What your donation actually buys
A $125 adoption fee sounds like a lot until you itemise it. Surgery, rabies vaccine, age-appropriate shots, heartworm test, vet certification — and what is still left uncovered afterwards.
Resources
The questions we get asked twice a week.
Working a register in a charity shop means answering the same handful of questions over and over — why we cannot take a mattress, what an adoption fee actually covers, why the vet keeps insisting on a heartworm test. These are the long answers, written down once.
Everything here is sourced. Where a rule comes from a statute or a federal agency, the link is in the text.
Heartworm in the Arkansas Delta
Arkansas sits in the worst region in the United States for heartworm, and has done since records began. Why the test is not optional here, and why prevention costs a fraction of treatment.
Why we cannot take your mattress
It is not squeamishness. Arkansas regulates the resale of used bedding and requires a permit, a sanitising process and a specific label. Here is what the statute says.
Recalled and banned: what no charity shop may resell
Crib bumpers and inclined infant sleepers are illegal to sell in the United States, new or used, whatever their age. Recalled goods are too. A short guide for anyone clearing out a nursery.
Preparing a donation so it actually sells
Twenty minutes at your end can double what an item raises at ours, and spares a volunteer an hour. What to wash, what to test, what to bag separately, and what to leave at home.
Still stuck?
Call and ask a human.
None of this replaces a phone call. If you have something unusual and you cannot tell from the guides whether we can use it, ring the store during opening hours.