Our City animal shelter does give the animals away for free. They have you sign a form promising to spay or neuter the animal. These animals are only given a week to live. The shelter is manned by a police officer who is not there very often. Therefore, most are put to sleep.
Our County shelter does charge for the animals and also has the person sign a form promising to spay or neuter the animal.
Both places make the person aware of low cost spaying and neutering available.
>Our City animal shelter does give the animals away for free. They have you sign a form promising to spay or neuter the animal. These animals are only given a week to live. The shelter is manned by a police officer who is not there very often. Therefore, most are put to sleep.<
The humane society on whose board I used to serve charges $50.00 for the pet. This barely covers the cost of the vaccines and worm medicine the pet is given, and it shows the person actually wants the pet. Virginia state law requires that any dog or cat adopted from a pound or shelter be spayed or neutered. The veterinary school at Virginia Tech does a lot of spay/neuter on animals for the SPCA, before the people take possession. This keeps animals from falling through the cracks, and makes the pets more desirable. As I said in another post, the shelter now employs a canine behaviorist (fancy word for competent dog trainer :-), who not only helps adopters solve behavior problems, but who councils prospective adopters on which dog might fit their family best.
Our local pound works in conjunction with the local humane society, so the problem of not having the city facility staffed is eliminated. Once the animal control's 5 days are up, the adoptable (not sick nor vicious) dogs go over to the shelter, and are available for adoption, not euthanized.