I hope everyone who thinks it's OK to "just breed her once" or "just buy one dog" reads this all the

[pnwmom]

101. No, I was never refused, although there was a time

when the local shelters had policies against people adopting who didn't have fenced in yards.

My sister, in another state, adopted a wonderful dog from a shelter. I wouldn't rule out such a possibility but when I've been looking for a puppy, I've never seen a suitable one available at a shelter or a rescue.

I am not "culpable" for the acts of puppy mills which overproduce popular breeds or irresponsible dog owners who dump dogs when they stop being cute puppies.

My act of buying a medium size, non-shedding, healthy dog from a breeder is no more hurtful to any other dog than my purchase of a dog is hurtful to all the cats who are left in shelters. A cat isn't an acceptable substitute for a dog and a Chihuahua isn't an acceptable substitute for the kind of dog I would want.

Here is something from an operator of a rescue org, explaining their high "fees." Their motives may be well-intended (they use the profits from puppies to subsidize older and sicker dogs), but the fact remains that people who pay exorbitant prices for puppies from shelters are often paying breeder prices for puppy-mill dogs.

(And shelters that import truckloads of dogs from countries without spay/neuter programs are encouraging those countries to continue sloughing off their excess dogs to us instead of developing their own spay/neuter programs.)

http://www.examiner.com/article/why-does-rescue-charge-so-much-for-puppies



We recently listed a couple of ridiculously adorable dachshund / bichon puppies for adoption for the equally ridiculous-seeming donation amount of $450 each ... and that's in addition to the $100 spay deposit.

SNIP

So why do we charge such a ridiculously high fee for puppies? Because we can. Seriously!

Hey, we're realists. We know that people will pay a lot of money for cute puppies. Although we would never, ever, EVER condone breeding dogs for a profit, we're comfortable asking a high fee for puppies people bring to rescue. Like any other nonprofit, we need every blessed cent we can get so that we can continue to do the work we do.