This was an older lab puppy.
This past weekend I was browsing through dog rescue sites looking for “my” dog (I can’t wait to adopt!) and it jogged my memory to write this post.
In Benefit Auction Ideas, I’ve written before about the selling of a benefit auction puppy. There’s a proper way to present the animal. We covered selecting the perfect breed for your group, what to refrain from doing, and other tips.
I’m not going to re-hash that content here, but I do want to offer some ideas on how you can protect the animal.
This lab was sold at a private Maryland school. It was brought to school two weeks prior to the gala so parents could start considering the option to bid.
Keep in mind that some groups don’t agree with the sale of live animals at a benefit auction. The official position of the Humane Society is that animals should be prohibited from being sold at auction. They have a perhaps valid fear that the animals will go into homes where they won’t get good care.
To get your match-making off to the right start, let’s consider ways to protect the animal to ensure it goes into an appropriate home.
Here are some options.
1. Provide some add-ons
This Cavalier King Charles Spaniel made a splash at the benefit auction. He was sold into a home with another just like him.
- Puppy well-care packages from a vet for 6-12 months
- Dog food
- Accoutrements, like a crate and toys
- Obedience or agility training
2. Keep the back-up bidders information
Check-in with the winning bidder after a couple of weeks, a couple of months, and even at six months. If the first bidder finds that the relationship isn’t a match, the back-up bidder might be a great option.
3. Work with a shelter to provide an animal
You’ll need to find an progressive shelter to help you with this, but the idea is that you’ll be selling the opportunity to adopt an animal from the shelter.
The shelter can bring three or four sample animals to the benefit auction, giving guests a range of animals on which to bid. Your organization will pay for the adoption fee and the package should include some of the add-ons mentioned above.
With this approach, you’re solving a problem with the shelter, and you aren’t putting the animal into a home where it might eventually be taken to the Humane Society anyway. Keep in mind that many groups require a home visit prior to the adoption, so the Human Society is now tasked with that responsibility, not you.
The point is to ensure your animal goes into forever home. All creatures deserve TLC.
About Sherry Truhlar
I love your idea of selling the chance to adopt an animal from the shelter – much better to allow the animal professionals to handle that end of things.
Do you people have ANY IDEA what you have done by publishing an article like this?
No joke- a woman tried to get a puppy to auction of at her children’s school benefit. Because of your article.
I strongly suggest you take this article down before more people get ideas. Because they certainly aren’t going to follow the suggestions you have here.
I appreciate you sharing your concern, Kaylene. Puppies continue to be a part of some charity auctions and they continue to generate a lot of excitement among bidders. While some people don’t agree with the idea, I share my tips for how to be responsible.
It might interest folks to know how the The Labrador Retriever Club, Inc. feels about Puppy Auctions –
http://www.thelabradorclub.com/subpages/show_contents.php?page=Puppy+Auctions
Thanks for sharing, Kathleen! I’ve found most animal clubs to oppose the practice. Personally, I’ve seen such great efforts made to protect these dogs … and I see them go into such excellent homes … that I’ve never once felt discouraged after a gala.
Yet it is work to properly market the puppy and “get the word out.” But the end result is that my winning bidders are top rate. (Interestingly, most of them already have dogs of the same breed they purchased.)