Each year, it's estimated that more than one million adoptable dogs and cats are euthanized in the United States simply because too many pets come into shelters and too few people consider adoption when looking for a pet.

The number of euthanized animals could be reduced dramatically if more people adopted pets instead of buying them. When you adopt, you save a loving animal by making them part of your family and open up shelter space for another animal who might desperately need it. All animals at our shelter are in need of a second chance. They have been lost, given up, or abandoned. They are all unwanted and helpless. You are giving them a new life in a loving home.

Animal shelters and rescue groups are brimming with happy, healthy pets just waiting for someone to take them home. Most shelter pets wound up there because of a human problem like a move or a divorce, not because the animals did anything wrong. Many are already house-trained and used to living with families.

When you adopt through Rags2Riches, the cost of spay/neuter, first vaccinations, and microchipping is included in the adoption fee for appropriate animals, which can save you some of the upfront costs of adding a new member to your family. Depending on the animal, you may also save on housebreaking and training expenses.

No one needs to see another selfie—unless it’s a selfie of you with the adorable pet you just adopted! Adopt a pet, post those pictures, and let the well-earned likes roll in. When you adopt a pet from our shelter, you assist a not-for-profit organization but also send a message to others who will be asking you for years to come where you obtained your adorable pet. Shelters improve the community by mandating that adopted animals be spayed or neutered. This requirement diminishes chances that more unwanted animals will enter the world.

If you buy a dog from a pet store, online seller, or flea market, you’re almost certainly getting a dog from a puppy mill.

Puppy mills are factory-style breeding facilities that put profit above the welfare of dogs. Animals from puppy mills are housed in shockingly poor conditions with improper medical care and are often very sick and behaviorally troubled as a result. The moms of these puppies are kept in cages to be bred over and over for years, without human companionship and with little hope of ever joining a family. And after they're no longer profitable, breeding dogs are simply discarded—either killed, abandoned, or sold at auction.

Many of the pets from shelters and rescues are already house-trained, which means you’re not only saving a pet’s life, you may be saving your rug. Adopting a mature pet not only gives older animals a second chance, it often means introducing them to your family will be much easier.

Not only do animals give you unconditional love, but they have been shown to be psychologically, emotionally, and physically beneficial to their companions. Caring for a pet can provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment and lessen feelings of loneliness. And when you adopt, you can also feel proud of helping an animal in need!

By adopting an animal, you’re making room for others. Not only are you giving more animals a second chance, but the cost of your adoption goes directly towards helping those shelters better care for the animals they take in!

Not only do you change a homeless animal’ entire world for the better, but you also gain a new best friend! Seriously, what could be better than that?

Really. Who doesn’t love a rags 2 riches story.