A Texas couple couldn’t contain their shock when a shelter was charging them $1,600 to adopt a rescued puppy. The husband, who goes by Strikecat18 on Reddit, expressed his frustration on r/mildlyinfuriating in a post explaining how he and his wife wanted to get a new dog after their beloved 15-year-old Austrian Shepherd had died. At first, he thought the $1,600 was a typo, but after realizing it wasn’t, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“I was literally speechless,” Strikecat18 wrote, saying how this all suspiciously feels “very much like someone created a business endeavor out of selling rescue dogs for breeder prices.” He detailed that the shelter’s excuse was that it rescues from all over the country, so new owners would have to pay for transport. However, the $1,600 was beyond questionable since he would be picking up the dog locally in Texas.
Strikecat18 wanted to suss out the shelter even further and shared his findings about this “non-profit” shelter’s filings. “They claimed in 2024 to have only paid $573k in salaries… but they paid 228k in payroll taxes,” he wrote. Needless to say, this couple wasn’t the only ones who found this adoption fee incredibly shady. Thousands on Reddit felt like this was a scam.
Reddit Accused the Non-Profit Texas Shelter of Scamming Potential Rescued Dog Owners
“I adopted a dog from out of state for $50. $1600 is WAY too much,” remarked a commenter, with another saying the fee for adopting their cat was the same regardless of state. “Sounds like a fake dog scam to me,” expressed a third. A handful of Redditors shared their own adoption stories, with some even posting a photo of their adorable pets; none reported ever paying as much as $1,600.
One person from California claimed they knew a prominent golden doodle rescue that charges up to $2,500 in adoption fees. “And the thing is you can’t even find a doodle at a shelter anymore because they’ve all been ‘rescued’ by these so called ‘charities,’” wrote the Redditor. “So now a bunch of dogs which need homes are sitting in foster care, waiting for somebody to pay the extortionate adoption fee.”
“I can’t imagine how the end user doesn’t understand it’s not a rescue, it’s a hustle,” sighed another individual in response. Strikecat18 shared more about the shelter’s balance sheet, which showed a net operating profit of like $700k last year. While OP and his wife might not get their $1,600 rescued puppy, “someone is making a very good living off running” this questionable Texas shelter.
