You say, "When you purchase a purebred from a dog breeder you may be paying anywhere from $500 to over $1,000 for your new puppy, but often that’s all you're getting for that cost." What an extremely biased and totally inaccurate piece of trash...

Reputable purebred breeders have unbelieveable costs involved in the providing a quality puppy to you. Proper facilities in which to shelter their chosen breed--housing, utilities are staggering these days! Premium foods, vaccinations, licenses, vet checks, medical screening from OFA, CERTS, etc., registration, showing costs--average cost of showing a dog/bitch to it's championship $30,000 if you show yourself!-- spaying/neutering and replacement of breeding dogs and bitches, care of those elderly dogs for 10 or so years after they are past normal breeding age. Advertising and production of instructions/aids to new owners of puppies, maintaining relationships with new puppy owners (answering questions and providing care instructions) and possibly receiving a puppy back at any time in the future should the new owners be unable to care for it over the course of its lifetime...And you want to talk about veterinary costs---a caesarian for a female unable to deliver runs $1200.00 if it happens to be during the normal working hours of the veterinarian..$1500.00 to $2000.00 or more if in the middle of the night. Then the pain meds, follow-up trips for suture removal and check-ups post caesarian.

You seem to have no idea of the cost of doing a good job of breeding quality purebred dogs.

By the way, I'm really tired of reputable purebred breeders of dogs being equated with puppy mills. There are many, many reputable breeders of dogs--it is the responsibility of the public to research the differences between a quality breeder and a puppy mill but statements like yours falsely equating a "purebred" breeder with a commercial or poor quality breeder is very irresponsible and does no favors to the pet purchasing/adopting public in general.

as if breeders don't put any $$ into the puppies they sell and "shelters" do..
the sales price ( not "apodtion fee' at a shelter also covers things not mentioned here .. like SALARIES and OVERHEAD.. and multi million dollar "shelters" not to mention pension plans for workers..and million dollar bank accounts
There are so many fallacies in this article it is difficlut to pick out just one but here:
"When you adopt a dog from a shelter, your adoption fees are going to pay towards the cost of care your adopted dog has received while at the shelter"
so puppies that are easily sold a the shelters cost WAY more than older dogs.. and they stay in the shelter much less time.. so hmm why do they cost MORE and not less? easy..they are money makers.. why are small dogs shipped all over the country to be sold at shelters? because they are money makers.. while "pit bulls' go out the back door in body bags small dogs are "imported for sale"
there is so much more.. but truth be known shelter dogs should be VERY cheap and cats should be free
as for shots costing 40 per dog.. LOL.. you can buy 25 shots for less than 70 bucks most places.. and heck you have all of those volunteers to give them for free. and anyone than does not know that heart worm can be cured by giving ivermection.. a cheap and easy to administer drug should not be working in a shleter. $1,000 PLEASE.. that is so bogus. Worm meds cost next to nothing.. 16 oz of round worm treatment costs about 1o bucks and will treat about 50 -100 dogs..
what does cost so much money is OVERHEAD and fixed costs for shelters.. things that remain the same if there are 100 dogs or only one in the shelter..
the best way to buy a dog is from a breeder that health test the parents, present a puppy in good health with a vet check and at least a first set of shots and a vet check.. you are not getting "just a puppy" but a puppy that the breeder has worked hard to produce by breeding healthy dogs previously to your purchase.. want to ke4ep dogs out of shelters.. buy one from a good breeder.
One thing is true in this article.. you get what you pay for and the money you pay for a quality puppy is never wasted.

and see that I have made some errors.. but thanks to "livinginthewoods" I feel somewhat vindicated.. LOL what he/she says is so true.
alsom I would liek to mention that many times you hear of "raids" on "puppy mills".. and how unhealthy the dogs are when taken.. those same dogs are frequently "up for adoption .. at very high prices) within a week.. those "horrible inbreed sick dogs"are "ready for "forever homes".. one thing about that.. over 20% of those dogs are returned to the shelter. That is according to the ASPCA themselves stats 20 % of dogs purchased from shelters are returned to shelters. you cannot say that about dogs purchased from good breeders.
Keep dogs out of shelters.. buy from a good breeder

"Sheltering" now called a business..also known as the "sheltering industry" that should tell you something..