# adoption fees



## sam wilks (May 3, 2009)

I have been looking into getting a dog for my son. He wants a jack russell and so instead of buying a puppy, I thought I would look at some local jack russell recue groups. I think it is crazy the amount of money they wanted for an adoption fee. Not only that but the stipulations they have as well. The cheapest price i found was 250 dollars. For that amount I could go buy a puppy and not worry about any health problems or behavioral problems that might come with a rescue dog. I understand there are some dogs that might have vet bills and I totally agree with paying for them if you want that dog. How much does it really cost to feed a jack russell? Certainly not 250 - 400 dollars. I could see if they figured how much it cost to take care of that dog and charged that plus maybe like a 50 dollar donation. Also the stipulations like you must have a fenced in yard or no other dogs. If the dog has problems then yes make people aware of them. If the idea is to find the dog a home then who cares if someone doesn't have a fenced yard? Is it not still better than being stuck in a shelter? Maybe someone has some better insight. I can definitely understand a higher adoption fee for larger dogs as they cost more to feed and care for.


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

Some rescues are stricter than others. I'm pretty strict myself, but there are always exceptions. To rule out a home simply because they don't have a fenced yard is wrong, IMO. Certain people w/out a fenced yard? Absolutely. EVERYone? No. A fenced yard is nice, but I'd rather adopt to someone who's going to invest the time on training and take the dog for daily walks than someone who's just going to throw the dog out in the fenced yard to amuse itself. You know?


Re: adoption fees, only 501(c)3 organizations can get the deep discounts and grants for Vet care that allow for low adoption fees. Those of us who do not have 501(c)3 status can still get _some_ discounts, but 99% of costs are funded solely by the adoption fees for dogs that might not need to be vetted as much, and donations.

I charge $200 for a dog from my rescue. That just barely covers all the things that might need to be done, including:

initial exam & heartworm test (roughly $60)
spay/neuter ($65)
rabies shot ($10)
dewormings (avg $10 but varies depending on the dewormer used and how many times it is given)
flea/tick/heartworm control roughly $10)
microchip ($6)

I do not even factor in the cost of food.


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## eric squires (Oct 16, 2008)

Sam if you PM me i can help you out with a Jack Russel. I have one that i want to place .


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## sam wilks (May 3, 2009)

see you charge only 200 dollars and you have german shepherds. for a shepherd 200 dollars is more than fair. i bet you end up spending your own money as well. so for someone to charge the same for a little dog?


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

Kristen Cabe said:


> spay/neuter ($65)


And that's because you don't live in CA LOL Granted small dogs are a little cheaper, but the last dog I had spayed was over 400.00 Heck, I was quoted 350 to spay my cat.

There is also a bail out costs for some rescues, to get the dog out of the shelter. Some shelters work with rescues and don't charge bail out fees, or will spay/neuter the dog cheaply before turning it over to rescue, but in other areas that's not the case. 

Something else Kristen didn't mention is that not every dog uses the full amount of their adoption fee. Sure the rescue might get in a dog who is already spayed/neutered, up on all vaccines, in good health, and make a "profit" on that adoption fee. But that "profit" is going to help the next dog they rescue that has a broken leg, or tests positive for heartworms, etc. Treatable, but going to cost some money. Sure they could charge exactly what they spent on each individual dog, plus a few extra bucks, but it tends to work better spreading it out over all the dogs, otherwise they'd have one dog wtih an adoption fee of 75.00, another with an adoption fee of 600, another with an adoption fee of 1200, etc.


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## sam wilks (May 3, 2009)

thats why i was saying to charge maybe an extra fifty bucks to put towards that. dont you think that if you price a rescue for the same price as a papered puppy people will go for the papered dog.


