4 Reasons Why You Should Consider Adopting A Dog Instead Of Buying One
The decision to adopt a dog is a big one. You want to make sure you are making the right choice for your lifestyle, and whether or not adopting will fit in with your family dynamic. It can be intimidating to consider adding another member to your household. However, there are several reasons why going the adoption route could be exactly what your family needs.
1) Getting a Great Dog
Many of the dogs in animal rescue centers or dog shelters have had very little exposure to humans and as such, haven’t received the proper training that pet store puppies get from birth on. However, once they are out of the shelter and into foster homes all over the country, most dogs can be trained in a simple manner or with positive reinforcements if they are older and harder to train. Many shelters will also do home visits before you officially adopt them to make sure their new family is making a good choice for everyone. When you consider who you might want to bring home with you, what it would look like with a dog in your life, adopting one from a shelter decreases that stress even more since most places let you return them for any reason within a short period if it doesn’t work out.
Shelters choose dogs based on how well they get along with humans and other dogs, so you know that if you adopt from shelters you will be getting a great dog who has been checked out by experts and vetted by professionals. In the state of Virginia, dogs in BarkVA are spayed/neutered, given appropriate vaccinations, and routinely checked up to ensure they are healthy before adoption. The dogs also undergo training programs for them to be ready for adoption. Many people think that their local pet store is helping save puppies, but in reality, many of these dogs come from puppy mills or abusive breeders where conditions are anything but ideal. You may be able to adopt a purebred pet for less than the price of buying one, and adopted purebreds are much more likely to already come with registration papers, a pedigree, and other valuable information – things you would otherwise have to do some research to find if you were looking for a dog without papers.
2) Saving a Life
Dogs get abandoned every day because people get bored of them or they don’t fit into their lifestyles anymore. Did you know that there are more than seven million stray dogs in the U.S.? That’s about two and a half million dogs abandoned by their owners each year! Many of these pets end up in shelters, where only one out of four will find a new home. Shelters take in lost and abandoned dogs from all over the country – from high kill shelters where there simply isn’t enough room in local foster homes, to off the street pickups where someone found a stray in their neighborhood and took it into the shelter.
An estimated three to four million healthy, adoptable pets are euthanized every year simply because too many people give up their pets and too few people adopt from shelters.
3) They Need You
Shelter dogs may not always look like the perfectly groomed pups in the pet stores, but these dogs need someone to love them and take care of them. Whether they come from high kill shelters or off the street, these dogs have been abandoned or lost and need a loving home they can call their own. Shelters are constantly understaffed and underfunded, meaning that the staff is not always able to give these pups the attention they deserve. There are millions of dogs in shelters, and only one percent get adopted into new homes. That’s a lot of pets that could use your help! The good news is that you can change the lives of all these animals by adopting instead of buying.
4) Adopting from a Shelter is Good for Everyone
Not only does adopting a shelter dog help you find a perfect new member of your family, but it helps save a life as well as alleviates overcrowding in shelters across the country. There are so many dogs sitting in kennels every day just waiting for someone to come through those doors and see them- which means there is no time wasted on trying to sell you on why this puppy would be perfect for you. Adopting is the perfect option for anyone who wants to get a good dog but doesn’t want to deal with the stress of finding one.
Shelters are full of great dogs ready and waiting for someone like you to come along and adopt them. They need love, they need attention, and most importantly they need you. Take the time to visit your local shelter. Adopting from an animal shelter or rescue group costs much less than buying from a breeder or pet store, and every adoption fee you pay goes to helping care for other homeless pets waiting for homes. So adopt today, and encourage others to do the same!