Are "free" pets really free
I have a friend who just lost her dog. She has lost three in the last four months. We have spoken on the phone several times and been to visit several dogs and when I spoke to her today she advised me she had found a puppy on Craigslist. She hated she found it on Craigslist due to the abuse of the pet section which frequently occurs. I told her she saved a dog. She saved a dog from entering the system, which is what happens to many animals listed in Craigslist first. If a new owner is not found, the animal gets dumped at the nearest shelter or God forbid, dumped on the side of a road somewhere.
There are many disreputable people who buy animals off of Craigslist to sell as bait dogs or to research facilites. They can make quite a bit of money doing that. Luckily, my friend's new puppy will have a wonderful home. Some animals are not so lucky.
Then as I was reading the headlines this morning, I read Kris Weiskoph's weekly column in the Bradenton Herald. The column talks about getting what you pay for. It mentions all the services which are provided for shelter animals ie: spaying/neutering, shots, health checks, behavior checks etc. The costs per animal to do this are not really covered by the adoption fee charged if you figure in food and board on top of everything else. So if you adopt from a shelter, you are really getting a bargain.
You don't know where the animal you are getting for "free" came from. Most of the time you don't know if they were stolen or a product of a backyard breeder. They come unaltered with no shot records or anything.
There are no guarantees in the pet world. You can take all the precautions in the world and still have an animal die at a young age. So make sure you know what you are getting when you get a "free" dog or cat.
There are many disreputable people who buy animals off of Craigslist to sell as bait dogs or to research facilites. They can make quite a bit of money doing that. Luckily, my friend's new puppy will have a wonderful home. Some animals are not so lucky.
Then as I was reading the headlines this morning, I read Kris Weiskoph's weekly column in the Bradenton Herald. The column talks about getting what you pay for. It mentions all the services which are provided for shelter animals ie: spaying/neutering, shots, health checks, behavior checks etc. The costs per animal to do this are not really covered by the adoption fee charged if you figure in food and board on top of everything else. So if you adopt from a shelter, you are really getting a bargain.
You don't know where the animal you are getting for "free" came from. Most of the time you don't know if they were stolen or a product of a backyard breeder. They come unaltered with no shot records or anything.
There are no guarantees in the pet world. You can take all the precautions in the world and still have an animal die at a young age. So make sure you know what you are getting when you get a "free" dog or cat.
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