... and I live up here.

It could be true. It could also be an appeal to New England parochialism. Or both.

Liberty and justice for all.

My new home

I believe most of the states taking our dogs have stricter animal control regulations. Breeders and pet stores are taxed which makes local breeding expensive, which results in fewer strays at the shelter.

Several years ago I remember hearing that some local pet stores took animals that would not sell. Which was mostly because they older puppies, and turned them loose in neighborhoods at night.

I wish Tennessee regulate puppy mills and pet stores, by charging a fee to support the animal shelters. We tax vehicles to support the roads, why not tax breeders and pet stores to support the shelter, which they created the need for.

This is not new. Although the website quoted above was a little patronizing, I've heard worse.

I agree with Mark that the website quoted is a bit on the patronizing side. I actually do volunteer transport driving almost every weekend. With the junction here between I-40 and I-75, a lot of dogs on their way up north come through Knoxville.
Here are links to pictures of the two beagle/pug mixes I drove from Crossville to Knoxville today (they are overnighting in Staunton VA tonight and will continue up to CT tomorrow). You can't tell from the pictures, but they are both small dogs, less than 20 lbs. They are both also super sweet, nicely mannered dogs, and young. It is crazy that they can't find homes here.
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All of the dogs that come on the transports I drive are completely vetted, traveling with medical paperwork, de-wormed, de-flea'd, and spayed or neutered. All of the drivers do it on a completely volunteer basis. I am not sure why the northern rescue says it costs them extra money to get extra medical treatment once they get up north. But, in any event, I am very glad that these dogs are finding homes somewhere.
We see a lot of big Southern hounds heading north, and it does make me laugh to wonder if maybe people who aren't very familiar with a Treeing Walker Coonhound see some of our Southern dogs and think we are growing giant, mutant beagles down here.
Here is a dog I drove a couple of weeks ago, waiting for his forever family in CT:
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And finally, here is a link to a slide show of the transport I participated in over Labor Day. Never thought I'd be able to say I got fourteen dogs in my Ford Focus, but it helps when they are small! These dogs were coming from a shut-down puppy mill in Arkansas.
(link...)

The newest addition to our canine family is a wacky little Boston Terrier who was picked up wandering around loose in Kentucky. He was brought down to Maryville right here in East Tennessee by the folks who run the excellent Boston Terrier rescue operation there. (link...)

So, not all the doggie rescues head northward. But we should realize that a lot of us southerners really do have a poor attitude toward pets, leaving them chained outside, sometimes neglecting them till they starve. This sort of thing happens everywhere in the country, it's true, but in the South some of us have this sort of attitude, possibly a holdover from farm life. If we want Yankees to stop acting patronizing about this, then maybe we should clean up our own act.