Are you for or against buying a pet from a pet store?

[tarheelmjfan]

Certainly. That’s why I said it doesn’t seem like a big deal to me.



I may be wrong, but I really don’t think this as a reason that “a lot” of pets are not adopted. I think your feelings regarding the level of invasiveness are much stronger than most people’s. For the average person, I don’t think it’s a major deterrent to adopting like it is for you. Minorly intrusive/ inconvenient, sure, but not enough to make them avoid ever adopting.

(And, just to be clear, I’m not judging your choice. I think you’re perfectly entitled to feel that way. I just don’t think there are enough people with similar views to the point that it would make a significant difference in the number of pets being adopted.)

You may be right. I'll admit that I've never tried to adopt a pet. I would be very hesitant to consider it, because of what I've heard from people I know IRL. All of them, who haven't adopted say they bought, because they didn't want the intrusion on their lives. Home visits seem to be the biggest hangup, but people have mentioned other intrusions they didn't agree with. The overwhelming majority of people I know have bought from breeders for that reason. If we ever have another dog, it will be another situation of one falling in our lap that needs a good home.

A recent case in point is my MIL who had never considered adopting a dog ended up with one, because someone she knew personally didn't want to see the dog go unadopted. This person knew the previous owner, who had passed away, & wanted the dog to have a good home. She knew MIL would take good care of her. She told MIL people were hesitant to adopt from the shelter. MIL was given a dog to prevent putting her through the adoption process at the shelter the woman works at. The woman even asked MIL to return the dog to her personally, if things didn't work out. Naturally, MIL adores her baby girl, which surprised us all, but she never would have gone to the shelter to go through the process of adopting a dog.

My point is stringent requirements aren't always what's best for pets hoping to be adopted. I'm sure it depends on the shelter or rescue. I just know that many people I know have chosen buying over dealing with it. This is just my personal experience. If people disagree or have different experiences, that's great. Many people I know would disagree, but everyone should do what works for them.