When the time comes to add a new pet to your household, you may wonder if adopting an animal is a better choice than buying one. There are many reasons for and against pet adoption, and each one should be considered before making your ultimate decision. This article is a guide to animal adoption.
Animal shelters and rescues
When you decide to adopt a pet, you need to consider where you will be adopting it from.
Animal shelters
Animal shelters are government- or charity-run institutions that take in lost, abandoned, or homeless animals including dogs, cats, and sometimes exotics. They offer food, shelter, veterinary care, and evaluations. However, since space is limited in shelters, they often euthanise animals after a certain period of time if the animals are not adopted.
Animal rescues
Animal rescues are often more specialised than shelters for example, dog rescues that deal with specific breeds. Instead of having a shelter location, their animals are kept by "foster families" until they find new homes. Often, rescues do not euthanise animals and keep them until they find new homes.
Positive points
There are a number of positive reasons to adopt from a shelter or rescue. The costs are usually less than those you will experience when purchasing an animal. In many cases, the adopted animal has recently seen a veterinarian and received any necessary shots or medications, and has already been spayed or neutered. Larger shelters, and those which are a part of national organisations, may perform evaluations on animals so as to gauge their personalities and emotional needs. This makes it easier for them to match the animals with the right adoptive families. Therefore, there is less chance that the relationship will not work out.
Negative points
There are some negative points to consider when making the decision to adopt a pet.
Some shelters have little to no funding. Therefore, the animals that they take in are not treated to the amount of veterinary care or temperament evaluation that they need. Those animals seldom come with paperwork stating whether they are a purebred or what their medical history is. Therefore, you will not get much background information on them.
They may also have health issues that are not apparent only by looking at them. Some animals act differently in a shelter setting than they will at your home. Therefore, they can have surprising personality issues that you did not know about when you adopted them.
It is also common for rescues and shelters to require background checks on prospective adopters. This may include home visits to make sure that the animals are going to good homes. Moreover, it may be that not all potential adopters will meet their requirements.
