I have seen for myself pet stores that claim not to buy dogs from puppy mills yet will have windowless trucks roll up in front of them and have puppies handed out of the back of the truck. I've read stories about people selling puppies on petfinder in the guise of being a rescue but charging high prices. The Humane Society of the United States and other animal groups are working to shut down large puppy mills but they can only do so much. Lastly, millions of dogs are put to sleep in shelters every year, not because they aren't good dogs but because there aren't enough homes for them. Anyway, last week, a puppy mill was shut down in North Carolina. HSUS has made the video available and its heart breaking to watch.

It is the top video if anyone is interested:
http://stoppuppymills.org/

Amen sister! Adopt, adopt, adopt!

You'll be so glad you did when you look into those beautiful, loving eyes & know you saved a life.

In case you need any more reasons to adopt, a picture.........yanno, a 1000 words.......

I give you Karen and Buck

I have adopted a dog from an animal rescue. These animals don't come free. They need to be fed and sometimes need medical care until adopted. I am all for adopting a pet but I don't want anybody to think they are free. Fees will vary but there is a cost when you adopt. My dog was in the Humane Society when adopted by an animal rescue group. He was in foster care until he came into my life. I paid the animal rescue group a fee to adopt him and would do it again.

True, there is an adoption fee from rescues/shelters but they are generally very reasonable but they can vary. Our first cat cost $40 to adopt but she wasn't fixed. Our second cat cost $125 to adopt, she was fixed. Our first dog cost $275 to adopt and she came fixed. Second dog cost $200 and came fixed. Of course puppy mill/backyard breeder dogs can cost $600 or more. They also generally have more health problems.

We always adopt our pets from rescues or rescue them off the street and find them homes or keep them. We have 3 dogs that were all rescues. Two we found. In fact one we found in Dec and it turns out she is pregnant and ready to deliver at any moment.

Another rescue advocate here

Dax's adoption fee was around $200.

A woman was camping in the desert with her children when they found him wandering- sick and hungry. Someone threw away our dog! (lucky for us ) I'm very thankful to that woman. She couldn't bare the thought of leaving him at a shelter in a town down there. She brought him home with her, looked up what kind of dog he was and called the rescue group. It worked out pretty well.

I have seen breeders shop cattle dogs/heelers for over $500, which is pretty stupid IMHO.

Besides understanding that there are fees, please have your new pet checked by a vet right away. It will put people off rescue adoption permanently having to deal with high bills for vet care afterward only to have a pet die in less than a year. Unfortunately, anytime you have many animals sheltered together, disease can spread. And, please, please get it fixed if that isn't part of the adoption process. No need to let the problem continue.

I have never heard of a rescue or shelter that will release an animal that hasn't been fixed and vetted. That's one thing I have always seen as a benefit to adopting.

Also, if you adopt, many centers and shelters will give an allowance or insurance policy for the first 2 weeks or so where you can even take the animal to your private vet, so I would advise people to check out that option. Dax had to be treated for a UTI before we were allowed to officially adopt him.

I visited a shelter with my friend recently and they were pretty stringent with this policy. She looked at a dog that had a respiratory issue and they took extra measures to make sure the dog didn't leave sick and finished his round of treatment. I was really impressed with that.

Junebug - Kill shelters won't fix dogs/cats before they adopt out. Our shelter is a low kill shelter (adoption rates in the 85% range or so) but they try to minimize costs so they don't fix but they require that you fix your animal within a month and will give you names of vets with low cost spay/neuter. They also require that you take your dog/cat to a vet within one week of adoption.

when we adopted our cat, she had an eye infection. They gave us the writeup as well as the medicine she was on and instructions on giving her the medicine.

Many times puppy mill/backyard breeder dogs will have never seen a vet. Sad but true.

We adopted our dogs the day before they were scheduled to be euthanized, and they cost a grand total of $10 for the two of them. However, they were not neutered and hadn't had but their first round of shots.

I agree 100%.
I got a litter of 4 kittens from the humane society for $200. They had been found in a small cardboard box on the side of I-5 in early spring. They have been the sweetest, healthiest, most wonderful additions to my life. I truly cannot imagine a better way to spend $200.
I see these ads for the Ashera cats, and the other genetically "perfected" animals and then read the fine print- they kill the animals that aren't "perfect"- like the ones that are off-colored, or have extra claws ( which are easily fixed by surgery, or can just be left. They don't always harm the animal).

They charge $20,000 for the Ashera cat last I heard- and they have a 2 year waiting list. Why would someone pay for something like that when thousands of cats are put down yearly because of shelter overcrowding? And compared to $20,000, a shelter cat is quite affordable.

Interesting! I didn't know that was the standard. I guess my experiences have been different.

That's true about puppy mills (NOT reputable breeders)- often there is no recourse if you should get a sick animal.

wow those videos are really hard to watch. very sad. i'm glad i adopted and would never consider doing anything else.

i've been a shelter vet...and it sucks killing so many wonderful animals. All my critters are from a shelter or off the street. I'm always a fan of adoptions. You can find great purebeds and mixes all! Please save lives...adopt!