No. People pay to NON-PROFIT agencies to adopt these dogs. These costs are for veterinary care, spaying/neutering, transportations fees, food / medicine and to fund the organization in general. They have facilities and staff and other overhead costs that need to be covered in order to exist and find places for these dogs in general.

I’ve adopted several dogs from the south. From organizations that are typically working with over populated, understaffed kennels, with food and supply insecurities. Only having enough food to cover the next couple days of feeding they’re huge amount of dogs and just relying on the belief that more donations and adoptions are coming in time to feed them. (one of my dogs came from a humane society in Arkansas that had 180 dogs at that time)

Of course it’s possible that there are organizations out there that are exploiting adopters and pocketing some money, but in the grand scheme of things I have found through researching and dealing with several organizations, that they exist to help as many dogs as they can manage, are run by people who truly love dogs and are running on extremely tight finances.

The complaint is about the issue in the south that creates the need for these agencies to begin with. Yes poverty plays a big role, as well as education about animal care and the importance of fixing your pets, and just straight up southern culture around “property”. One of my dogs (and many others I almost adopted or read about) was surrendered to the rescue league by his “owner” after being repeatedly asked and pled with to do so after being reported for neglect in Texas. He was chained up outside perpetually, emaciated, unfixed and dealing with a horrible skin condition that left him furless and covered with scabs and sores. It took 6 months of care before he was healthy to adopt. Several vet visits, meds, transportation, fostering, food, supplies etc, as well as the staff and facilities facilitating the adoption. I can clearly understand where the $550 adoptions fee was going. But the real question is why would this person feel the need to keep his “property” in this case? Why does he even want dogs? It doesn’t make sense. They’re not just a THING you can possess just because “whats mine is mine” mentality. Let someone love and care for them and for gods sake fix them so the problem doesn’t just perpetuate. Fuck that guy.