Dogs from RSPCA

[BA Baracus]

Hey all, Having just bought our first home, having a fully fenced yard and finally being in a position to have our own dog we went to the RSPCA shelter on the weekend to see if we could get one to join the family. Went there thinking we could save a dog from uncertainty and it's probably a better thing to do then going to a pet store or whatever but we left kind of disheartened and puzzled.

They only had two types of puppies (about 4 of each type) and both were a bit unsuitable for us (grow too large). One was mastif cross Rotti, and other was German Shepard cross. They only have dogs that are handed in so no complaints that the puppies currently there aren't for us but what the missus and I find extremely strange is the adoption fee. The adoption fee from what I understood would be to cover the vaccination/ de-sexing/ micro-chipping and feeding of the puppies/dogs while in RSPCA care which is fine, however both sets of puppies were same age and roughly same sized dogs. Fee for a Mastif cross was $350, fee for a Shepard cross though was $600??? Maybe I'm overlooking something obvious (?) but on the surface it seems kind of unethical from their standpoint to put a higher value on one breed then another. $600 is a fair bit of cash to shell out for a dog of unknown origin too when comparing that to specific breeds in the local paper or even petstores so I'm sure those ones may miss out perfectly good homes.

We also inquired about taking an older dog. We thought everyone would go for puppies anyway and it would be cool to help out an older dog and give it a good life. We found a little 11 month old cattle dog cross female that seemed very friendly and would suit our place well but got told we couldn't have her as we have a young son (15 months) and for most non-puppies they won't allow you to take one unless no children in the house under 13yo. Found that confusing too because give it a few months and I reckon one of the Mastif/Rotti puppies would be a lot more of a worry around the little bloke then the older cattle dog would be in the same timeframe. He's fine with my inlaws dogs and friends dogs anyway and they aren't puppies or raised with little kids.

We discussed before going that if we didn't find any suitable we would just wait and go back a few times until one came up but now we don't know if we even want to. Just thought I'd post to ask for opinions on the whole thing cause I'm sure some of you would of got your dogs from the RSPCA or maybe even are involved with the organization somehow and could shed some light on what the deal is with the varied prices. We were under the impression it was a "go-between" for unwanted dogs and homes for them but now we dunno what to think.