A friend of DH asked me to look into a local rescue for her because she doesn't know if they are legit. I don't know the rescue and I am having a hard time finding someone familiar with it.
BTW if anyone here is familiar with rescues in coastal NH and would like to PM me I would love to get someone's input that might have heard of the place. I don't want to post the name here in case it is a wonderful place but what I have seen raises some questions.
Here are the things that struck me:
* On the petfinder page there is no set fee for adoption and the petfinder shelter listing doesn't give that info. either. When the friend spoke to the person there she was told the range was $200-400 for mixed breed pups from the same litter. Didn't get an explanation for the difference in fees for pups that are siblings.
* Also on petfinder says "please spay or neuter" does not say requires spay or neuter. Some pups are adopted out intact. They do not believe in "pediatric surgery" so they don't s/n pups. BTW the pups the friend asked about are maybe 16? weeks old....
* Petfinder page says pups come from southern shelters---but neither the shelter nor state is not identified for some of the pups. It just says they are abandoned. Friend emailed asking where pups are from---no answer so far. I can't imagine this litter was abandoned in this town and wound up at this private shelter when there is a big non profit shelter close by, so I wonder where the pups are from.
*The petfinder info did not say it was a non-profit so I checked the state--and they have a pet shop license, not a rescue or shelter license. They are registered as a company that breeds akc registered chihuahuas and boston terriers. I looked at akc to see if they registered the boston terriers under the kennel name and they do---but when I looked at offa.org, no bostons with their name were listed. I did find a notice for the terriers at a buy pets online site. They have been using the kennel name on boston terriers since at least 1999 so I would think at least one of the 35 dogs I saw at the akc would have had some kind of health test info stored at offa.org
*This is a two person operation in a less than 2,000 square foot house that is described online as a farm--but it is on less than an acre which to me isn't much of a farm. There are dogs and pups of a variety of ages at the shelter---and this person is expecting two litters of pups in the next few months. So where are the dogs kept? what about 8 week old pups coming from out of state? would you be importing pups from another state to your house/yard when you are planning on having a couple of litters soon???? Am I the only one who would worry about the health of the new pups? Maybe she has serious containment procedures....
Please understand, I am not knocking rescue or breeders who rescue---I just think some of this sounds odd.
What does everyone else here think? I told DH's friend I would go with her to look at the pups if she goes to see them but I don't want her to drive an hour and then be disappointed
Thanks!
The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
- Mark Twain, 10/15/1888