[Dailydrool] Sr. Dog discounts

[Karrie Kuecker]

This seems to be a pretty common thing at a lot of shetlers. Not necessarily
"free" adoptions, but reduced costs. Even the rescue I got Joey & Dad got
Checkers from has highest fees for puppies, slighlty less for adults, and
slightly less for seniors. I've seen other rescue groups offer discounts on
bonded pairs of dogs, as well.

As for the sr. dogs in specific, there are a number of reasons for this I
think. Cost, amount of time that the dogs are in their care, etc. But
there's other reasons too. At the shelter I used to do volunteer assistant
dog training at (it was a class to teach us how to train the shelter dogs,
making them more adoptable), they have special programs "Nine Lives" for the
sr. cats & "Young at Heart" for the sr. dogs. These programs are
specifically for Senior People. They allow a sr. human to go and get a sr.
cat or dog, at a reduced price ($100 for a dog, a bit less for cats). The
shelter thought that srs. for srs. would be a win-win match for both
parties, and also they site one of the reasons for doing this that a lot of
seniors live on fixed income or retirement packages, and that by reducing
the fees for senior pets, it makes them more accessable to these members of
the community. We've had some really old dogs go to homes this way; and, the
seniors who adopted them were overjoyed to find dogs that they could easily
handle, and were really well behaved.

I've never heard of giving sr. pets away free, but if the adopters are
screened first, just as they would be in an other normal adoption, I don't
see why this would be a bad thing. Also, I encourage those groups who do
want to do something like that to try and market the idea to the seniors in
their community; that way the senior dogs get a home, and the senior humans
can hopefully lead a more enriched life as well.

Just some food for thought.
-- 
-Karrie, momma to Joey, Aunty to Checkers & Crispin (wb)

Joey's dogster page: http://www.dogster.com/dogs/637473
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