Can a Shelter really

[shelb'smum]

adopt out a preganet dog?

that seems a little odd

[borderlicious]

I'm not sure if they *can*, but IMO they shouldn't. The chances of sending that female to a home with someone who will spay her AND alter all the puppies prior to placement is very, very slim.

 

The shelter I volunteer at refuses to adopt out pregnant females but almost always places them in foster homes to whelp. When the pups are over 12 weeks old and UTD on wormer, vaccs etc, they come back to the shelter.

[WyoBC]

I wouldn't think so. Plus will the owners take care of the dog/pups when they're born?

[Black Watch Debatable]

When I adopted Bounce --- the little pit bull in my avatar --- the good folks at the shelter suspected she was pregnant.

 

Our shelter's policy is to have each dog speutered before it's handed over to its new family, but the ACOs have made exceptions for dogs I've adopted: young Sneak was too frail for the surgery; Lulu needed her broken foot tended; and Bounce was WAY too dirty to go a couple weeks without a good bath. (She looked as if she'd spent a month rolling in motor oil, road tar and and mud puddles, grinding it all in ) I took her to the groomer's that afternoon and to my vet's the next morning, and when I called to see how the spay surgery had gone they told me yes, she'd been pregnant.

 

I knew she was a good 'un before I brought her home from the shelter, but if I'd had any way of knowing that Bounce would turn out to be the happiest, smartest, friendliest, dearest, most rock-stable and steadfast dog ever, I'd have been seriously tempted to let her whelp (and I probably would have kept and bred every last precious pup, because they'd have been extra special, just like their mom.) This is the first ten reasons shelters have speuter policies

 

[because of wonderful dogs like Reg, Sneak, Bounce and Lu, I always encourage people looking for their next best-dog-ever to start at the city or county pound.]