Rudy found his new home with a previous adoptee "Stewart"

Free to Good Home!!

When people can no longer care for a pet, or if their pets have had babies that they cannot care for, many people opt to place an ad in a newspaper or website advertising the unwanted animals as "free to a good home". While intentions are usually good in these situations, we strongly advise against this approach. "Free" is all too often seen as "worthless" in the eye of the beholder.

Pets obtained for free are are less likely to be spayed or neutered by their new owners (why bother with vet bills?), and more likely to be abused and/or discarded, because "there are plenty more where that came from!"

A recent study at one animal shelter yielded the startling statistic that 41% of all owner-surrendered dogs had been obtained "Free to good home."

This is how some people see your "free" loved one:

• Free snake food.
• Free animal for malicious pranks.
• Free animal to set on fire or insert a firecracker into.
• Free to breed indiscriminately.
• Free animal to hoard and neglect.

What Is A "Buncher?"
A buncher either steals or "adopts" companion animals for the purpose of selling the animal. Bunchers can sell animals for one or more of the following reasons:

• To be used in research labs
• To be used as bait to train dogs in fighting rings or hunting dogs
• To be used as breeding stock in puppy or kitten mills

"Bunchers" can be very deceptive and they prey on people who place "free to good home" ads. They will sometimes use children as part of the ploy and present themselves as a "perfect" family. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!