It's not just pet stores that sell pets. So too do many so-called shelters. They hide the repellancy of that action by calling their sales "adoptions", but handing over a dog or cat or rabbit to anyone who pays the price, with no screening and no home check, is not an adoption, it is a sale, and not one whit different than a sale at a pet store. Pet stores take no responsibility for the fate of the animals they sell, and in my experience, neither does the SPCA.

Dogs especially may need follow-up training and support for the adoption to work, but even some cats and rabbits may have behaviours that will mean death without a follow-up program in place for the adoptor. I, and others, are still being told by people who have adopted a dog with behaviour problems from an SPCA that they have been told that they can bring the dog back and sometimes they are even told that the dog will be killed if they do. I did a research project in 2007 and again in 2008 in which I phoned most SPCAs in BC, saying that the dog I had adopted from it had bitten the hand of a man, and I was told by every one of the branches that the dog might be killed if I bring it back. I have yet to hear of the SPCA offering free behaviour rehabilitation for an animal it has sold, though I would be more than happy to be told by the SPCA that it is now doing that.