The Animals We Live With: “Free” Dogs S. Erden – Benson AZ – 07/18/13 Have you ever wondered why rescue groups, including Cochise Canine Rescue (CCR) have to “charge so much” for the animals they adopt out? The reason is simple: It costs a lot of money to get a dog ready for adoption. Let’s say you decide you don’t want to spend the money for an animal from a rescue. You look on Craigslist or see someone outside the Safeway with a basket of puppies….and before you know it you are bringing home a “free” puppy. What a bargain you think….but then you get home and the puppy has the runs, or a cough, or a runny eye, and as a responsible pet-owner, you take your new baby to your friendly local Veterinarian. Cost in the door for a visit (non emergency): $45 to $75 The Vet has to examine the pup. Perhaps s/he takes a blood draw, or a culture that needs to be sent out. Cost $75 to $125 Your puppy needs shots…a series of three…the first of which will be $40. Each additional visit and shot may be another $45 for the visit plus $40 for the shot. Perhaps you’ll get a “break” and not have to pay the full office call, but it will cost approximately $40 for each of the three inoculations. If you are experienced, you can go to the local feed store or Walgreens and buy the shots to give yourself. They will run you about $10-$15 each. Most people don’t feel very comfortable doing this… Your Vet decides your pup needs medication. Wormer? Antibiotics? Eye drops? Who knows, but add in another $15 or more dollars. The doctor suggests that you have the puppy micro chipped so if s/he ever gets lost s/he can be returned to you. Cost $40 to $75 or more. Being a careful and ethical pet-owner you don’t want to add to the overpopulation problem, so within a few weeks or months you get your pup spayed or neutered. Cost to you $75 to $95 at the Humane Society or one of the low cost clinics – or $125-150 or more at your regular veterinarian. Part of the cost here depends on how big your dog is as the costs are weight dependent. But you are smart and have it done early and it only costs you $75…. Add another $25 to $50 for a rabies shot once the pup is 4 months old….this is the law…. OK – so far your new dog has cost you $45 (visit) plus $75 (testing) plus $40X3 = $120 (puppy inoculations) $15 (medication) $40 (chip) $75 (spay/neuter) and $25 (rabies) at a grand total of $395.00 (Subtract $75 if you are giving the puppy shots yourself….total $320.) Let’s say your pup is not sick and just needs shots and spay neuter and you decide to forego the chip, you still are in for $265.00 which is what your “free” dog has cost you. At Cochise Canine, we started out adopting out dogs for $150, but lost money every time! Recently we have raised the cost to $175 up for small dogs and $225 up for larger dogs. We hope to begin breaking even…. Let’s use a couple of real examples of costs involved with dogs pulled from euthanasia lists at shelters… In December 2012 we pulled four puppies from a southern Arizona pound. All were sick with kennel cough. We medicated them, but one kept going down hill. After several visits to the Vet, expensive medications and two weeks of intensive care – hand feeding, injectable medications and fluids, she died. It was heartbreaking! That group of little pups cost us over $400 for the puppy who died, $225 total ($75 each…no, we don’t get a “break”) for the spays and neuters for the remaining three pups who got well. Add the cost of their micro chips, shots (which, admittedly, cost less than they would cost you, and we purchase “puppy shots” in bulk wholesale, inoculating the dogs ourselves) and a month’s worth of food…. We are into the four dogs approximately $700…but only have three to adopt out at $150 (old fee) each. We took in $450 and ran at a dead loss on this litter of pups. In April 2013 CCR took in a healthy Doberman, 4 months of age. Due to kennel cough at the pound, we “prophylactically” gave her a week’s worth of antibiotics. By the time she left here three months later, she was spayed, had a rabies shot, all her puppy shots and micro chip. We fed her for the 3 months it took to find her the “perfect” home, got her a harness (which went with her) and kept her in treats and toys. She was adopted for $225. Your cost, had she been “free,” would have been at least $265 plus the cost of food, toys and harness… Now you ask: How come a pound can adopt out a dog for about $150 and it is spayed or neutered and has a rabies shot if old enough, The answer is that your tax dollars help fund the county and city shelters. But if a dog comes into that same municipal shelter and it is injured or ill, if they can’t quickly find the owner, the suffering animal is often euthanized, as the shelters generally don’t have the funds, manpower or room to care for dogs in crisis. They call us, the rescue groups…. CCR has taken in sick or injured dogs that have ended up costing hundreds to upwards of a thousand dollars to save. We are not unique or alone in this. As a rescue we can occasionally ask donors to help out with the veterinary costs required to save these babies. That money doesn’t even come to us: often they directly call and pay our Vet. But no matter what the dog costs us, the adoption fees remain the same. Most people running rescues are taking money out of our own pockets to cover the costs of caring for the incoming dogs. Some of that money comes back in the form of adoption fees…but not all. This is the reason so many of us work another job. It is the reason we have fund-raisers and ask for donations. It is so we can continue caring for the homeless, the lost and the injured….that sweet one-in-a-million dog who is looking for you to be their new home.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 02:27:34 +0000
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