LOS ANGELES – Remember that old song, “How much is that doggie in the window?” For most Americans, it seems it’s no sale.

More than half of people in an Associated Press-Petside.com poll said they would get their next dog or cat from a shelter, nearly seven times the number who said they would buy their next pet from a store.

Just 8 percent of those polled said they would get their next cat or dog at a store, while 13 percent said that’s where they got the pet they have now. Fifty-four percent of those polled said they would probably get their next pet from a shelter, while 23 percent went for a breeder.

John Knight, 45, of Dallas got his 3-year-old mutt named Liesl (rhymes with diesel) from an animal shelter that was holding a weekend adoption day at Petsmart.

“There are plenty of animals out there that need good homes that don’t have them. There’s no reason to continue to breed animals when there are so many that have to be put down,” he said.

Bill Machut, 40, of Rolling Meadows, Ill., got his dog, Sidney, a Siberian Husky, from a pet store when the dog was 8 weeks old. That was 12 years ago.

If he were looking for a new pet, “I would buy from a pet store again. And I wouldn’t rule out a breeder if I was looking for a certain breed. But I would probably start off at the shelters,” he said.

He said most people expect things like kennel cough or worms. “There is an assumption there is a good chance there is some sort of health issue, especially being at a shelter. You deal with it. It’s not that big of a deal,” he said.

The poll was conducted April 7-12 and involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,112 pet owners nationwide. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.