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Why is the adoption fee $400?
The average cost per dog to make him/her ready for adoption is $367--this includes bailing
them out of the shelter, a general health check, spay or neuter, providing all shots to date,
microchipping, and spending several weeks at a foster home to help ensure they are suitable for
adoption.
Setting an adoption fee that covers that cost and also allows us to continue saving those
who have extraordinary vet bills allows us to focus on the dogs and not on dividing our time and
energy pursuing fundraising activities.
A substantial adoption fee is also a deterrent to those who
would impulsively choose to adopt. It's a financial commitment as well as an emotional and physical
commitment that we want adopters to consider prior to adopting.
We can only accept cash or checks at this time.
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Where is the shelter/kennel?
We are not a shelter or a kennel. Our dogs are rescued from high kill shelters and then go
into a network of foster homes in Northern CA, Southern CA and Las Vegas. Each dog lives with a
family or person until they find their permanent home.
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Where does DPS get these dogs?
The majority of our dogs come from high kill animal shelters in Southern CA. The shelters
there are over-flowing with highly adoptable dogs that are euthanized every day. We do on occasion
take our dogs from owners who are unable to continue caring for their dogs.
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Why do the dogs come from Southern CA?
Most of the dogs are rescued from shelters in Southern CA and initially go into foster
homes there. When they have been vetted and behaviorally assessed we transfer them out to
other foster homes in our other adoption areas. We do adoptions in Northern CA 3 times a month,
Las Vegas 1-2 times a month, Arizona 4 times a year and in Southern CA on a regular
basis. This allows us to take many more dogs and continue the life-saving work we have been doing
for 10 years.
We have found that each region has an affinity for different breeds of dogs. Whereas
one breed may not find a home in Northern CA, they may be very sought out in Las Vegas and if we
are willing to travel, the dog can find his/her home. Being mobile gives the opportunity for more lives
to be saved.
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Why do the dogs come from Taiwan?
The dogs in Taiwan have little or any chance to have the type of life we offer a pet here
in the US. We connected with a grassroots rescue effort in Taiwan that works tirelessly to save the
lives of animals that are strays, are mistreated and are abandoned. Dogs are tortured and killed
mercilessly there. Hundreds and thousands of dogs roam the city streets and are abandoned in the
countryside or at dump sites where they have no hope of surviving. Once we saw the pictures of
what has happened to dogs there on a regular basis, found out about the thousands of homeless
dogs, and then discovered that there was an effort to save them, we offered to help.
Please check out their website to understand more of the problem in Taiwan:
http://www.savedogs.org/english/index.html
(the English Version is being redone at this time but
you can browse the site for their pictures as well as check out our
Project Taiwan
page. We aren't the only rescue
group that works with Taiwan; Kathy Griffin adopted a dog from Taiwan from another Southern
California rescue group!
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Why does DPS spay/neuter so early?
For 30 years vets have been doing early spay and neuter. It is the only known way to
control the over-population and the senseless slaughter of 7 million dogs and cats per year. The
following are some wonderful articles on why early spay/neuter is important, safe and recommended:
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What happens to the dogs that don't get adopted?
They stay with our rescue until they too find their home. You can check out some of our
dogs who have been with us longer than others under our
Sticky Dog section.
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What is the process for adopting a dog?
Application and adoption process
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Can I volunteer? What are the requirements?
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Do you have a "trial period" if I take a dog home?
As a rule, we do not have trial periods. If you take a dog home on a trial basis for a week or two and
do not end up adopting, we have not been able to use that time to find that dog a permanent home. We don't think it's fair
for the dog or for the other families that may want to adopt.
"Foster-to-adopts" are really only for extraordinary cases, as decided by us.
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Why didn't I get a response to my phone call or email?
We do our best to respond to every single email. If you sent in an application or an inquiry
and you did not fill out the email address correctly we cannot return your email. If an email is
offensive it is up to our volunteer if they choose to respond. If you email within 24 hours of an event
or during our adoption events, we are often not able to return emails until after the adoption
event. Our
Facebook
or
Twitter
is the best source of who has been adopted on adoption days/weekends and
who is still available. We attempt to keep our own website (not necessarily the databases like
Petfinder or Adopt-A-Pet) as current as possible.
Phone calls are only returned if it is something that an email can not cover. We have very limited
time to call as most of our volunteers work and have families. We save the time we do have for
phone calls to those individuals who have approved applications. We recommend you email so we
can answer you promptly. Email is the best and fastest way to reach us. Please do not burden
PetFood Express with inquiries because they are a separate entity and cannot answer these
questions.