We’ve all been there: driving down the highway behind a navy blue VW bug that has a license plate “DOGLUVR” and a magnet that says “Adopt Don’t Shop!” (most likely the “o”s are replaced by paw prints, just a guess). From personal experience I can that there are probably somewhere between 2-4 dogs in the car as well, but the focus of this description is the magnet (or in some cases a sticker) that says “Adopt Don’t Shop”. What does it mean? Basically the magnet/sticker is telling you not to go to fancy breeder for your dogs/cat/animal purchases, but to go to your local animal shelter and adopt a rescue.
What are the differences?
Dogs are dogs without a doubt, but there are a lot of key factors that come into play when deciding whether to rescue or purchase an animal from a pet store or breeder.
Adopting
Rescuing a dog, or any animal for that matter, can save its life. The sad truth is that a lot of shelters don’t have room for every stray or rescue that comes in. Adopting a dog can help rehabilitate the animal and bring him or her into a loving home that previously wasn’t an option for it. Not to go all Sara McLachlan “Angel” on you, but mistreated dogs placed into loving homes may or may not be one of the most beautiful things on the planet. This is the message that the slogan “Adopt Don’t Shop” is trying to convey.
This isn’t to say that adopting doesn’t come with challenges. Often rescued dogs are skittish and scared around new people, children, and other animals. Taking care of a rescued animal is a full-time job. The reward from this task appears to be well worth it, however.
“Shopping”
A large chunk at this campaign is aimed at pet stores, in which many dogs and other animals come from over populated puppy mills with horrible conditions. These puppy mills are animal abuse at its peak. In that case I support this movement 100%, however there is another type of “shopping” when it comes to pets, and that is purchasing from a breeder.
My family “shopped” for our 12 year old dog, and it was a very successful purchase in a completely biased way. Frankly, the thought of adopting never really crossed our minds. We had no prejudices against it, but our family wanted a specific breed, a dog that wouldn’t shed and was hypoallergenic. “Shopping” in the way that the magnet/sticker portrays it seems superficial, but looking for a perfect dog to give a forever home to is exactly what my family did, even though we didn’t go through a local animal shelter. There are benefits to “shopping” for a pet; you can decide breed, gender, know the history of the dog, be updated on any medical records. These are all important factors in deciding whether or not a dog is right for a certain family.
Is one better than the other?
In my personal opinion, both adopting and shopping are amazing ways to bring a dog into a loving family. It is easy to recognize benefits to both methods of dog ownership, and it’s all about personal preference. If a family is more comfortable with shopping, then that is without a doubt a better choice for them. However, adopting is a great act of kindness toward an animal that most likely didn’t receive the love that it deserved in its previous living situation.
If you want to read more about the “Adopt Don’t Shop” campaign, click here
This was an awesome article topic. I was more or less expecting some more adorable puppy pictures (and I wasn’t disappointed), but I thought you did a good job of talking about a touchy topic. I also originally thought you were going to focus on the importance of adopting a dog, but it was a nice twist when you also supported the second kind of “shopping”. My family adopted once, and the dog ended up biting my brother in the face. I know not every adoption goes that poorly, but it left a bad taste in my family’s mouth. As a result, we only get dogs from breeders we’ve thoroughly researched. It’s definitely a method that people look down upon, but everyone’s situation is different, and I think you did a good job of pointing that out.
This post had a lot of personal significance for me, as my family has two dogs, one rescue and one purebred. Like you said, while it is certainly true that both processes bring a dog into a new, loving family, there are key differences, the biggest being possible behavior problems with adopted dogs. The choice is definitely a tradeoff, that being possible behavior problems and a lack of breed choice for the satisfaction of saving the life of an innocent animal. Like you said, it depends completely on what the adopting family is prepared to handle.
So I mentioned before that I wanted to get a dog in the future, but choosing between adopting and shopping really was hard for me. My family members are allergic to dogs so I really wanted to get a hypoallergenic dog, but at the same time I want to adopt a dog. It really is a hard choice! However, I wanted to say that I really liked how you linked a website that gave us more information on the “adopt don’t shop” campaign. Super helpful!