When we adopted our oldest everyone that was interested had to do a pre-screen and home visit, then show up at the pet store on the morning of the event. There was so much interest in the 5 litters of puppies that they did a drawing for draft order. When it was your turn, you either picked an available puppy or left.

I got lucky and got the #2 pick after a gay couple who wanted one of the pups from a litter of purse dogs and I got the puppy we wanted. There were 5 there that we wanted. More than 1/2 the people that came did not leave with a puppy and every puppy was adopted. In addition about 5 adult dogs were adopted by people who came for a puppy but didn't get an early enough draft pick. Only 2 dogs went back and both were very old.

A little different here in Iowa. Not a lot of adoptions available and both times we went looking we were able to find a dog that we wanted in a few weeks. Still over $300 fee.

I do believe the fee does also serve the purpose of helping ensure better homes. When people have no skin in the game they tend to not care. Having to pay a decent fee keeps the "hey, lets go get a dog today" people on the sideline.