My wife and I would like a dog, but we’re having a problem finding one. The local SPCA never has anything but pit bulls, and we can’t afford thousands of dollars for a pure bred. We’d just like a young even-tempered mixed breed dog. We’ve encountered several places that call themselves “rescues” which say they get their dogs from “high kill shelters” in the southern states. They seem legitimate and I’ve known people who have gotten their dogs in this way. My wife, however, is against it, saying that these “rescue” places are simply enabling puppy mills. So what’s the truth? Why are there seemingly so many “high kill shelters” in the South? Are they indeed puppy mills? We live in an area in Pennsylvania that is notorious for puppy mills and have reason to be cautious. We don’t want a dog that has been mistreated or born under these kind of conditions.
We used petfinder.com and got our dog from someone who was fostering it. He’s a mutt, but it’s not like I’m herding sheep here.
Find a rescue that looks good to you, regardless of the actual breed it rescues and shoot them an email. My aunt was the president of a statewide doberman rescue (and now French Bulldog rescue) and they’ve always taken in anything that comes their way. Doberman or otherwise, including cats, small animals (gerbils etc), lizards etc. At the last place she was running, she ended up with a chicken at one point, and possible a horse IIRC.
Anyways, contact them and tell them what you’re looking for.
You can tell them you want a mixed breed, 2 year old, female dog that doesn’t shed much, is good around kids, house broken and wasn’t born in a mill (or whatever it is you’re looking for) and if they run across it, they’ll let you know.
There are a lot of legitimate high-kill shelters. They just have so many dogs coming in, that they put down any dog that’s going to be difficult to adopt out. Bad leg, kennel cough, worms, bit someone etc, those dogs can take years to adopt, if they ever get adopted and in the mean time, they’re living in a shelter, often in terrible conditions, so they just get worse and worse.
I understand why people prefer no-kill shelters, but several people I know that have worked in them because they’d never ever want to put a dog down eventually came to the realization that as heartbreaking as it is, seeing an “unadoptable” dog waste away in a shelter for years isn’t much better. At least this allows the shelter to put their resources towards the dogs that have a real chance of finding a ‘forever home’.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a huge middle ground between no-kill and high kill. My aunt, for example, has rehabilitated countless dogs over the years that other places would have put down without thinking about it. But working with special needs (animals or people) is a passion of hers. Hell, that chicken I mentioned earlier lost a leg and she had an artificial one made for it…for a chicken.
The shelter I volunteer with (I’m in the south) maintains a ‘no kill’ status, but my understanding is that it’s a goal rather than a strict policy. My town also has a super active fostering community, which helps immensely in keeping their numbers down.
If the shelter were to ever run out of room and be unable to find placement for animals elsewhere - and they really do squeeze every last bit of square footage out of the place that they can - they can either put down unadoptable animals or start turning animals away. Either option is more or less a death sentence, but making room for younger animals almost certainly results in more adoptions.
Cold equations.
Lax state humane laws enable puppy mills.
Missouri, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio; y’all don’t have to look the other way and allow dogs to be raised like livestock.
I only mentioned “the South” because so many rescues seem to specify that, which I found curious. In Pennsylvania, do you know who are the most guilty of running puppy mills? The Amish! Yes, those kindly, God-fearing people we all saw in “Witness” run over 60% of the puppy mills in this state. There has periodically been legislation introduced to ban puppy mills in PA but they still exist, I’m sorry to say.
I live in the South and transport for rescues. The high-kill shelters are usually the local dog pounds (when the county has budgeted for animal control at all). Dog comes in, 3-day stray hold, then goes up for adoption. My county has improved leaps and bound in the last 20 years. Previously, if they were pressed for spaced, they might not even put an animal up for adoption if they thought it was unlikely to find a home. Euthanize and give the space to a more likely candidate. Now my county euthanizes mostly for behavior and health issues, with neutering up and with the help of rescues that pull dogs and ship up North.
