Do you think a animal shelter would give away a animal?

Adoption fees are to ensure the animal is going to a good home. If they were all free there would be more people would taking them for slaughter (in a theoretical free horse rescue, this would happen) or to turn into puppy mill breeding animals. A person could just take the animals to turn a quick profit for themself. Also, if they were all free, anyone could have one, regardless of whether or not they have money to continue to pay for their food and vet bills in the future.

The animals in the shelter were free to begin with. If someone wanted these animals off the streets, they would have been free there! A shelter has just done all of the work for you by vaccinating and spaying and neutering them.

The rescues also want to get some of the money they put into the animal. They are often not even getting all of what they put into the animal. If an owner is not able to pay a small adoption fee, they should not even bother adopting. At least in a shelter the animal is safe, warm, and fed. Even if the animal is euthanized, this is a quick, painless, and humane death. I would rather see the animals in a shelter and have to be euthanized, than in a home that neglects to give it food and care while it slowly suffers and dies.

sometimes shelters get money to sponsor adoptions, which allows for RESCUE to get free/reduced cost adoption fees to pull dogs.

Some shelters work closely with rescues and allow them to pull for free/low cost even without sponsors

but the shelter will not likely let just anyone come and take a dog. Yes it costs to euthanize.. but the fact is that a dog that is just given for free is not as likely to be taken care of.. odds are the dog will be viewed as disposable, and end up back in the shelter anyways. People put a little more thought into adoption when they actually have to pay money to get an animal.

If shelters also gave dogs away for free, people would not pay the adoption fees that keep the shelter running, they will just wait for dogs to end up on death row.

ADDED

They cannot just give them to the no-kill shelters, because no-kill shelters are often FULL as it is! Even many rescues are full, or have limited funding- they take dogs only when they have room/funds to do so. There are many perfectly good dogs being killed daily, but there are simply not enough homes. Since BYBs and millers wont stop producing, shelters have no choice but to euthanize.

Giving dogs away for free wont solve the issue either. Most people who obtain "free" dogs view the dog as a disposable creature and either wont bother to provide proper vet care, or they will end up dumping the dog in the shelter anyways as soon as its an inconvienience to have the poor beast.

Most kill shelters will place less-adoptable animals with no-kill shelters or other rescues at no cost before euthanizing. Highly desirable purebreds and small breeds, however, they generally require the rescue or shelter pay a fee to pull, since they would likely be adopted out of the kill shelter and enable them to put that money towards the care of other animals. Some will require a 'pull' fee be paid to cover spay/neuter even on less adoptable dogs (since in many locations now it is illegal to let a dog go out the door, even to another shelter, if not altered). They will not give them to private individuals or rescues that aren't reputable, though, since people could turn around and sell them and make a profit.

I've seen a small number of animals advertised as free on petfinder, usually ones that are old and have special needs. As for giving them to other shelters, everyone has individual policies but a lot of private rescues work in conjunction with other shelters who can find the animal a home or keep it so it doesn't have to be euthanized. But sometimes they will euthanize it anyway due to severe health problems or because they don't think the animal is adoptable.

A good shelter keeps dogs that are adoptable if at all possible. Dangerous, dying dogs are euthanized.

They would not give those away as they are adoptable. If they started giving away adoptable dogs for free, there would be no end. to it and folks would take them because they are free when they couldn't afford vet care etc.

A shelter cannot be giving away animals for free. They need to pay to keep them..

If they gave away the animals for free, there'd be no way that they could stay open.

yes they do give animals away for free, I dont know where you got the idea that you would have to pay. It costs them money to keep the animal. Their goal is to get the animal a home as soon as possible.