In the United States, approximately 70-80 million dogs have homes. Despite the numbers sounding high, for every ten dogs born, only one of them will find a permanent home. Shelters are often overflowing with animals every year, mostly due to finding homeless animals on the streets. In America, of the 3.9 million dogs that enter shelters each year, 1.2 million of those dogs are euthanized due to lack of space, resources, and people willing to adopt. Each year 28 percent of the dogs in homes are obtained through purchase from a breeder. The fact that breeding is used as a business adds to the overpopulation of dogs, a problem which could be easily reduced if breeders found a better business. The benefits to adopting a dog will outweigh those of a buying one from a breeder in all aspects from prices to a sense of fulfillment. …show more content…
Many are under the false impression that all shelter dogs have something wrong with them which is far from true. Majority of dogs which end up in shelters have clean bills of health. It is often assumed that shelter dogs have behavioral issues. Although that may apply in some cases, the greater part are in shelters because the previous owner could no longer take care of them and had to surrender them, for reasons such as financial issues.

It is also common for many to desire a purebred companion. This is understandable, however, there is ignorance of the fact that there are purebreds living in shelters across the country waiting for new homes. Of those living in shelters, approximately 25% of dogs are purebreds, according to humanesociety.org. In addition, adopting from a shelter can easily save one anywhere from $375 to over $3000