Shelters in Massachusetts are very picky about who they adopt out to. My wife and I looked for a younger large breed dog for nearly a year, and were turned away at every local shelter because our yard wasn't fenced and we both worked full time. A few years earlier, living in an apartment disqualified us from adopting a cat in Massachusetts. We drove 3 hours to adopt a cat from New York, and 2 hours to buy a dog in New Hampshire.

Looking at petfinder for my area, the only dogs in shelters nearby are "imported" from Puerto Rico, and even those only go to homes that are worthy. I'm saddened by the conditions in shelters in other parts of the country, but I'm not going to fly to Alabama to find a dog.