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Thinking about adopting a dog or a cat? Have a Heart Humane Society would like to pass on some information that we hope will be helpful.

Should you buy from a breeder or a pet store, adopt from a shelter or from a pet rescue?

If you buy a pet from a dog breeder, make sure you have thoroughly checked out the breeder first, not just online but by visiting their facility, and make sure you see all of the facility. Many breeders are not breeding to improve the breed, but are, in fact, backyard breeders or puppy mills. We have quite a few backyard breeders and even a few puppy mills here in Tehachapi. Backyard breeders are people who want to make a few extra dollars by breeding X dog to Y dog. They don’t care about the quality of the breed and you often end up with dogs with medical issues because of it. The same goes for puppy mill breeders; they are the worst. They turn out puppies at an alarming rate and their adult dogs sometimes never get out of a cage and live their entire lives in filth and never know human touch or love.

Generally, pet stores acquire their dogs and cats from puppy mills and backyard breeders. Thankfully, pet stores are closing down all over the nation because the word it out. The savvy ones are incorporating rescues who have pets for adoption.

We always encourage people to adopt from our local shelters because you are literally saving the pet’s life. But there are some drawbacks. Let’s say you adopt a dog, bring it home and in a few days or weeks, you discover that the dog or cat has issues you can’t deal with. You have no choice but to take it back to the shelter and know it will probably be put down or try to get a pet rescue to take it. There is also the risk of disease. As much as shelters try to control disease, there is still a risk and you should be prepared to deal with it financially.

When you adopt from a pet rescue, you generally are adopting a pet that has been fostered in a home with a family, other dogs and cats. Have a Heart will not put any pet up for adoption until we have had it for a minimum of 15 days. Most major diseases will show up within that time period. Have a Heart would never consider adopting out a pet with any disease unless that information is fully disclosed to the prospective owner. That’s not to say that we haven’t had cats or dogs with diseases and medical issues, but I guarantee you we either didn’t know about it or it was disclosed to the adopter. Case in point: Chucky, a great little terrier with tons of personality. We had him up for adoption, then one day while still in foster care, he vomited repeatedly and we took him to the vet. He was only two years old but he was in renal failure and a few weeks later had to be put down. It was a very sad day; he was a great little dog.

When a pet is fostered, the foster family treats the pet as their own. They learn the pet’s temperament and can pass that information on to you, which helps you decide if the pet is right for you.

Sometimes Have a Heart will decline an application to adopt a particular pet. Generally this is because we know that the pet isn’t a good match. Recently a woman fell in love with a puppy that we had just taken in, but after talking to her at length, she realized this was a puppy that would need a big commitment from her in training classes and later as an adult with exercise. Some people get quite angry at us, but our job is to place the pet in the right home the first time.

Before adopting from a pet rescue, do some research. Ask to see the adoption contract if you don’t already know what it says. One of the most important questions to ask is, “What is the return policy?” Have a Heart will almost always take one of our adopted pets back if it doesn’t work out. In fact, our policy is that we will take the pet back and refund your money in full within 30 days. Most rescues won’t do that. After that, we will still take the pet back but will not refund your money. Yes, there have been a few exceptions over the years, but we have taken pets back into our system that have been adopted for up to two years for reasons like a death in the family, losing a home, going into elder care, etc.

Talk to people about the rescue and find out if they were satisfied with their adoption experience. Every rescue operates differently. Find out too if the rescue is financially transparent, which will tell you if they are on the up and up. Go to Guidestar.org and type in the name of the rescue and their information will come up. If they aren’t listed with Guidestar, beware!

Finally, what is the reputation of the rescue in the community? Do they serve the community or themselves?