Fizzelina, the reason there are so many lurchers in the system is because they are bred by certain sections of our society and dumped if they cant race or have an injury or dont breed well etc...so a lot of them tend to end up in shelters.
Just on the vet aspect - my neighbours got a dog from the pound, were told a vet had looked it over, no health issues and had been neutered. They were not required to register with a vet to get the dog. It was obvious within a couple of days there was something not right. They went to a vet themselves, and it turned out, the dog was NOT neutered, had neurological problems, had some kind of intestinal bacteria that it needed an antibiotic for, and had some other bone problem (that was as a result of neglect and resolved itself over time).
Anyway - the only point Im making is this - if I were getting a dog the first thing Id be doing would be bringing it to a vet - because unless I was told by my vet that the dog was ok - I wouldnt be trusting the word of a shelter/pound who, lets face it, want to shift the dogs off the premises to free up the kennel for the next unfortunate. Now in saying that - Its not like Id be bringing the dog back is anything was wrong - but Id certainly want to know about it upfront.
I also agree with you that its not really great for children if the only dogs available in shelters need special attention - mind you there are a lot of shelters out there so there is a lot of choice available.
Ive seen firsthand the result of puppy farming and in both cases it was dogs with lifelong health issues. Its not good.