The RSPCA ACT will slash its pet adoption prices this weekend to get its animals into loving new homes, as its shelter is continuing to face a difficult year.
The shelter has been over capacity for the past year and a successful adoption push will free up space and resources to allow staff and volunteers to help more animals in need in the community.
The adoption drive will be held this Friday and Saturday (25-26 October), during which adoption fees will be $50 for adult dogs and cats while rabbits will be $20.
I looked it up and their normal charge for dogs is $395 while the normal charge for cats is $195 (rabbits normally $80). Pretty steep prices but I guess vaccinations (plus desexing if necessary) and housing/looking after the animals adds up quickly so they need to get enough back to keep operating.
Edit: Also still a lot less than what you see many dog breeders selling dogs for - I’ve looked occasionally and you see people wanting thousands of dollars for a puppy.
For sure cheaper than any breeder. I always recommend adopting regardless of the price. But yeah the prices for cats do seem quite steep over there! Great thing they’re lowering the costs to get these babies to their forever home 🥰🥰
Regular vet, quality food, bedding, emergency vet and treatments, senior care all cost money. I’ve seen people quibbling in comments about the costs of adoption from shelters - if $400 seems like a lot to outlay for a living creature that will rely on them for their entire life, then I wonder at the quality of life they’re expecting to give the animal.
I like the idea of clearing the shelters through discounts, but people complaining about a vaccinated, health and temperament checked pet costing a few hundred dollars is alarming.
My rescue dog, $450, was vaccinated, desexed and toilet trained when we got him as a puppy. All by fosters. We burn through about $100 a month in good food, flea and worming treatments, and now that’s he’s a senior, about $200 a month in vet visits for injections and other meds. He has had x-rays and overnight stays and all kinds of meds over the years, attracting the weekend emergency vet fees and surgeons and anaesthetists fees, racking up probably about $10k in his lifetime. We pay extra for him to stay with us on holiday in Airbnbs. He has leads and car harnesses, pyjamas for our Canberra winters, a bed in most rooms and one outside all of which cost about $200 each, a kennel for about the same.
My point is, we’re giving him a good quality of life and expenses come with that. The $450 just got him in our car. But pets are and expensive in the long run but if they’re not, then maybe something’s missing. I had a cat in the past and while the food costs were lower, not much else was.
My main point was that Victoria seems to have cats, specifically, for cheaper adoption than the ACT. That’s all.
Yeah sorry, went off a bit didn’t I. Bit of a gripe for me, clearly.
Nah man I totally get where you’re coming from. Animals aren’t and shouldn’t be some cheap commodity that anyone can get into. They’re living beings that require a high level of wellbeing and if they’re cheap any Tom, dick and Harry can get one and treat it like dirt
Yeah we’re on the same page. Sorry for the verbal vomit.