Guide
What your donation actually buys.
People sometimes flinch at an adoption fee, as though it were a price tag on a dog. It is not. It is a partial invoice for what the dog has already cost, and it is worth seeing what is on it.
The line items
From the day a dog arrives to the day it leaves.
A healthy young dog needs most of the first column. A dog that has been neglected needs all of it, and then the second.
Every dog
- A full veterinary exam
- Core vaccines, and rabies — required in New York by four months old
- Deworming and flea and tick prevention
- A blood test for heartworm and tick-borne disease
- Spay or neuter surgery
- Food, a crate, a collar and a leash
- The drive to every appointment
Some dogs, and it adds up
- Treatment for a positive heartworm or tick-disease test
- Skin and ear infections, which are common after neglect
- Dental work, sometimes extractions
- X-rays, and surgery for injuries
- Weeks of medication for a dog that arrived sick
- Special food for a dog that arrived starved
That second column is the gap. The adoption fee rarely reaches it, and it is exactly the column that decides whether a rescue can say yes to a dog that is old, injured or sick. Donations are what let us say yes.
The part that is not optional
Surgery before adoption is New York law.
New York bars shelters and rescues from releasing a dog for adoption unless it has been spayed or neutered, or the adopter signs an agreement to have it done and leaves a deposit. So every dog that passes through a rescue carries a surgical cost, whether it is adopted in a week or in six months.
For a rescue with no income except donations and adoption fees, that is the largest recurring line on the books.
The part that is free
What a foster home saves.
A rescue with a building pays for kennels, heat, cleaning and staff before a dog ever sees a vet. Our foster families give all of that for nothing. It is why almost everything a donor gives to ABC Animal Rescue reaches the vet’s invoice — and why an extra foster home is worth as much to us as a large gift.
Sources: NY Public Health Law § 2141 (rabies); NY Agriculture and Markets Law § 377-a (spay and neuter on adoption). More on the organization and its filings on the about page.
Every dog we save is paid for by donations and cared for by volunteers. ABC Animal Rescue Incorporated is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — gifts are tax-deductible.