I always hear about these mysterious animals that come to new owners from shelters spayed, neutered and vaccinated---they don't do that in my county. You have to do it yourself (as in it take it to a private clinic), then provide proof within 30 days of the adoption that the animal was fixed and vaccinated or go to jail. I'm not even kidding and I so wish I was.

We always adopt animals from a shelter or rescue. No way am I going to pay the exorbitant prices for a purebred. I mean, if that's what you want, go for it. I'd just rather save a life. Our shelter dog just turned 12 (she's a mix) and although she has slowed down in some respects, she still has plenty of energy. Both of our rabbits were rescues too that we adopted from a rabbit rescue in my area. We were able to foster them first to see if we all got along before adopting them. Even though they were few years old, they were litter box trained and neutered/spayed..adopt ion was only $50 each. That's a good deal to save a life!

I hear what Tori is saying though. My cocker (now deceased) was supposedly 3 years old when we got her. She had tons of medical problems that the shelter didn't tell me about and the vet told me she was probably more like 5 or 6 years old. She'd been through hell though, so we kept her.

Wow, I've never heard of that! Around where I live, shelters either spay and neuter their animals in advance or do it for a fee upon adoption. :O Some even do vaccinations and microchipping while they're at it!

My kitty came from the S.P.C.A., and I couldn't be happier with her. Even if she's a bit bratty at times, usually she's incredibly sweet and well-behaved, and I could never understand why someone would have given her up. She's an excellent example of how shelter pets aren't "lost causes" as the thinking seems to be.

At work when anyone comes asking if we sell cats, dogs, ferrets, or rabbits (which we don't - and I kind of wish we didn't sell animals at all) I tell them that it's better to either go to a shelter or find a breed rescue (or a responsible breeder, but those can be tough to find with all the puppy mills in the surrounding counties). Most don't seem to care about what I say, but I'll keep saying it. I always hope people will check out shelters in their search for their new best friend.

I have 2 shelter puppies. I will only ever get them from a shelter.

I've heard of some very rural places having horrible policies like that in place, but it's still absurd. Talk about a way to lower your overall adoption rate. Very sad for those poor animals.

Though in our area, even if we did have that sort of policy when adopting from a shelter, there are low-cost spay/neuter programs and vaccine clinics for people to make use of. It would be nice of more areas had that available to them.

Some of us have been trying so hard to get a shelter in our area! It is so sad! People dump animals at our house SOOO often! We had a sweet dog dumped on us about one month ago. She looks like Marilyn Manson! She's so cute and sweet, but we can't keep adopting everyone's dogs. I truly despise a person who's so lazy that they'd dump off an animal when they don't want it! Our last kitty came from the fourth of July. She was dumped on us before she was even old enough to be away from her mom. All of our pets and we've had tons have been dumped out! Right before winter, a little dog was dumped out and our neighbors found it a home. It's sad. It's a problem in my area and there are only a few of us who will take them in. I keep a bag of dog food in my car because we come across animals dumped out in our area SO often. It's almost daily that we see a cat wandering for food in town. It breaks my heart. We've even had a kitty get in the car with us after we fed her at the grocery store! Lol.

I understand not taking in dangerous animals. I personally would never have a pit bull around my kids, but I'm paranoid. However, we take in just about any animal that's dumped and we're looking for a home for Miss Marilyn Manson now. We had one person want her, but he didn't seem like he cared very much for her so I said no. It's awful how animals get treated!

I never go out and get a "new" pet. We take in homeless ones instead. We also have our pets spayed and neutered to prevent millions of pets that none of us could afford. I have no problems adopting a "used" pet. Shelter or not, I'd do it!