Kristin,

I thought that this varied by state, and only applied to public entities.

I'm trying to look it up now. I'd really like to know.

I did not talk to the lady at the GSD Rescue, but my wife made it sound like the "Non-Profit" status was somehow tied to the Spay/Neuter.

 Quote: Kristin Mortensen

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this a legal issue? I was under the impression that all dogs are required to be sterilized before they leave any rescue, if said rescue wishes to maintain its non-profit and tax-exempt status. Since this is an IRS matter I assume it applies in all 50 states.

ETA: This would apply to Keith's situation anyway...

I don't thinks so. My aunt rescued a beagle mix and there was a clause that they had to neuter him with a specific vet before he turned 7 months old. He was not neutered when they got him at about 3 months old.

I was curious, too.

I found this article at petfinder describing how to obtain non-profit status: http://www.petfinder.com/admin-content/admin-501c3.html

I don't think spay/nueter would be a specific requirement- although I could be wrong here. I know when we tried to obtain non-profit status for the skijor club we were rejected initially because we didn't show enough evidence for education of the public and because we were named 'club' rather than 'association'.

It's a somewhat complicated process and I certainly am no expert. Also, would the governement really care if the dogs were sterilized at 8 weeks or at 18 months? Not sure why the people granting or denying 501 status would understand or care about the timing of sterilization.

When we adopted our family dog from the MSPCA back in the 1980s, they gave us a redeemable spay/neuter certificate. We neutered our dog at 7 months and that was that. I guess after seeing us for maybe an hour, and making sure we owned our own home they trusted us enough to follow through and spay/neuter.

Must have worked overall because Massachusetts now imports dogs from the southern states and even Puerto Rico because there aren't enough adoptable dogs to go around.

 Quote: Keith Larson

The Shelters are putting population control too far ahead of the pet's health. Someone willing to jump through all their hoops is probably the last person that will allow a female to breed on accident.

While I don't like those of blanket policies either, I can certainly understand them - the #1 concern of a shelter is the overabundance of animals. And 99% of the pet owning population isn't very good at keeping their intact animals from reproducing.

But it kinda sucks for a responsible person. I certainly wouldn't get a pup that I had to neuter right away. So I'm pretty certain that any pup I get will come from a breeder. I'd get 1 y/o or older/neutered later dog from a shelter/rescue, but would have to think long and hard before getting one younger than that.