Are Fee-Waived Adoptions Safe?
It's a question we hear every year:
"Doesn't waiving adoption fees lead to poor adoption outcomes?"
It's an understandable and well-intentioned concern – but decades of research and real-world shelter data consistently show that reduced-fee or fee-waived adoption events, when held responsibly, do not lead to poorer adoption outcomes. Families who adopt during these events keep their pets at similar rates, form the same strong bonds, and provide comparable veterinary care and quality of life.
At SPCA Wake, every adopter still goes through the same adoption counseling and interview process to help ensure the right match for both the pet and the family. Our goal is to create lasting matches between pets and families, and every part of our adoption process is designed with that in mind.
And the result is powerful: more pets find loving homes, creating room for more pets to be transferred out of shelters, so fewer pets are euthanized and more lives can be saved.
Fee-waived adoption events are a proven way to save more lives because they increase adoptions without reducing adoption quality.
The Adoption Fee Isn't What Determines a Successful Adoption
One common misconception is that if someone can't afford an adoption fee, they won't be able to afford the ongoing cost of caring for a pet.
In reality, the families who come to fee-waived adoption events generally aren't there because they couldn't otherwise afford the adoption fee. These events receive significant media coverage and community attention, generating widespread buzz, and introducing many new people to pet adoption who may have otherwise never visited the shelter.
Every adopter at SPCA Wake goes through the same thoughtful adoption process regardless of the adoption fee. Our experienced adoption team works one-on-one with every adopter to discuss the responsibilities and long-term costs of pet ownership, helping ensure expectations are realistic and that every adoption is set up for long-term success.
What the Research Shows
Several studies conducted by national leaders in the animal welfare field have closely examined this very question: whether fee-waived adoptions result in poorer outcomes – and the findings have been remarkably consistent.
Like any adoption program, some returns are unavoidable due to changing life circumstances. The important finding is that fee-waived events do not increase the likelihood of those outcomes.
Research has found that pets adopted during fee-waived events are:
- – No more likely to be returned to a shelter
- – No more likely to be relinquished by their adopters
- – Just as likely to receive veterinary care
- – Just as likely to develop strong bonds with their families
- – Just as likely to remain in their homes long-term
For example, in a research study by Maddie's Fund (n=804), a follow-up conducted 6-12 months post-adoption found that 95% of cats and 93% of dogs were still in the home, 94% of adopters reported strong or very strong attachment to their new pets, and there was no significant difference in the level of pet attachment, post-adoption lifestyle or healthcare, or perception of the adoption event between adoptions with normal adoption fees and those with waived fees. [2]
Adopters celebrate their new companions. 97 shelter pets found homes during this fee-waived Clear the Shelters event.
Our Experience at SPCA Wake
In our many years of participating in fee-waived events, our experience reflects what the research has found. That is, we have not seen an increase in returned or surrendered pets following fee-waived events.
Every pet adopted from SPCA Wake is microchipped before going home, and if for any reason a family can no longer keep their pet and that pet is brought to a municipal shelter, those shelters notify us if one of our adopted pets enters their care. These systems help us monitor adoption outcomes, and we've never experienced evidence that fee-waived events produce lower-quality adoptions.
Why We Hold Fee-Waived Adoption Events
For years, North Carolina shelters have been in a constant state of capacity crisis, where one in four pets who enters a North Carolina shelter never makes it out. There are simply more pets in shelters than the space or resources to help them. One of our organization's core functions is to alleviate shelter crowding and reduce the euthanasia of adoptable animals in our state's shelters. About two thirds of the pets we rescue each year are transferred into our care from high-intake municipal shelters where pets are at immediate risk of being euthanized. Since SPCA Wake never euthanizes for space, we can only take in pets when we have the space and resources to support them.
Every pet that gets adopted at SPCA Wake creates room for us to save another life.
Fee-waived adoption events help more pets find homes, creating more opportunities for us to welcome animals from overcrowded county shelters. Every additional adoption creates another opportunity to rescue a pet that may otherwise have nowhere else to go.
Because these events result in significantly more successful adoptions, they also create significantly more lifesaving opportunities. The result is that more pets leave shelters, more space opens for pets in immediate need, and more lives are saved.
A dog arrives at SPCA Wake from a crowded county shelter.
Our Commitment
Every adoption we complete is intended to last the pet's lifetime.
Whether an adoption fee is waived or not, our priorities remain the same:
- – Matching pets with the right families
- – Setting adopters up for long-term success
- – Supporting county shelters facing capacity crises
- – Creating more lifesaving opportunities for pets in need
Fee-waived adoption events help more pets find lasting homes while creating more lifesaving opportunities for pets still waiting in overcrowded shelters.
Further reading:
- [1] Weiss, E., & Gramann, S. (2009). A Comparison of Attachment Levels of Adopters of Cats: Fee-Based Adoptions Versus Free Adoptions. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. Found no significant difference in adopter attachment or perceived value of cats adopted with or without an adoption fee.
- [2] Maddie's Fund. Study Results: Free Pet Adoptions. Summary of a large multi-shelter study examining thousands of fee-waived adoptions, finding high retention rates, strong adopter attachment, and no evidence of poorer adoption outcomes.
- [3] ASPCApro. Research on Fee-Waived Animal Adoptions. A research summary reviewing the evidence on fee-waived adoption programs and the outcomes observed by shelters across the country.
- [4] ASPCApro. Research Shows Why Shelters Should Offer Free Cat Adoptions. Summarizes follow-up research from the Edmonton Humane Society comparing fee-waived and standard adoptions, finding no statistical differences in retention, veterinary care, or adopter commitment.
