There are many reasons and benefits to adoption and this post will focus on 4 of the reasons for adopting.
One of the reasons why people adopt is because it gives the dog a second chance at life. Many animal shelters are overcrowded with abandoned dogs and one of the solution to the overcrowding problem is euthanizing them, or better known as “putting down the dog”. According to ASPCA, every year, about 3.3 million dogs are put in shelters nationwide and 670,000 dogs are euthanized. Adopting a dog from the shelter helps save them from being euthanized and they get to have a chance at being loved and cherished.
Another reason for adoption is that it it costs less to adopt than buying. According to the Animal Humane Society, the standard adoption fees ranges from $115 to $660 and the dog is already fully examined, tested, spayed/neutered if necessary, and given all the required shots, like the rabies shot and vaccinations. Based on several different sites, buying a dog can cost anywhere from 3 hundred dollars to 15 hundred dollars at a local store and 15 hundred to 5 thousand dollars for designer dogs. Buying a dog does not include spaying/neutering and if purchased from a breeder, you have to pay additional transport fees.
The third reason why people adopt is because it supports animal shelters and discourages puppy mills. Adoption helps fund the animal shelters through application fees. Also, when a dog is adopted, it creates space for other dogs to take its place. Adoption discourages puppy mills because when people are adopting, they are not buying from stores and breeders and without a demand for the dogs, there is no supply required.
The last reason for adopting a dog is that it’s been proven that owning a dog helps lead to a longer and healthier life both physically and mentally. According to Friedmann et al. owning a dog helps decrease loneliness, depression, stress, and anxiety, and promotes exercise. This is also the reason why there are animal assisted therapy. Its been proven by Linda Handlin et al. that oxytocin are released when there is a mutual human and dog interaction and the better the relationship between the owner and the dog, the more oxytocin is released. Oxytocin is a hormone that helps lower blood pressure, decreases anxiety and stress, and induces pain relieving and sedative effects. In another study done by Friedmann et al., they found that patients who was just discharged from the coronary care unit and owned dogs lived a year longer than the patients without dogs.
