dog shelters????................?

What exactly did they do at the shelter before you adopted them? I hope they neutered them and gave initial vaccines. Did they microchip them or perform any other service?

Taking care of animals at a shelter and getting them adopted out is expensive. It requires man hours, both manual labor and specialized skills, food, space and other resources (paper, computers, etc). Some shelters might not have as much funding or donations as others, so not all will cost the same.

Yay for you for adopting!

There can/are multiple reasons for paying $200. They get spayed/neutered, shots, and microchipped. There's the food they paid for, maintaining the shelter, toys, and etc.

Plus, puppies in stores cost way more than that! Even mutts cost a lot in pet stores. At the local Pet City, the dogs cost $1000-3000.

Adoption fees are not simply prices slapped on to the dogs, they are to help cover the costs of spaying and neutering, all the shots, the food, and anything else that the Humane Society may have had to provide. And most of the time it only covers a fraction of the costs. It's also a way to try to prevent people with impure intentions from buying these dogs. Most don't want to pay a high price for them.

One reason is to make sure that people don't just randomly go adopting dogs and then getting rid of them. If you have to pay some money you have invested in them and are less likely to do so without thinking.

One other reason is because they spend a ton of money on vet treatment of the dogs before they're ready to get out and be adopted. If you think about how much it costs to get one neutered, not to mention tested for heart worm, fleas, etc. Plus if they came in off the street with any other illnesses those cost money to treat. It's SO great you got yours from the humane society, there are so many wonderful dogs up for adoption. And who cares if it's a mutt. They still have a lot of love to give.

Caring for and providing vet care is costing shelters a fortune. The cost has to be covered somewhere. Some cost more to get to the adoptable phase, some less. It all evens out. A dog spay can cost $200 nowdays. Shelters rarely recoup what they have put into an animal.

Prior to your getting your pup, the humane society had to vet care each of the dogs. Not knowing what state the dog was in prior to your getting it, the humane society probably put in a lot of time and money to get your pup into an adoptable state. Most rescues and humane societies will charge what costs have already gone into the care of the dog. Caring and vetting numerous dogs by a charitable organization is not cheap for them to do, so they charge a price for their adoptable dogs. The initial price of the dog is usually the least expensive cost you will have during the lifetime of your dog.

Were the dogs spayed & neutered, vaccinated, treated for parasites & micro-chipped by your Humane Society? That alone can be $200 per dog. It also goes to pay for the overhead of running the place, electricity, heat, dog food, salaries. Even at that, most humane societies still need as many volunteers as they can get, to foster the animals that they physically don't have room to house, walking the dogs, fostering newborn kittens & pups, etc.

Your two hundred dollars BARELY covers the cost of having all their shots given, wormed, their spays/neuters done, not to mention all their food and upkeep.

Try an experiment. Tomorrow morning, call your local vet office, and ask them how much they will charge to give TWO dogs all vaccinations, fecal test, heart worm test, worming, and spay/neuter surgery. Vets vary from area to area but I'm betting it will be somewhere around at LEAST $400 bucks.

You'll see then your 200 bucks is a damn good deal.

Vintage Collies

ETA:

I'm sorry, I wasn't meaning to be rude, I was trying to shed a little bit of reality. Bottom line is pets are expensive. Sorry if it came across wrong.

I agree with you. I also know that any extra money may go to the animals that may need extra help. The shelter in my area is a for profit shelter and it sucks!! Some dogs are $25.00 and some are over $350.

Shelters charge to try to recoup some of the expenses they put into these dogs keeping them fed and healthy. Encourage them to partner with other charities to process boat, car, and real estate donations, such as http://www.realestatewithcauses.org/animalcompassi...