Adopt vs Shopping For a Dog

Can you put a price on love? Well you certainly can’t buy it but you can adopt it! The cost of adopting a dog or cat from a rescue or shelter might seem like a costly endeavor, but when you break it down – it really is very reasonable. To the animal whose life is saved – it is priceless.

Pet adoption costs are sometimes the reason people give us as to why they choose to not adopt from a rescue. Adopting from a rescue is really not as expensive as is seems.

What most people don’t realize, before a shelter or rescue pet goes home there are a number of things that happen. Veterinary visits, immunizations, spay/neuter, flea/heartworm, etc. … each of these things costs a rescue money. Most rescues are non profits and run on are donations and fundraising. The adoption fee is actually a tax deductible donation if the organization is a registered 501C3 not-for-profit.

To give you an idea, Petfinder.com recently published a breakdown of costs associated with adoption from a rescue or a shelter:

Veterinary wellness visit and exam $50-100
Spaying or neutering $150-300
Distemper vaccination $20-30×2
Rabies vaccination $15-25
Heartworm test (for dogs) $15-35
Feline Leukemia/FIV test (for cats) $30-50
Flea/tick treatment $50-200
Microchip $50
Deworming $20-50
Collar and an identification tag $5-10

TOTAL: $425-880

Not bad if you consider going to a pet store or a breeder can cost upwards of that amount – depending on the breed you could be paying a few thousand dollars.

Many people think there are only mutts at the shelter or animals with behavior issues that no one wants. In fact – it is actually quite the opposite. Those dogs come in every shape, age, color, size, and breed. Some are there because owners move, landlords don’t allow pit bulls, or they could just be strays that are not claimed. While there are many purebred dogs that are dropped off at the shelters every day, most of the dogs are pit bull type breeds. However, consider that for every dog adopted from a shelter, another life is saved! Each year, approximately 2.7 million animals in shelters are euthanized. Of that number, 1.2 million are dogs- mostly pit bulls. Spaying and neutering would greatly lower that number; however not buying from breeders would reduce that number even more.

PMAR takes a majority of our animals from shelters that would otherwise never get homes. Not only can you meet and pick your best friend – you can pick their personality since we usually know quite a bit about our pups before they go to their furever homes. PMAR pups get to spend time with our wonderful fosters for their first few weeks/months with us. PMAR volunteers have some of the biggest hearts and we very passionate about what we do! Fosters are the backbone of rescue! Without them, our dogs would not have that bridge from the difficult period of being in a kennel (or worse) to living in a loving home and being well adjusted and being adopted.

When you adopt from PMAR, we can tell you if your pup is good with children, if they like cats, if they play well with other dogs, if they have any training or if they are house broken. If the dog is older, we will know if they have any medical conditions, if they have been treated for any, or if they are good as new and just need a warm bed to curl up in.

Rescued pets are very appreciative! They know when they have been saved. Just take a look at some of the before and after pictures of some of our pups. You can see it on their faces. These are some of our pups from high kill shelter in some of the worst animal control facilities. These are the faces of love and affection and some of the smartest dogs you will ever meet.

Unconditional love – loyalty – companionship – that is what a rescue pet really is. When you think of bringing a pet into your home, please think rescue. Adopt don’t shop!!

All of these dogs are looking for homes – please consider adopting and fill out and application at PMAR https://www.pmarinc.org/