These dogs aren’t from puppy mills. They’re dogs allowed to indiscriminately breed, or from backyard breeders who think they can sell a litter of puggles or chiweenies for $1000 ea. They’re dogs who lost their homes due to divorce or eviction. I have a friend who just adopted a 13 year old golden retriever given up because divorce made the couple move to apartments where larger dogs weren’t allowed.
StG
What is your wife’s contention exactly?
That these rescue places are simply puppy mills in disguise? Or that they serve as conduits to “launder” puppy mill output? Or ???
Color me confused.
from the article:
An effort that animal rescuers began more than a decade ago to buy dogs for $5 or $10 apiece from commercial breeders has become a nationwide shadow market that today sees some rescuers, fueled by Internet fundraising, paying breeders $5,000 or more for a single dog.
The result is a river of rescue donations flowing from avowed dog saviors to the breeders, two groups that have long disparaged each other. The rescuers call many breeders heartless operators of inhumane “puppy mills” and work to ban the sale of their dogs in brick-and-mortar pet stores. The breeders call “retail rescuers” hypocritical dilettantes who hide behind nonprofit status while doing business as unregulated, online pet stores.[quote=“LSLGuy, post:8, topic:923368, full:true”]
What is your wife’s contention exactly?
That these rescue places are simply puppy mills in disguise? Or that they serve as conduits to “launder” puppy mill output? Or ???
Color me confused.
[/quote]
If they’re selling dogs for $5000+ they’re not rescues, they’re selling dogs under the guise of being a rescue, possibly even calling themselves a charity (common for rescues) for tax reasons.
Depending on the specific rescue and their resources (ie donations, vet discounts etc), you should be able to get a healthy, fixed, chipped, dog for anything from a ‘nominal adoption fee’ up to maybe $200ish dollars.
That’s what they are paying the breeders. Also from the article:
Bidders affiliated with 86 rescue and advocacy groups and shelters throughout the United States and Canada have spent $2.68 million buying 5,761 dogs and puppies from breeders since 2009 at the nation’s two government-regulated dog auctions, both in Missouri, according to invoices, checks and other documents The Washington Post obtained from an industry insider. At the auctions, rescuers have purchased dogs from some of the same breeders who face activist protests, including some on the Humane Society of the United States’ “Horrible Hundred” list or the “No Pet Store Puppies” database of breeders to avoid, maintained by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Thanks for the info! To summarize what I think this adds up to:
- There are puppy mills.
- There are people who think the best way to stop puppy mills is to buy more puppies from them.
- There are people who think they can run a unlicensed resale puppy mill but skipping the whole birthing part by claiming to rescue dogs they’re buying from other puppy mills that do birth dogs.
- There are people who think they can run a successful fake charity con by claiming to rescue dogs they’re buying from puppy mills.
- All this is enabled by an excess of concern over TwitFace.
Some days I think the sooner the Chinese or Russians finish the takeover the better off humanity will be. Collectively, Americans are idiots. At a minimum we should take away all their computers.
Yeah, it appears there are charities raising millions of dollars that are then spending the money to buy puppies from puppy mills resulting in keeping them in business. Some of them might be well meaning, but ultimately harmful. Others seem to pretty much be scams.
Better to get your dog at a shelter or through a foster agency. No one is paying $5,000 for a mutt.
After Katrina, a local do-gooder arranged for a truck and trailer and drove down to New Orleans on a whim.. Do-gooder filled the trailer with dogs from a shelter, drove them home, and began placing them into new homes. Do-gooder also got booted from the home they were renting as it was a pet-free lease.
Fast forward a month or two and the dogs began dropping like flies. They had never been vet-checked, all had heart worm, and contracted kennel cough on top of it all. It was a real mess.
I feel that feel. Good on your friend for giving a Senior dog some peace in the last year or two of its life.
It took awhile to find an apartment complex cool with my having a 75 pound Weim in a similar circumstance.