Shelter pets are not for everyone either Most shelter animals are just fine. I got two cats (bonded pair) from a shelter in August 2013 and they've been a drea

Shelter pets are not for everyone either Most shelter animals are just fine. I got two cats (bonded pair) from a shelter in August 2013 and they've been a dream. Shelter life isn't easy for animals, but it doesn't typically break them (a few handle it badly, but most are psychologically normal after a couple weeks in a new home). You're taking a bet with any kind of new pet, but you're probably getting a healthier animal, on average, with a mutt from a shelter than if you get a breed animal, even from a "responsible" (i.e. not puppy-mill) breeder. The better shelters don't do that much psychiatric damage, and most of it's not long-term. This idea that shelter animals are all psychiatric/behavioral basketcases is both untrue and very damaging. I prefer no-kill shelters for finding pets. Part of it is selfishness (I don't like feeling like not choosing an animal will condemn it to death) and some of it is ideology (I don't agree that it's "euthanasia" to kill healthy feral animals; who are we to decide that they'd be better off dead?) but I also know that NK shelters (which source from "kill"/open-admission shelters, so you're still saving a life) are staffed by people who are experts (at least, relative to me) in selecting adoptable, healthy animals who are unlikely to have behavioral problems.