File :-(, x, )
Anonymous
How did you get your dog, /an/?

I remember when I was younger it was like PLEASE TAKE OUR PUPPIES. Has the spay/neuter thing really been that effective?

If you don't want to or can't afford to pay hundreds from a breeder, what are your options now?

Even my local animal shelters want 200$ for a dog, and people on craigslist sell mutt mixes for 100+ or more and these are the people going "I have to move and can't take my dog" and basically doing their best to get rid of it.

Advice/stories of your own?
>> Anonymous
in b4 if you can't afford to spend thousands on a dog from a breeder you shouldn't have one because of vet bills you might have
>> Anonymous
If you can't afford to spend a couple hundred on a pound dog, you should reconsider, because of vet bills you might have.

Aren't Craigslist dogs supposed to be free?

In answer to your question, have you considered rescue societies? Best of both worlds but you get a slightly higher trauma case rate than with pounds.
>> Anonymous
>>290518
Rescues tend to be even more than dogs.

The ones I've seen locally typically want 300-400.
>> Anonymous
>>290522
even more than pounds*
>> Anonymous
Paying $200 for a dog from a shelter is reasonable. They've fed and kept the animal and most likely taken it to a vet at some point.>>290518is totally right. That's a pretty trivial fee compared to what vet bills you could face, spaying, neutering.. a dog should not be an impulse buy, or a responsibility taken lightly. If the fee turns you off, it's doing its job.
>> Anonymous
Hang around communities with lots of hunting dogs. They don't like neutering and are also particularly bad at keeping bitches in heat separated.
>> Anonymous
>>290552
A) why should I have to repay someone for what they bought for the dog while they owned it?
B) I pay taxes which go to the shelters
C) It's not that I can't afford it, but I'd rather use that money on the dog than padding someone's wallet because they let their dogs get knocked up and now they think they deserve money.
>> Anonymous
>>290574

What are you talking about? The rescue isn't responsible for stupid people letting their animals breed. They've taken in the animals and helped them, and they need MONEY to do this. Rescues rely on donations and adoption fees to operate, and are almost always low on funds. $200 for a dog they've taken in, neutered, treated, and fed is not that much.

Rescues in NO WAY have enough money to 'pad their wallets' with $200.
>> tigerfeather !CrwtTbFNxQ
>>290574
Do you have any idea how much funding your local animal shelter receives? You probably don't realize that they really only get enough to cover overhead and paying employees, much less vet bills or decent food.

Your taxes are piddly compared to what needs to be paid for. I hate it when people use that "I'm a tax-paying citizen!" reasoning (which is eerily similar to the asswipe "I'm a paying customer!" argument you hear in stores all the time when someone is trying to get something for nothing).
>> Anonymous
>>290598
Not talking about rescues, I was referring to people who have dogs that get pregnant and go omg puppies and then think they should make hundreds/thousands of dollars off the litter of mutts. Especially when they call it an "adoption fee".
>> Anonymous
On craigslist for around here, there's TONS of free dogs (and cats). Sure, for a fancy breed they'll ask 100 or so, but for the most part they're either free or under 50 bucks.
>> Anonymous
>>290605
Here's it's 99% puppies that are either a few hundred of several hundred for an "adoption fee", I think I've seen one free and one 25 dollar in about 3 weeks but the vast majority are several hundred dollars.

Cats are cheaper, though.
>> Anonymous
i got my beastiff (beagle/mastiff) from a rescue. yeah i paid $200 to the foster parent but these people take in animals and it mostly comes out of pocket for them. my puppy and the rest of his litter were adopted very quickly because they were so young but the woman i got him from has had some of the adult dogs for many months now. if you can save an animal it's worth the money imo.
>> Anonymous
I got my brat dog from a flea market for $40.

And ended up spending $300+ on him in vet bills within two weeks.

Tell me, would you rather pay $200 for a healthy dog, or get an unhealthy dog that will need vet treatment and possibly die on you?
>> Anonymous
>>290606

Take this problem up with Craigslist. They have policies in place saying animals are free + small adoption fee. If you point it out they might start cracking down.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
As a one volunteering in a shelter, we give our dogs spayed, with three different valid shots, a chip and a new collar and leash- and if a person won't pay us 140 dollars for the dog than what happens when the dog will get really sick? It's paying to see if the person who taked the dog is serious about him. Not to mention we need money to keep the place up.

