give specific examples.

I used to spend a lot of time on dog forums and have had this discussion at length with posters who represented all sides of the issue: potential owners who were frustrated with rescue policies and fees, rescue proponents who insisted that they were only operating in the animals best interests, shelter workers who were frustrated at the arrogance of some of the rescues who felt that they had a right to "pull" the dogs from northern New England shelters (particularly toy breeds) because us hicks don't know how to properly take care of such animals, etc.

More than once I ran into an honest rescue affiliate who - when confronted with the accusation that many of these rescues "pull" highly adoptable dogs from rural shelters in northern New England AFTER they have been s/n, given vet care etc using money which comes from donations from people like me only to turn around and claim that people like me are unfit to own a dog because we do not meet the standards set by suburban living, ADMITTED that this was true. One I remember in particular did Beagle rescue.

I also recall a story of a woman who had driven 2 hrs (which is not that far up here) to adopt a senior dog only to be told when she got there that some BSR was going to "pull" the dog. Mind you she was physically there and the rescue rep had not shown up, but the shelter kowtowed to the rescue.

Then there was the story of the rescue that would not adopt to someone based on their pie-in-the-sky requirements but who gave one of their dogs to a friend of one of the BSR officers because this friend was going through a rough patch in life and the officer felt a dog would do her good. Turned out this "friend" was in such bad emotional shape she couldn't take care of the dog. This was in a small town and the person I knew ended up getting the dog for free because she happened to know the BSR officer's friend and the whole story. The BSR was too embarrassed about the whole deal to demand that the dog be returned.

I have no problem paying a $300-$400 adoption fee. What gets to me are the requirements. You are obligated to crate train, attend training with your adopted dog, feed it only food approved by the BSR, you can't have hardwood floors, you must have a fence, the list goes on and on.

There is no need to put up with this since there are so many ways of getting a dog without going through a BSR. Heck you can go down south and a mini vacation out of it.

[mbenay]

The Connecticut Humane Society has a lower fee than rescues. Also municipal animal control facilities ("dog pounds') have lower fees than the Humane Society. A number of the larger dog pounds in Connecticut -- Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury, and Bridgeport -- are now full and are eager to find good adopters. They list their animals on petfinder.com.