We may be biased, but we believe that adopting a dog is an incredible thing to do.
There are many benefits to adopting a dog and even more benefits over buying a dog.
Animal Benefits
By adopting a dog, you’re saving a life. Actually, you’re saving more than one. Every single dog that is adopted frees the sanctuary staff up to work with and prepare the next dog for potential adoption.
Every year, millions of dogs wait to be adopted from animal shelters — so many that almost 400,000 dogs are euthanized each year, according to World Animal Foundation.
Shelters are full of healthy, loving and smart animals who were surrendered not because of their behaviour but generally due to the issues of their guardians.
The most common reasons animals are surrendered is because of a change in circumstances of their family: a divorce, a move, a new baby or because their family was not ready for all the responsibilities of having a pet and “no longer has time for them”.
Owner Benefits
At our Sanctuary, you can find a dog to fit your unique personality (even if you’re a little eccentric).
You will be rewarded with loving looks and other expressions of gratitude for as long as you both shall live.
If you adopt, you get a wider choice of dog age. Though puppies are cute and cuddly, they can also be a handful. An adult or older pet may be a better fit for you. For example, adopting an adult dog who is already house-trained and knows basic cues is often much easier than adopting a puppy, who must be taught these things.
You can’t buy love—but you can adopt it from an animal shelter (and usually for a lot less money than buying a dog from a breeder or a pet store.
Our adoption fees are incredibly reasonable but as a bonus, they include initial veterinary costs, which can add up quickly. Depending on the age and breed of the animal, buying from a breeder could cost anywhere from a few hundred pounds to upwards of £1,000, but this does not usually include any health benefits.
At Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary, we spay and neuter animals before adoption, saving you the cost. Our animals are also often microchipped and vaccinated, which can save over £200 too!
Dogs can help you maintain an active lifestyle. It’s important to take good care of a pet, but pets can also take care of their owners, providing both physical and mental health benefits.
Because pets require a lot of attention, especially dogs, who need to go outside every few hours, you could have a reason to get off the couch and be active.
Our mission is to get pets out of our care and into homes as efficiently as possible. So we work hard to maintain the health and their develop social skills, however, some dogs need behaviourist support and training sessions to enable them to settle into a new home.
Ethical Benefits
They may be cute, but those puppies sold in pet shops often come from mass puppy mills, where they live in unsanitary, overcrowded conditions. We’re not saying all breeders operate on a large scale, but the appeal of larger and larger financial gains can often get in the way of animal welfare in some cases. We like to think that by adopting a dog, you stop this practice from being so attractive to breeders.
Adoption helps stop pet overpopulation. There are too many animals and not enough homes. Shelters and sanctuaries have been facing a pet overpopulation problem for the last few decades.
We spay or neuter all adopted cats, dogs and rabbits. This ensures the animals we adopt into the community do not contribute to pet overpopulation.