I adopted my dog from a shelter, while she was four, five years ago.
>> Anonymous
>>290603
But.. you responded to a post about shelters.
>>Paying $200 for a dog from a shelter is reasonable.
>>B) I pay taxes which go to the shelters

It was mentioned multiple times. Adoption fees for shelters and rescues don't go to the owners of the dogs.. wh.. what the hell are you even talking about?
>> Anonymous
>>290603

Then you can't read because you replied to a post about rescues, moron.
>> Anonymous
>>290641
Again, I have no problems with a reasonable fee from a shelter.

@ Shelterfags. How come the ones in my county are 200+ dollars for a puppy, while the ones outside it have the same care (shots, altered, etc) for 40$?

The idea that bothers me about it is that they're charging to "see if you're serious". That's bullshit. If you want to see if someone's serious, find out about them, the dog's environment, their experience, etc. Forking over a few benjamins doesn't mean you're serious, and realistically they would be better used to care for the dog.
>> Anonymous
>>290672

Like the people who use petfinder.org to "adopt out" the pets they don't want anymore (or "accident" puppies that happen to be purebred).

Just keep your eye on your local newspaper ads. Free puppies tend to pop up more during the spring, but there are still a lot of people who don't fix their pets.
>> Anonymous
Family friend gave one to us.
>> Anonymous
I used to put the word out to my large extended family I wanted a pet and they'd refer me to someone with an unwanted animal within a couple of months.

Now, I have perferences for certain breeds (Boston bulldog) and I'm willing to pay a breeder hundreds.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
We got ours when she was 6 months old. There was a note on the message board at a shelter. The owner was a single mom on welfare and couldn't afford taking care of the dog. We got her for free because we could offer a good home. We only had to pay for spaying and possibly vaccines.

We got very lucky. The dog is now 12 years old and has never had any serious health issues.
>> Anonymous
Curious. Now that you mention it, I've realized that around here the whole "free puppies/kittens" signs don't exist anymore. I got my first dog and cat free from just random breedings, both are just common mixes. Now I see signs but "free" is no longer included.

How gay. :|
>> Anonymous
Well since the SPCA and similar organizations have been doing very well the last 10 years or so, there's a lot more pressure from society to properly care for your pet, get its shots, vet checkups, etc, instead of when I was a kid and you got a puppy from a neighbor and it lived on the ranch and got supper leftovers at the end of the day.

Also, a lot of people will "adopt" free kittens to feed to their snakes/reptiles which are more popular nowadays, so people are afraid to give away kittens to just anyone.
>> Anonymous
We 'adopted' ours dog from a rescue org for $200 nuetered, microchipped and vaccinated. We also get a 15% discount on any of his vet bills in the future and a couple of free obedience classes.
>> Anonymous
>Also, a lot of people will "adopt" free kittens to feed to their snakes/reptiles which are more popular nowadays, so people are afraid to give away kittens to just anyone.

Seriously? Damn...
>> tigerfeather !CrwtTbFNxQ
>>291789
And experiment labs! Whoo.
>> Anonymous
>>291792
Wow, really? I had no idea. D:
>> Anonymous
>>291975
You don't know about Bill Frist? He'd go to shelters/rescues and *adopt* cats saying that they'd have a good home. The good home was is Lab, not the dog, the place where they torture animals.
>> Anonymous
We adopted our dog when she was 8 weeks old, from a local animal shelter. Spayed and all shots for $80, half German Shepard and half Chow-chow.
She was nothing more than a furball with legs when we got her. Now she's much bigger.
>> HyperCutter !!fZ983tH9aUp
>>Also, a lot of people will "adopt" free kittens to feed to their snakes/reptiles which are more popular nowadays
Really? I've never heard of anyone feeding kittens to reptiles...
>> Anonymous
>>290603
Hey douchebag, look into why the animal costs so much. Some people breed dogs on purpose you know and these dogs have excellent pedigrees for people who are looking for that kind of thing. If you're not looking for that kind of thing, then you shouldn't go to that breeder.

