Adopting a pet from a Hague shelter: what it costs and why it takes three visits

A dog over a year old from the Haags Dierencentrum costs 280 euro.

The same dog from a Dierenbescherming shelter elsewhere in the country is 359, and from the animal hospital on the other side of The Hague it is 155.

Three legitimate routes, three very different prices, and none of them is the expensive part of owning an animal.

The two places in The Hague

The Haags Dierencentrum on the Lozerlaan is the city’s shelter for dogs and cats.

It has its own veterinary clinic on site, operates seven days a week, holds ANBI charitable status and is a member of the NFDO.

Its 2026 adoption fees are 280 euro for a dog of a year or more, 330 for a dog under a year, 175 for a cat of a year or more and 190 for a kitten.

The fee covers care, medical treatment, food, vaccinations and chip registration.

The Dierenhospitaal en Dierenambulance Den Haag rehomes as well, and its list is both cheaper and much wider.

Dogs are 180 euro up to six months, 155 from six months and 125 from ten years.

Cats are 180 for a kitten under a year, 135 for an adult and 85 from ten years.

It also rehomes rabbits at 25 euro, guinea pigs at 20, rats at 10, ferrets at 60, and birds from 8.50 for a chicken to 12.50 for a lovebird.

Note the direction of those prices: older animals cost less, which is the shelter telling you something honest about how hard they are to place.

A ten-year-old cat at 85 euro is the best value in this article and the hardest sell in the building.

What the price includes, and why that matters more than the price

Every animal leaving either shelter is “ingeent, gechipt, ontwormd en ontvlooid” and has been checked by a vet.

Adult male cats at the Dierenhospitaal are already neutered; kittens must be neutered once they reach six months, as a condition of the adoption rather than a suggestion.

Set that against the 2026 tariffs in the vets and emergency care article.

Spaying a female cat is 215.50 and a male cat castration 99.50 before you count the consultation, the vaccinations and the chip.

A 135 euro adult cat that arrives vaccinated, chipped and neutered has already paid for itself against a free kitten from an advert.

The chip is put into your name when you sign the placement agreement.

That quietly discharges the legal registration duty described in dog tax and the park rules, and it removes the whole UBN and import sequence set out in bringing a pet into the Netherlands.

For anyone who has just arrived and is weighing shipping an animal from abroad, that is the real argument, not the fee.

Why there are so few strays, and what that means for who you meet

Dutch law puts a duty on the municipality.

Under article 5:8, third paragraph, of the Burgerlijk Wetboek the mayor must keep a found animal with a presumed owner for 14 days and is responsible for its care during that time.

If nobody claims it, the mayor becomes the owner and can transfer the animal to a shelter.

The two-week period can be shortened only where keeping the animal would cost disproportionately much or where it must be put down on medical grounds.

That system, running for decades, is why the Netherlands has almost no street population.

The consequence for you is specific: the animals waiting in a Dutch shelter are overwhelmingly surrenders rather than strays.

They come with a history, often a household that broke up or a behaviour the last owner could not manage, and the staff know what it is.

This is good news if you listen and bad news if you do not.

Ask what the dog was given up for and believe the answer.

The process, and it is not a shop

At the Haags Dierencentrum, you find an animal on the website and fill in the form on its page.

Someone rings you: “Na ontvangst van je formulier of e-mail nemen wij zo snel mogelijk telefonisch contact met je op.” If that call goes well, a meeting at the shelter is arranged.

Then the part people are not expecting. “Na de eerste kennismaking mag de hond niet direct mee naar huis”, and one or more follow-up appointments are booked instead.

Only when the shelter agrees it is a match do you sign a plaatsingsovereenkomst and have the chip transferred to your name.

Aftercare is part of the deal: 14 days of medical aftercare from the clinic and three months of support from the dog department.

The Dierenhospitaal attaches a condition that runs for the animal’s whole life, that it “terug kunnen naar ons hospitaal” if things do not work, and forbids selling, giving away or breeding from it.

Visits are by appointment only, Monday to Saturday between 12.30 and 15.30.

The address is Lozerlaan 595, 2544 MC Den Haag, the number is 070 366 18 06, and payment is by pin only.

No cards, no cash.

Before you fill in the form

Check your lease.

