A shelter is a safer place to get an animal?
I did it once, won't do it again.
Swap meets are pretty fun and lots of people and undercover on the lookout. This guy wouldn't have lasted long on the loose.
Actually it is. If the animal is obviously sick, it will be kept out of the adoption area. And, at least at the ones I've seen, vets examine every animal and many are given shots, de-wormed and groomed.
Swap meets are no place to adopt an animal.
"Danielson said dogs will continue to be smuggled across the border as long as there is a demand. She warned consumers not to buy dogs at swap meets and on street corners because they likely could end up with a sick animal that could die.
“Go to a shelter instead,” she said."
I find this ironic. There's some chance the very dogs from swaps and abused over the border END UP AT SHELTERS! So what's the difference? Only that maybe the shelter has taken care of any problems they had.
I recommend adopting from a good Breed Rescue Group. THe animals are checked by a vet and "fostered" in families until they are ready for adoption. That way the new owner gets a "heads up" on the animals' likes, dislikes, fears, etc. A requirement to take the dog to obedience classes is usually part of the deal.
Good shelters know all of the breed rescue groups in their areas and usually turn over any pure breds, or pure bred "looking", dogs to the rescue group.
Of course a shelter is a good place to adopt a mut and mutts make very fine pets. Often the cross breeding means that they are not as subject to disease as some of the pure breds.
I adopted a beautiful Golden Retriever from a rescue group in Wisconsin 4 years ago, and my daughter adopted an equally fine Standard Poodle from a group in Manhatten 3 years ago. Both dogs happened to be named Max.