10 Reasons Why You Should Adopt Instead of Buying a Pet

If you work with animals or are an animal lover, you’ve probably heard of the phase, “Adopt, Don’t Shop!” It is a catchphrase of a campaign that encourages people to adopt their next pet from a local animal shelter rather than buy them from pet stores.

What Is This Campaign All About?

The people behind the “Adopt, Don’t Shop” campaign recognize that most, if not all, of the puppies and other animals that are sold in stores mostly come from commercial breeding facilities. The focus of these places is not to look after the welfare of the animals but to make a profit.

Most animal mills in the United States are unregulated. This means the conditions in these places may be abhorrent and unethical. To discourage the proliferation of animal mills, people are being encouraged to stop patronizing pet shops. Here are more reasons to adopt your next pet from a shelter.

You Get To Save Lives

Over two million dogs are euthanized in animal shelters. There are just too many of them and very few people who want to adopt. This is why, if you adopt your next pet from a local shelter, you are literally saving lives. You are giving a new life to an abandoned or lost animal and you are creating a space at the shelter so that they can save one more.

You Save A Few Dollars

Our friends from Time for Paws recommend getting rescue animals. These are so much cheaper to get than dogs from a pet store. Most of the time, the dogs that are given up for adoption have already been spayed/neutered and has received all of their vaccinations. Additionally, most animal shelters have very reasonable adoption fees.

You Get To Adopt A Pet That Is Already Trained

Most pets that you can buy from a store are young. Those at the shelter are usually past their puppy or kitten phase. This means you wouldn’t have to deal with biting, inappropriate chewing, or clawing. You also wouldn’t have to worry about housetraining your new pet as most of them are already trained. You might even be able to find a dog that knows a few tricks.

You Will Have More Options

Animal shelters are filled to the rafters with pre-screened animals excited to be brought home. Many shelters care for a variety of animals besides various breeds of dogs and cats. They might have a rabbit, turtle, horse, hamster, or any farm animal that you might wish to adopt.

You Might Help Shut Down An Animal Mill

As mentioned above, many animals sold at pet stores come from mills. These horrid places put their profits ahead of the welfare of the animals that they keep. They keep their animals in poor housing conditions and often neglect to provide them with proper medical care. If more people stop buying from these mills, they might run out of reasons to keep on breeding more animals. If we kill the demand, they might end up being forced to shut down.

Your Health Could Benefit

Studies have proven that people who spend time with animals have lower cholesterol level and blood pressure. Additionally, having a pet could mean you’d have to walk it, bring it to the groomers, and play with it. All these results to more physical activities that could help improve blood circulation and improve cardiovascular health.

You Provide Assistance To A Valuable Institution

When you adopt an animal from a shelter, you give funds to a, more than likely, not-for-profit organization. This means they get a few more dollars that would go to providing shelter and sustenance to the other animals that are still unadopted.

You Might Convince Others To Adopt As Well

When people see that you have a new pet, one of the most common questions they would ask is where did you buy your dog, cat, or another animal. By spreading the word that you have adopted instead of buying a pet from a store, you just might convince one more family to adopt too. This is one reason why many celebrities post about their rescues.

You’ll Probably Be More Social

It is very hard to stay a hermit if you have a pet that requires being entertained, checked up, and fed. If you get a dog, you’d be going to dog parks where you might interact with other dog owners. You’d have to go to the vet once in a while. You will also be going out to buy food, toys, and other necessities for your animal friend. Unless you decide to buy all of your animal supplies online, you will have to go out more and socialize with other people.

You Might Feel Good About Your Decision

While this may sound selfish, deciding to adopt a pet from a shelter is something that you should feel some pride over. You know that you are going to do so much good not just for the animal that you are going to bring home but for the other animals out there that still have no homes. So, go ahead and give yourself that much-needed pat on the back.

Conclusion

Adopting an animal is good for the animal, for you, and for the other animals that are still at the shelter. You will be making a difference in so many lives when you decide to bring home a new pet from the shelter rather than from a store.