Dutch private rental contracts frequently carry a no-pets clause, and the position is less generous than tenants assume; the tenant rights article covers where you stand.

A shelter will ask, and an adoption falling through at the last stage because of a contract is a wasted place for an animal that had one.

Be honest about hours.

The screening exists because a dog returned after three weeks is worse for the dog than never leaving.

If your week is long and nobody is home, say so and look at a cat, or at one of the older animals that wants company more than exercise.

And budget for the running costs rather than the fee.

Food, flea and worm treatment and grooming from pet shops and groomers, a registration with one of the vets in The Hague, and either an insurance premium or a savings buffer.

The figures are in the cost of living article and in the vets article above, and they dwarf 280 euro within the first year.

If you are not ready to adopt

Both organisations run foster programmes and take volunteers, and the Haags Dierencentrum says plainly that it is currently overwhelmed with kittens.

Fostering a litter for a few weeks is the single most useful thing an unattached person with a spare room can do here, and it is a genuine route into the city as well as into the shelter.

The volunteering article covers how these arrangements usually work and what they ask of you.

The honest verdict on adoption itself: it is cheaper, slower and better supervised than buying, the animal arrives with its medical and legal paperwork already done, and the screening that irritates people is the reason the return rate is low.

The only people it genuinely does not suit are those who need a particular breed at a particular time, and they should be reading about breeders rather than shelters.

Sources

• Haags Dierencentrum, veelgestelde vragen and adoptieproces hond, September 2026: “Hond vanaf 1 jaar: EUR 280”, “Hond onder 1 jaar: EUR 330”, “Kat vanaf 1 jaar: EUR 175”, “Kat onder 1 jaar: EUR 190”; “Deze kosten dragen bij aan o.a. verzorging, medische zorg, voeding, vaccinaties en chipregistratie”; “Wij zijn alleen op afspraak geopend. Van maandag tot en met zaterdag, tussen 12:30 en 15:30”; address Lozerlaan 595, 2544 MC Den Haag, telephone 070 366 18 06; “Betalen kan alleen met pin”; the process from website form to telephone call, “Is het telefonische gesprek positief? Dan plannen we een kennismaking in het asiel”, “Na de eerste kennismaking mag de hond niet direct mee naar huis”, then “Bij een match onderteken je een plaatsingsovereenkomst en wordt de chip op jouw naam gezet”, with “14 dagen medische nazorg vanuit de kliniek en 3 maanden nazorg vanuit de hondenafdeling”; its own veterinary clinic on site, operating seven days a week, ANBI status and NFDO membership, and a current flood of kittens
• Dierenhospitaal en Dierenambulance Den Haag eo, adoptietarieven: “Hond tot 6 maanden: EUR 180”, “Hond vanaf 6 maanden: EUR 155”, “Hond vanaf 10 jaar: EUR 125”, “Kitten tot 1 jaar: EUR 180”, “Kat volwassen: EUR 135”, “Kat vanaf 10 jaar: EUR 85”; guinea pigs 20 euro, rabbits 25, rats 10, ferrets 60, lovebirds 12.50 and 22 a pair, budgerigars 9.50 and 17.50 a pair, chickens 8.50 and 17 a pair; all animals “ingeent, gechipt, ontwormd en ontvlooid” and vet-checked, adult male cats already neutered and kittens to be neutered after six months; the condition that the animal can always return to the hospital and may not be sold, given away or bred from
• Dierenbescherming, tarieven 2026: dog under six months including chipping and vaccination 462 euro, dog from six months 359 euro, cat under six months including chipping, vaccination and neutering 200 euro, cat from six months 154 euro; surrender fees of 108 euro for a dog and 85 for a cat, excluding chipping, vaccination and any medical costs
• Burgerlijk Wetboek, article 5:8 paragraph 3, as summarised in municipal policy documents: the mayor has a statutory duty to keep a found animal with a presumed owner for 14 days and is responsible for its care; if the owner does not come forward the mayor becomes the owner and may transfer the animal to a shelter; the two-week period need not be observed where the animal can only be kept at disproportionate cost or must be put down on medical grounds
• Dierenkliniek Voorburg, tarieven 2026: female cat sterilisation 215.50 euro, male cat castration 99.50 euro