When my husband and I purchased each of our homes (we are on our third house since getting married) the first thing we did was erect a fence for each one. I love the fact that my dogs can race and do zoomies whenever they want to. There is a condo near me and fences are not allowed. I see many good pet owners walking their dogs every day. I know that takes a high level of commitment to crawl out of bed on a day when it is raining/sleeting/snowing outside to bundle up and go out and walk your dog. I totally admire those folks. We have a 6' wooden privacy fence along the front and sides. Across the back we have a 4' picket fence because our property backs up to woods and hubby wanted to be able to enjoy the view. Fortunately neither Bella nor Ripley are jumpers.

To answer the original question, I think that allowing a dog to be adopted out to folks without a fence shouldn't be a strong issue, but I can understand why someone with a fenced yard might just get the *edge* over someone without. There were lots and lots of questions on my application for Ripley. I think if the applications are detailed enough, you can get a pretty good idea what kind of pet owner the person would be. In my opinion, anything is better than living in a shelter.