Does your rescue/shelter offer sales?

[Amy Hendrickson]

I for one, can't afford to give away dogs for free. If I did, I'd be shut down. I count on the adoption fees to help vet the next dog....and the next dog....and the next dog. If someone can't afford the adoption fee...then they can't afford the annual vet visit. Rescued dogs come complete with vetting, vaccinations, worming, Hw testing, prevention, treatment if necessary and spay/neuter. If someone can't afford to shell out a little to help pay for that....and that IS what they are helping pay for...then they really need to think about whether they can afford the dog. The dog itself is FREE

[GoingPostal]

Our shelter will give cats away to certain people, those they know will take care of them if the cat has been at the shelter for a long time, I've been offered a lot of kitties, , they also do 2 for 1 and $20 cats for long timers rather than the normal $70. Dogs they don't have much problem getting adopted, not too many of them. I don't know that it helps, I know plenty of the cheaper cats still sit and sit while others get adopted.

[Otis]

That's not much to spend on a pet at all-if people are getting animals because they are free that's a scary thought. No better then setting a box of free puppies outside of walmart.

Except the person giving away puppies outside Walmart doesn't check with your landlord, call your vet for references and do a home visit.

If the adoption fee should be a non-issue, why not get rid of it? It's proven over and over again that the money people spend on an animal has no bearing on how well they care for it. Why would it be scary to give animals away for free? The scary part is not doing any screening.

Reducing/eliminating adoption fees doesn't generally get people to adopt who weren't already considering it. Most of the people will tell you that they were thinking about it anyway and the reduced fees made it seem like now was a good time. This is exactly the kind of adopter you want to attract: Someone who was already considering it and needed a little push to get them in the door at an opportune time for your rescue.

I agree if the adopters are getting thoroughly screened-although unfortunately they often are not.

[tbluverjumper]

We also have multiple sales here. Similar to Amie's mostly.

Two cats that came in together is a 2 for one, if you pick two different cats to take that didn't come in together it's usual price for one and half for the other. Usually after "kitten season" we will have straggler black kittens (always makes me sad) so then we'll usually have a special on black cats. If we're slammed with cats and continuously full then we sometimes will do a "free if it's over a year" type deal. I personally work with the adopters every day and I do notice a difference in quality of customers that come in when it's deal time vs. regular deals. More so with cats than dogs. The returns do go up as well, same happens when we get a lot of puppies in. Sometimes myself and the staff will call it before the litter is gone on how many we will see back. It's usually half the litter in most cases.

Our senior program is for people over 60 and the animal over 5, dog or cat, the fee is waived and that's year round.

If it's two dogs who have been at the shelter a long time or came in as a dual adoption then we will usually try and reduce it but that's generally up to the supervisors.

We occasionally have bunny specials to.

[PITtsburgher]

The other thing that makes it way better than the Walmart puppies is if the shelter is pre-altering animals. That way even if the person turns out to be a flake they will not be creating more and more unwanted animals.

[snikles]

When I adopted my pup from the DC Humane Society they had a sale going on:





I was tempted to call the NAACP on them.

[merriterrier]

At our shelter (which is small, underfunded and rural) we have offered specific dogs or cats for free or reduced price to generate adoptions. Usually we do this for animals who are adoptable temperamentally, but have some other drawback to the general public like being old or deaf or only having 3 legs or being black. We had a awesome BC/mix for a year then we put her up for free and she got a really ideal home for her. If we offer a dog or cat for a free or reduced price the adopters still have to jump through all the hoops and meet the same qualification as people who pay the adoption fee.

With the dogs that I personally rescue I do not offer any sort of discount (though I have helped pay transport/shipping costs to the right home). Dogs that come from my rescue have much more vetting and training than dogs from the shelter, and I inevitably end up spending 10x more on the dog than I get from the adoption fee. I just think of it as the adoption fee on this dog will pay for the s/n and vaccs on the next.

[Meaghan Edwards]

Yes, occassoinally, especially with 2 for 1 specials for cats and elderly/older animals, or animals, or long termers (generally the adoption of these dogs includes free obedience training).

[Zagari]

Yes, all the time!

For any animal 7 years or older you get 25% off.
If you adopt more than one animal you get 25% off total fees.
If you are a senior, you get 25% off.

We also have holiday specials.. like during Valentines day we had 14% off adoptions.

Then there are the animals who have been at the shelter for a long time. Their fee depends on if they are already spayed or neutered or not and how long they've been there.

[sickmonkey]

Local shelter here offers dogs half off fairly regularly. It doesn't say why, but I'm assuming it's because they're less desirable, older, or have been around for a while. Seems to work pretty well because the dogs usually get picked up after that. Occasionally they offer all dogs half off for a few days.

[CallSignOWL]

the Nebraska humane society puts on sales when they get overwhelmed. I havent seen one for dogs yet, but there have been a few "free cat/half-price kitten" promotions recently. Ive also seen a "buy one get one free" deal on older cats.

[kornygerm]

i know some lower their prices on special dates like valentines day, which i feel it goes against giving a dog in that time of the year is a bad idea, but maybe it works the other way around.

The local rescue does not offer sales whatsoever, i think they should once in a while.

[Celesteandthebullies]

We had a free cat day a few months ago due to getting waaaay too overcrowded. We adopted out 114 or so, still had some left over, and only have about 52 individual cages for them.