Jump to content
BC Boards

What Shelter does not fix their dogs???


Recommended Posts

The shelter Fae came from doesn't! OMG. I can understand if the dog/cat in question is very young. Fae was at least 6 months when she was adopted out without being spayed. And when I asked why? "Because we're so swamped with animals." Well, just WHY do you think that is??? Perhaps its because the ones you keep adopting out aren't fixed so they just keep making more... *headsmack* :D

 

I understand a lot of shelters are short on money, that its not always possible that every animal get fixed...but most shelters that cannot afford it themselves will at least send you with a voucher to have it done for next to nothing. These guys did none of that. It was pretty much in and out for a lot of the critters this holiday season, they said. Oi.

 

Fae will be getting spayed here in a week or so. One bouncing baby Fae is obviously too much for the world to handle, let alone 6 more... :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ours does not fix all there animals before they leave, only purebreds are fixed before they leave, mix breeds you just have to put down a spay/neuter deposit and sign a contract that you will have the animal spayed within a certain time period. until they receive a faxed certificate from your vet, they reserve the right to seize the animal back at any time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can think of One it begins with a G and is near enough to louisville. Do I get a prize??? I think a second one begins with an S and is the name of town near there. Do I win? do I win?? I know they are both really overrun poor rural shelters.

 

I'll tell you though if anyone in Ky offers me vetting services we always jump on it due to the prices around here in Pa.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's lack of money and lack of a cooperating vet. There is a shelter here in FL that I've taken dogs from before. They are in a very rural, economically-depressed area. They are actually lucky to have a shelter, for what it is worth. They don't s/n the dogs. They require that you give them a $20 deposit, which is refundable once you provide prof of s/n. Now, how many people do you think are going to be willing to "eat" that $20 rather than spend $200+ to have the animal s/n? Not much of an incentive. And I've seen the quality of the adopters at this shelter. All I can say is, "scary."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The shelter where I got Buddy spays and neuters. If they get an adult dog who's already spayed or neutered, the adoption fee is much less - something like $75 compared to $200 for an adult who's been S/Ned or $250 - $300 for puppies who've been fixed and had all their shots.

 

Mary

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The shelter where we got Jack doesn't. They give a voucher for you to get a discounted s/n at a participating vet on their approved list. Since we went to a shelter in the next county, most of the vets were a pretty good distance from us. I was mistakenly told a vet in the next town would do the discounted s/n but they did not. I did get Jack's first checkup there because they had a discount on your first visit, but when the vet looked at Jack and said, "You know, I'm just not a fan of puppies from shelters; they always have Parvo", I smiled, paid, and went home and called my regular vet. I lost the money on the s/n voucher because my vet is in a different county from the shelter, but Jack was neutered with no problems and received the same outstanding care as the rest of my pets have from our beloved vet through the years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am sorry to say that only a handfull of shelters in Ohio actually S/N or provide vouchers. Check out http://www.columbusdogconnection.com/othersvcs.htm and look at the color-coded S/N status of rescues, shelters, etc. in Ohio. Sad...

 

And its seems that many, many of the county officials in ultimate charge of the county shelters (and surprisingly even some of the rescues) here see no connection between this and the HUGE numbers of dogs they must PTS each year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pima County Arizona: "The cost is $91.00 dollars, that pays for the spay and neuter, a free vet visit, all shots, microchip, licensing, a whole rescue packet. You go thru a small interview process with the rescue tech and you pay . When you bring the dog or cat back within 30 days from the date of rescue (this is very important and mandatory!!) you get a $34.00 refund sent to you by the county via mail. You must show proof of the alteration at the front in order to get the refund." - From the Craiglist posting of animals needing rescue (those that have an injury, KC, etc & will be killed within 24 hours)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am pretty sure our HS doesn't. Atleast when I was there for about a year I never heard anyone talk about spaying or neutering.

 

I'm not sure about the shelter I got Lizzie at (Dothan Animal Shelter), she was a pup but we did have to come later (I opted to wait and have our vet spay her rather than pay and have her spayed before we got her at 5 weeks!!) and give them a paper that the vet had signed saying she's been spayed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pima County Arizona: "The cost is $91.00 dollars, that pays for the spay and neuter, a free vet visit, all shots, microchip, licensing, a whole rescue packet. You go thru a small interview process with the rescue tech and you pay . When you bring the dog or cat back within 30 days from the date of rescue (this is very important and mandatory!!) you get a $34.00 refund sent to you by the county via mail. You must show proof of the alteration at the front in order to get the refund." - From the Craiglist posting of animals needing rescue (those that have an injury, KC, etc & will be killed within 24 hours)

 

I would not consider any shelter that doesn't automatically s/n their animals, even going so far as to keeping pups/kittens to a safe age of pediatric spay, a reputable shelter. While there may be plenty of shelters this poor, there are also plenty of shelters such as Bob describes above. The local SPCA does all of the above and also gives you a free puppy obedience course and a lifelong discount on all their other training courses. Their trainers are positive-only and CPDT etc licensed, so I'd say that's taking an adoption fee and giving you at least as much back as many rescues, and definitely more than some. Of course, as I've said before I think a reputable rescue would be somewhat likely (not guaranteed) to have better adoption personnel who knew more about their animals and who could make a better match for you.

