Dear, Most people don't actually buy pets. And. These aren't pedigree animals being kicked to the curb. It generally goes in some version like one of these:

"My friend had a dog that had puppies, we took in one of the puppies but we didn't get it fixed in time before the neighborhood stray had it's way ... we managed to place one or two .... we took the rest to the country ... "

"My friend's cat got out and ... now she has kittens ... I took one of the kittens ... but now I found out that one of my kids is allergic ... so ... "

Same as above but ... "then my landlord | spousal unit | live in mooch (pick one) wouldn't let me keep it ... so ..."

I'm sure if you listen around you, you'll hear more of these kinds of stories.

Thank you for your vote :-)