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## chris haynie (Sep 15, 2009)

kadi bought up a really good point. the rescue i used to help out sent me on a many home visits. people often asked about the adoption fee and i would tell just what kadi's last paragraphs said.

sure sometimes we'd get a perfectly healthy owner surrender with UTD vet stuff and no health problems. those would still warrant the same adoption fee because sometimes we'd get strays brought in off the street that need treatment for heartworms and surgeries costing way way more than the adoption fee we would get upon adopting that dog out. 

adoption fees will vary from rescue to rescue.

have you considered trying to find a rehome from an owner if eric squires JRT doesnt work out?

lots of times the breed specific rescue sites will do "courtesy listings" of dogs they dont actually have in thier resuce that are still with thier owners. i'd bet alot of people who had a rowdy JRT that was too much for them would be happy to give you the dog just to get it somewhere safe and out of thier house.


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## Ben Colbert (Mar 9, 2010)

sam wilks said:


> thats why i was saying to charge maybe an extra fifty bucks to put towards that. dont you think that if you price a rescue for the same price as a papered puppy people will go for the papered dog.


If you're looking to get a cheap dog then go else where. lots of mills will sell you a cheap puppy with any papers you want. I think very few people get dogs from rescues because they want to spend less money.


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

Yeah, if you're looking to spend $50 on a dog, look on Craigslist.


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

sam wilks said:


> thats why i was saying to charge maybe an extra fifty bucks to put towards that.


50.00 here and 50.00 there isn't going to do it, not when 1 problem can cost a few 100 or even a 1000.00 to fix. Most rescues I've worked with don't break even, even with the occasional "profit dog". They spend quite a bit of time fund raising to try to help cover the costs of the dogs.



> dont you think that if you price a rescue for the same price as a papered puppy people will go for the papered dog.


No. Some might, but some won't. When you get a rescue, if you are getting the dog from a reputable rescue you are getting a dog who has all it's physical related things taken care of (shots, any injuries dealt with, spayed/neutered, etc). It's also been well evaluated for temperament so they know if it's good with other dogs, cats, kids, etc. If it's been with rescue for any amount of time it's probably housebroken, or well on it's way, has some basic obedience, socializing, etc. Not every dog comes out of the system perfect, but you should be well aware of what issues you are taking on if you get that dog. And sometimes a dog that goes into the system mentally and or physically screwed up comes out as a very nice adoptable dog. Usually a nice adoptable pet, but sometimes even a potential working dog. All for the bargain price of a couple hundered dollars. And since it's already altered, papers really don't matter. But that doesn't mean rescues don't have papers, there are dogs that come into rescue with their papers. Other times the dog can be traced back to a breeder so bloodlines are known. I don't know about JRT's, but in my area almost any puppy with papers, of any breed, from a reputable breeder, is going to be 800 on up. So 250-400 is still actually a decent price.

The other option is just start checking your local paper or craigslist, you may find something there although then you are getting an "unknown" and just hoping the person who sells it to you is being honest about things.

You could also check with local flyball groups. That's how I got my JRT, someone on another flyball team had one they had rescued from someone that they didn't think was going to cut it for flyball. In addition their other dogs didn't like her, and there had been some fights. She did have issues when I got her, but she was free. And a year later she was running flyball in the mid 5's (very respectable for a height dog).


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## Dana McMahan (Apr 5, 2006)

Just to add in, I've worked with many rescue groups and often times, there were not enough foster homes to go around. That is when you have to find a boarding kennel that is willing to work with a rescue and give you the "rescue rate". In California a normal boarding place charges $30/day and the rescue rate is typically $15.00 a day. If it takes just a month to adopt the dog, you've already racked up a bill of $450 and most rescues take a few months to adopt out a dog. So like Kadi said, we price the hard-to-adopt dogs lower ($150-200) and I've seen some really high adoption fees when we get the highly adoptable puppies (any small breed puppy goes for upwards of $400).


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## sam wilks (May 3, 2009)

you guys brought up some points i didn't even realize. I guess it does add up rather quickly when you consider all those expenses. I wasn't looking for a fifty dollar dog just to be clear I was saying to add an extra fifty to what they had spent to care for it. Just as a donation or something. I will check some of the rescues and maybe they can let me know about a rehome when one comes up.


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