 

That being said, the sad fact is many shelters are non-profit organizations that simply do not have the funding to s/n or keep a lot of animals or put much into the ones they have. Public animal control facilities are often only as well funded as allowed by the local tax base. So, I don't really view them as de facto bad guys (the people who actually run the shelter/animal control, not the county officials in their fancy administration building underfunding it), because they did not cause the problem and are not intentionally *trying* to make it worse. Any shelter that does not try to at least establish a s/n program as a very high priority in the way they are able to function, is ultimately making their own job much harder. I've been to a lot of local animal control facilities and recognize they are sad, sad waystations and a hopeless black hole for a lot of animals. But there are so many animals. And yeah, just like some "rescues" - which I say not ACTUALLY meaning rescue but some places I've seen that call themselves that - there are ones that may truly be bad guys, who dispense wrong information and do terrible things to the animals under their care like break up a 5 week old litter to adopt out.

 

Well-funded shelters often do their best, like many rescues, to pull animals from fast-kill low-funded animal control centers and shelters. Denver Dumb Friends League has a van and driver that goes out on runs, pulling animals from mainly rural areas all over the west/southwest. They have millions of dollars of budget, a full time AND rotating vet staff, training staff, and have the facilities to keep animals for months in some cases. Large, well-funded shelters also can do a LOT as a singular entity to affect the population of carelessly bred animals in their area through aggressive s/n programs and public outreach - they have done so with great success here. The head of the dog adoption staff of the largest shelter in the East Bay told me herself that now, they only see 1 litter every 3-4 months. A little more frequently they'll have a single pup, maybe once a month. That's not how it used to be. I guess we should also thank outstanding Bay Area rescues and Bob Barker there :rolleyes:

 

Just agreeing that not all shelters are like this, and reputable ones DO exist and I've not personally had trouble finding that kind in my life. I don't remember the whole story: did the rescue not ask about s/n before getting the dog or did they just not tell you before giving her over to you? You can certainly ask whether the animals have or have not been s/n before you adopt from any organization. And if they lie? Again I think that would push em into the de facto bad guy category. But I really doubt most would lie.

ETA! I just re-read my post and don't want you to think I'm bringing rescues into this to bash them. I think of a good rescue as the "gold standard", as it were, and so was comparing good shelters with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is what you get from our local city-run shelter... they haven't had to put down an animal because there is no room for it in months!

 

"Your adoption fee helps meet the shelter's mission of building healthy relationships between animals and people. Plus, you receive these great benefits free when you adopt:

 

Spaying or neutering of the pet

Vaccinations

Pet license and/or ID tag

Collar and leash

30 days free pet insurance from ShelterCare™ covers pet accident and illness expenses

Sample bag of Science Diet food & a free training DVD!"

 

Before you adopt a dog, you have to go through a pre-adoption screening...

 

The cost to adopt a dog is $77.50... with microchipping available at the time of adoption for $12.50... the adoption fees are lowered as the dog stays there longer. I am very happy with our local shelter :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hey, our shelters sytem obviously works, we are not overrun with stray dogs and they have almost a 100% adoption rate(for dogs, cats are a differnt story) every vet in our city works closly with our shelter, and there has not been a problem with the system yet.all shelter animals ARE required to be fixed, but rather then use high adoption fee's and neuter everything beforehand, they use low adoption fee's, discount spay/neuters, deposits and legaly binding contracts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Virginia, most of the shelters do not s/n before adopting the dogs out. There is, however, a state law mandating that unaltered dogs and cats can only be adopted to people living in that county or an adjacent county. For rescue pulls they usually don't require us to do anything, but I pulled a black and tan coonhound for coonhound rescue and the shelter in a neighboring county made me "adopt" the dog despite the fact that I had the 501c3 paperwork and a letter authorizing me to pick up the dog for the rescue. The rescue didn't send proof of the dog's neuter to the shelter and I received a letter from the shelter demanding proof that the dog had been altered. I can't remember what would have happened if I hadn't gotten the paperwork from the coonhound folks, but I think they would have seized the dog and charged me with a violation of the laws. So, even though they don't spay/neuter first, I think that Virginia shelters are pretty on top of things and make sure that unaltered dogs are s/n in a timely manner. Ideally, all dogs would be altered first, but in rural areas, that just isn't possible.

 

Emily

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...