What is the difference between “selling” an animal and “re-homing” an animal?
Re-homing (AKA “giving away”, “adopting out” or “free to a good home”) is a transfer of ownership/responsibility of an animal. While “free” generally means that no money is transferred. Unfortunately. this is not usually in the animals best interest. Everyone has heard the stories of evil people who scan the want adds looking for free animals to resell to labs, restaurants and other unpleasant folks. These stories are largely urban legends, but there is more than enough reality to warrant caution. The most simple and best protection is a small re-homing fee. If a kitten can be sold for $5, then a $10 fee takes all the profit out of the transaction while not making the transfer cost prohibitive to a person wishing to have a pet. A large dog can fetch as much as $100 from many non-pet purchasers. Once again, if the dog has a $100 re-homing fee, then there is no profit left. There is much debate about the larger re-homing fees, but in order for it to be effective it has to be enough to ne
