Adoption fees

Actually I have spent a lot of time talking to people asking them why they want to buy at the store as apposed to a shelter or breeder.
The top three answers were....

1)The store provides a guarantee so the dog/cat must be healthy and the store will make sure I get my papers.

2) Don't know where to find a breeder.

3)Shelters only have mutts and old dogs...I want a puppy/kitten... and rescues make me nueter my pet (sub question...why is that bad? answer: I might want to breed or I think its cruel) and they, rescues, ask too many questions.

There were other responces but the anwers were farley random. I found even though there are always a few impulse buyers most don't drop $800 or more on an impulse buy.

I still think that adoption through a shelter or rescue is the way to go including all fees. It's a great value.

I prefer a rescue myself because I know they spend time one on one with the pet and know its good and bad points before placing it. Public shelters don't always have that time. The only problem with private rescues is, once in awhile, there gets to be someone in charge that rules out too many families for silly reasons. Unfortunatley I witnessed a family (not through my rescue) be denied the adoption of a 10 year old senior lab because they did'nt have a large fenced in yard....keep in mind this dog just wanted to sleep or be with his people not active at all...arthritis. Another turned down a very dog experienced family (families pets all reached senior age) because their house was too neat. The rescuer in this case thought the family would think the dog too messy and dump it. Those are the rescuers that discourage good adoptive families and send them in another direction, like stores.

I agree that shelters and rescues are the way to go. I recently left the shelter due to moving out of state so I know what it is like to work at a shelter. We are not THAT picky though. We try our best to get as much imformation as possible about the animal from the previous owner when there is one. Recently we adopted a program called Meet Your Match where we put the dog through a series of simple tests to determine the dogs behavior. We then ask the perspective adopter to fill out a questionaire and we match them with the dog that most suits their lifestyle. It is a free program to learn sponsored by Iams. Not bad for a lil shelter! I also know what it is like to be rejected for adoption. I have been a groomer for 16 years and always had dogs, our previous doberman lived to be 14, not bad! But still I was rejected because I did not have a fenced in yard as I lived in an apt complex. So it must be OK for the dog to be in a 4' X 8' run than go for walks throughout the day and sleep in a warm bed at night. It is very frustrating, I know what those people feel like and I was very close to going to a puppy mill store to get a dog before I finally found the perfect dog in the perfect shelter that would finally adopt to me! But I never heard those excuses as to why people would prefer to buy at a pet store, aside from them wanting to breed them. Being in different states, people do have different attitudes, so everyone's reasons and opinions are bound to be different.