Over at Classical Values, Eric discusses the difference between pet ownership and pet “adoption”:

I do think that in general if you own something, you’ll tend to take better care of it than if you rent it, and in my callused opinion, adopting an animal (especially when you don’t have title) is more like a rental, while purchasing it is more like real parenting or home ownership. I realize people will disagree with me, and these things are emotional, so I thought I’d let the Ellen post die its natural death.

I have a great deal of respect for animal rescue organizations, and if I were going to get a dog, I would generally prefer to go to a rescue organization or shelter — assuming that I were going to be permitted to own the dog.

I think Eric has a pretty good point here. It isn’t so much that I would worse care of a dog that I didn’t completely think of as my dog, but I would have a harder time getting attached to an animal that I felt that I was only “renting”. I fully understand that private rescue organizations would want to make sure that their rescued animals only go to a good home, but I would be reluctant to do business with such an organization if, after they’d determined that I was a good owner, they didn’t trust me to completely take responsibility for the animal — which would include a responsibility on my part to make sure that, if for some reason I needed to get rid of the animal, the new owners would be responsible as well.