Outrageous adoption price for OEB, or am I wrong?

[forever_pit]

I would steer clear. The first I thought was that this is a bad breeder using petfinder as a front. I performed a simple google search and found several stories of people receiving half-starved puppies who are covered in fleas. Some people received dogs of the wrong breed and it seems that this woman tends to ask people to meet her in rather sketchy places in order to exchange money for the dog.

[tt557]

I found a cat on Pet Finder for my mother in law that said it was from a local shelter. After contacting the person I was told that it really was a friends cat that needed a home -she was unable to properly care for it and she listed it as a courtesy. I asked her then about the adoption fee and who was the money going to and that I wanted a receipt from the shelter because I was not interested in "purchasing" a pet.
I never heard back from them.

[murphysmommy]

I'm going to offer a different viewpoint here. OEB's are in high demand. Personally, we rescued our OEB for 300. BUT, that being said, the rescue may just be trying to get a little bit of extra money for the rescue itself. Yes, he probably didn't cost that much to vaccinate and de-worm and what not but since OEB's are popular, she may get away with getting a little bit more money for him which can go towards operations and hospitalizations for other doggies that aren't so lucky.

When we got Murphy, he was incredibly unhealthy. I was furious with the rescue lady that we got him from because he got sick 1 week after we got him with Coccidia and severe pneumonia. He had to be hospitalized and the vet bill was 1000 (not including the 3 vet visits he had before that night). I thought to myself, "ok, I just spent 300 on this puppy that you got for nothing!!! She made a $300 profit on this dog (he was vaccinated and de-wormed at the breeding facility). But my boyfriend explained to me that that money can go towards the rescue itself and other dogs they have.

I'm not saying that this lady is legit, but its just a little food for thought.

[nerdrock]

Murphysmommy - that may very well be true, but even if it were it that's still a rescue that I would steer clear of.

There are many ways for a rescue to recoup money; fundraisers, raffles, taking in healthier dogs, etc.

Most rescues have a set price for adoptions. The rescue that I work with charges $400 for a puppy, $350 for a dog over 1 and $300 for a dog over 8. Our adoption fees are based on those of the other rescues in our area and throughout Ontario, through the feedback from volunteers and previous adopters, and based on our vetting costs. If a rescue is lucky, all the dog coming in will need are vaccinations and possibly spay/neuter, however this is hardly the case. Most of the dogs that come in need dental work as well, medication for infections or other things and extensive rehabilitation. Our rescue takes in a lot of puppymill dogs, many take over a year to even get to the point where they're a candidate for adoption. Assume that we have 50 dogs in our rescue, then say 75% of those are mill dogs (a good estimate for my rescue) - that's about 38 dogs from puppy mills. Even if just half of those are dogs that will be in our care for a long time that's still 19 dogs that will require a good chunk of our time and money, as well as 19 spots that are taken up by these dogs. The vet bills for these dogs are usually huge, well over our adoption fees. In addition to fundraising efforts and raffles, we also try to make a portion of the dogs we take in ones that are highly adoptable and, hopefully, healthier. Hope that kind of helped in some way?

[Sgtmax2001]

HS in our area is charging like 150ish (I think) for the Pit Mix and AB mix that they have...should I worry that they are less than what yall are saying?

[forever_pit]

Originally Posted by Sgtmax2001

HS in our area is charging like 150ish (I think) for the Pit Mix and AB mix that they have...should I worry that they are less than what yall are saying?

I would not be worried based on lower price alone. In my experience humane societies and animal control are cheaper than rescue organizations. I paid a mere $60 for my pit mix.

[nerdrock]

I wouldn't worry either, HS' are usually pretty good at being able to bring in extra funds through events and stuff like that. They are also usually the first place people go to donate items and such so their overhead is most likely lower than a private rescue's.

Animal control normally does nothing with the dog so you will have to give it a good look over before you adopt and talk to them to see what issues the dog might have. The one that I got my bouvier from (he cost a mere $20) said that you can bring them back within 7 days if a vet says that they are not healthy.

Just make sure to do research no matter what rescue/hs/shelter you go to - check and see what, if any, vetting they give so you can get an idea of the costs you might incur after you adopt the dog.

[esprinter]

The largest breeds tend to have the most expensive rescue costs and even the good Great Dane and Mastiff rescues only charge $4-$500 (and in the U.S. most are tax deductable). I would not trust a rescue that is asking $1000.

[debs]

i know that when the rescue i work with gets a pure breed dog she may up the fee $50 but most of the time she doesn't. pure or mutt the rescue spay/neuter, 3 sets of shots, worming and if older a dental.this all for $200 males and $250 females. that person just wants to make some big cash

[britdaw]

Holy crap... $1000 for an adoption fee?! WHOA. That seems excessive to me. I paid $1500 for my bully from a great breeder with many great references, and I understand why the breeder charged so much. But I would never pay $1000 for a rescue 'cause you never know what you're really getting.