People who accidentally get puppies charge a couple hundred dollars sometimes so that the puppies don't turn into impulse buys. Free puppies is like the worst thing because a lot of people who aren't ready for them get them.
>> Anonymous
>>291762
You're an idiot and have no idea what you are talking about.
>> Anonymous
I wish everyone would charge at least 50 as an "adoption fee" for dogs and cats, I've seen what happens to "free" or cheap pets too many times...to list a few examples, one free dog ran away because the owner never got her a ID tag, abused her and neglected her severely (let his friends abuse her as well) she got tired of the shit, another dog ($20 puppy) died of rat poison when his idiot owner left him alone in a room that had rat poison in it, and two free kittens died when the owner left them in a room with flea powder on the ground...these deaths all caused by the same person, and he'll keep getting more, because free pets are expendable to him. After seeing and hearing about this, I'm glad shelters charge over $50 to adopt a pet.

My own two dogs that I obtained for free (that the owners also rescued at no cost to them), they're owners seemed caring enough, but never even checked back with us to see how the dogs were doing after the first check up, never heard from them again.
>> Anonymous
>>291985
Nope, never heard of him. Time to do some reading.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
Purebred Golden Retriever cost my family 1.2k

Her dad was a dog show champion.

Pic related.
>> Anonymous
lots of free puppies get used as bait in dog fights.
>> Anonymous
>>292646
>>292225
>>291762

I live in Saint Louis, and dog fights are very popular in East Saint Louis (one of the poorest urban areas in the country). If you are from there, it is more than likely that you have no education, money, or prospects. In an environment like that, people frequently turn to either the military or black markets (drugs, unregistered gaming, etc.) to make ends meet. Here, dog fighting is extremely popular and even seen as a more 'legitimate' alternative to selling drugs or professional theft, and it is, in fact, a less severe crime because animal protection laws are weak. Pit bulls (and less frequently other bully breeds), rottweilers, dobermans, and mastiffs, are most popular with pits in an extreme lead because of they have a popular reputation of being tough and dangerous. Because there is such a demand for pits, they are bred constantly, and because people breeding dogs for fights aren't caring guardians they sometimes escape. This leads to pits outnumbering most other dog breeds in numbers picked up as stray. Usually these dogs are too traumatized, injured, or ill to be adopted and are quickly euthanised. Even so, through sheer force of numbers enough survive that pits outnumber other breeds in rescue organizations. Because there exists a very high demand for large numbers of expendable pit bulls, adoption fees for them are higher than other breeds just about everywhere. A similar problem exists with beagles, but because they are a preferred breed for use as bait dogs.

tl;dr There are good sociological reasons for charging for animals.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
I recently adopted a 9 month old female Catahoula Leopard Dog from animal control. Animal control charges less for animals because they don't really operate as a shelter and don't have enough funding to keep animals for very long, unlike NPOs such as the Humane Society. Once it's clear that the dog isn't wanted, it gets kept for a couple weeks. If it hasn't been adopted by then, it's euthanised. I got her on the last day, so good luck there. I had to get her spayed, checked out by a vet, and groomed all on my dime. Total cost was about the same as if I had just adopted her from a rescue group. Her name is Sambuca.

Pic related.
>> Anonymous
A) because it costs money to shelter dogs and to pay off the vets for medical screenings before you get yourself a crazy dog. you also pay for numerous other amenities like shots, microchips, etc.
B) Taxes don't go to jack shit when it comes to shelters. They get paid very little compared to other organizations.
C) They also ask you to put out the money to ensure that you're not some jackhole that's going to use the dog for dog fighting/breeding etc. and no, most dogs aren't out there just because some douchebag got it laid. it's because some douchebag decided they didn't want the dog anymore.
>> Anonymous
>>292630
Your dog is very pretty.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
Found some adds in the major newspaper of our area. Drove out a few hours away from where we actually live... Went to a few places, saw a few puppies, but our last stop found the one.
Random farm out in the middle of no where. Huge litter of little husky/lab/german shep puppies. All whining, running, peeing and tripping over each other.
She was the only one that followed us back to our truck, so we took her. We just had a good feeling about her, and she was so adorable (and still is!)
She's two years old now, and insanely spoiled. :) A great friend, protector and member of our family.