Several years back, when my oldest was a toddler, there was an article in our paper about a bunch o’ kittens found under a porch, and the local shelter was looking for someone to adopt them.
So, we sauntered on over to the shelter, figuring even if those kittens were adopted already, we would adopt a kitten for our son to pal around with.
We looked at the kittens, they still had a few of the ones that were in the paper, and we were all set to ‘adopt’ the them. Until the adoption cost was explained...
They wanted over $200 for each of the kittens that were in the paper (to pay for their medical treatment), and the other kittens were about $125 I think (just mut cats). Full grown cats were $90 bucks I think.
Well, we are all for ‘adoption’ but the wife and I both thought that was a bit much. We thought we were doing the shelter a favor by offering to adopt them. We didn’t realize that being good of heart also meant dropping a hefty sum of cash on top of it.
We were given quite the guilt treatment, told how they had so many kittens that would probably have to be put down if they weren’t adopted, and the older cats were basically going to be put down if they weren’t adopted ASAP because no one wants an older cat......
I became irate, and explained to the teen aged girl, that we were willing to help out, so the cats wouldn’t have to be put down, but there was no way we were paying that kind of money. She basically sneered at us, her look indicated at that point that she felt as if we weren’t good enough. It was obvious that the whole shelter thing was nothing more than a pet-store, using guilt and threatening death to the animals if we didn’t act NOW.
So my feelings on shelters is now pretty mixed. I don’t know how to take their tactics.
But, we figured one kitten was as good as another when it comes to needing a home. We ended up getting 3 kittens out of the newspaper for free, and they are still with us (although much plumper and lazier).
I know folks complain about pet stores, and pet-mills etc, but I have never had a pet store employee tell me “buy this at an exorbitant price or we’ll have to kill it”, which was really what was going on.
thats a pretty high fee. Generally I thought it was the cost to spay/neuter, plus some for the shelter’s operating expenses. While I agree that guilt tripping you wasn’t nice, I can sort of understand. It must be hard to see an endless stream of helpless baby animals, plus grown abandoned ones, come in the front door, only to die two weeks later when they didn’t win the selection lottery. And the urge to save just one more through questionable tactics might be understandable. I’ve never been pressured at the shelter, and have adopted several pets there.
They probably thought you were trying to get the kittens for FREE, so you could use them as FISHBAIT.
Same thing happened to me. Was looking for a poodle puppy and thought I would rescue one. The cost from the pound was $300.00 and the cost from the poodle rescue was $400. I looked online and found a rare tri-color for $250 with papers or $200 without. The price made the decision for me.
It’s unfortunate it didn’t occur to you to ask the little bimbo at the shelter how much they would get for the cats they “put down”.
Personally, I was more than happy to pay $100 for my cat from a shelter. First of all, providing food and medical care to hundreds of animals isn’t free. Second of all, she’s worth a lot more than that.
The local shelter where we’ve gotten our cats costs $90, which is pretty reasonable because it includes one vet visit plus spaying/neutering if it hasn’t already been done.