This doesn’t surprise me at all.
People claim to have “found” kittens in the street all the time. Then add in the profit incentives of “rescues” and it makes sense.
Up here in the Northeast most of the dogs available for adoption are shipped up from the South (or even from Puerto Rico). Joe or Jill Private Citizen often runs the “rescue organization”. These mutts of various ages are often shipped up and immediately sold—forget the “donation” terminology—for $400-500 dollars. The customers are often secured before the dogs are actually shipped up. You can just imagine the Bubbas down South happy to let their dogs breed for their cut of that. Likely a fair amount of dog swiping goes on too.
IMO most pet ‘rescues’ are little more than dog trafficking operations. Their inventory is donated and then sold for $100 or more.....
No -— “the Bubbas down South” are actually really good at spaying and neutering their pets and working digs. I should know -— I have practiced here in small town Texas for 35 years. The puppy mills are in the the midwest mostly. The dogs that are being transported and sold in the northeast by rescue groups are mostly adult dogs, not puppies.