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| - How does nobody else see how scammy they are? Not this specific location or the nice people who work there, but the company itself.
Just over one year ago my wife and I were looking for a dog. I won't pretend to be a saint here, we wanted a puppy or a well-behaved adolescent dog because neither of us had the time or experience to work with possible behavioral problems in an adult dog (we had some bad issues with this in the past).
We frequently checked the west and east maricopa animal shelters (east doesn't have on-site halo volunteers). We kept noticing that the larger west shelter always had way more puppies and the "more adoptable" dogs, and almost always they are in the HALO section with triple the adoption fees. I'm sure others have noticed this as well.
One day I was on my own and swung by the east shelter. I noticed that they had a really friendly chihuahua mix puppy that just came in and I wanted to play with it, but the staff at the desk told me it was not adoptable yet since they have to be there a few days first. I was then warned that if I realistically want to adopt the puppy I will need be there right as they open on the day its available, otherwise HALO will almost certainly come by and pick it up because it is a cute puppy.
It appears as if HALO is scooping up all the the puppies, purebreds, and the cutest and friendliest dogs from the county shelters. Then they are charging absurdly high fees for them.
One might argue that it's a good thing since they are moving dogs from the kill side to a no-kill organization. Well that doesn't mean much since they are taking the dogs that are most likely to be adopted anyway. If they really wanted to impress me then they would take the 10 year old chihuahuas and malnourished pitbull mixes instead of leaving them at county where they will almost certainly be euthanized.
That was my first ethical issue with HALO. I have another one now based on more recent observations:
Just over a year later we were on the search for another dog. We went back to west shelter to see available animals. We used to be annoyed by the high adoption fees, but now we are absolutely shocked by them.
Back when we adopted our first dog, the fees were expensive but understandable. Young puppies cost the most, followed by older puppies, and adult dogs were pretty cheap. Basically all animal shelters follow this pricing pattern. No big deal.
Well now they seem to arbitrarily charge based on how cute or adoptable the animals there. On this last visit the puppies had the typical $185 adoption fee. However they have no gotten into the habit of charging outlandish fees for their more adoptable adult dogs. We saw a friendly and cute 3 year old chihuahua mix. It would have been about $50 if left in county and would have easily been adopted... HALO wanted $185, where a less cute but even younger dog caged right next door was under $80. Any and all purebreds we saw were a staggering $255... even ones that were over 4 years old.
Here is a link to their website where they try to justify these fees:
http://www.halorescue.org/adoptions/fees.aspx
That link takes you to a page that reads like a furniture store sales pitch trying to explain why the fees are so high. To summarize they try to say that the fees vary depending on the services that need to be performed on the dog while in their care.
I guess it's just pure convenience that all the cutest, youngest, and purebred dogs have the most services needed?
To clarify, my real problem is not the prices of the animals. Its the way they assign their prices.
In summary, go to Halo animal rescue... if you're okay with them taking all the most adoptable dogs from county (leaving the oldest and least desirable ones behind) and then charging you 2-5x as much for the same animal, depending on how cute it is.
I encourage anyone who goes to west shelter to stroll right past HALO side and look at the dogs who REALLY need help on the county side.
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