Why Owner Surrenders Are Not Able To Adopt A Dog Back After They Surrender

This is a difficult question we are asked nearly every time a family chooses to surrender a dog.  We strive to operate with total transparency and offer the info and questions below to walk our community through why, as much as we don't like it, this why we do it the way we do....

​How do we decide who "can" and "can't" afford the care?  
We are not the ones to judge who can and cannot afford the costs of vet care. Owners are given many options before they come to the decision to surrender. And while it seems logical that donations may cover this surgery, what if it doesn’t? Who will cover the balance? Who are we to decide which dogs to cover the medical bills for and who we don’t. Imagine the number of owners who would come to us asking for us to cover the medical bills for their dogs if we covered the costs for dogs that have owners? Do we ask for tax returns? Pay stubs? Bank account info? By the time we did all that, the dog would be beyond help.

When does the "care" start and stop?
Surrendering should be the absolute last choice. Very often it’s not only the costs that make families choose to surrender, it’s the after care involved also. What happens if there are complications after treatment? Who will cover those costs? If the same pet gets sick again with something else in a year? 2 years? 5 years? Do we continue to pay those bills for the life of the dog that has a family? This is what we grapple with every single day. There are too many pets out there that have no family that we cannot turn our backs on.  If we helped them once, we wouldn't we help again? 


We do not have any issue with the fees any vet charges, they have overhead, they are highly skilled, have highly skilled staff and they help provide quality of life for the pets we love so dearly.

There are options out there for people to fund pet’s care and there is pet insurance. We are not here to judge, we are not here to decide who can and who cannot afford the care their pet needs. We have had people adorned with diamonds, driving high end cars and wearing clothes that cost what our monthly mortgage is decide that they are not able to cover the care for their pets, we do not encourage people to surrender, we want people to keep their pets, but if they decide they cannot or will not, we are here for the dogs.


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