How to Find a New Home for Your Pet
Tips for Dog, Cat and Other Pet Adoptions
There is an array of life circumstances that can make it difficult or impossible to properly care for a pet. A move into a new apartment may mean finding someone to adopt your dog. A new baby in the family is another common reason that pet owners decide to put their animal up for adoption. The death of an owner can saddle unwilling family members with a dog, cat, bird or other pet that they decide to place in a new adoptive home.
Opting for Pet Adoption
There’s a vast array of reasons why people may no longer be able to keep their dog, cat, bird or small animal, and unfortunately, many may opt to abandon an animal, rather than take the time to coordinate a cat or dog adoption. Others will simply release their pet into the wild, assuming the animal will find a way to fend for itself. This situation is one that’s commonly seen with pets like snakes, rabbits, and even birds.
“There’s so many cases where we arrive in the morning to find a dog tied up in front of the building, or a cat left in a box. We’ve seen just about everything,” explained longtime animal shelter staff member Kaleigh Roberts, who added, “And there’s many more who are brought in to the shelter by animal control and kind citizens who find abandoned animals wandering in their neighborhood or on the highway. And it’s a shame – it take just a few minutes to come inside our shelter to surrender an animal.”
Pet Adoption Options
Finding a person to adopt a dog, cat or other pet can be time consuming and difficult at times. But there are other options available that are not so time consuming, meaning there are a number of good alternatives available to pet owners who are looking to find someone to adopt a pet.
- List your pet on a pet adoption website. PetFinder.org and other similar pet adoption websites are a wonderful way to spread the word that a dog, cat, bird, small animal or exotic is available for adoption. It takes just a few minutes to write up a description for the adoptable pet and upload a photograph on PetFinder.org. The downside is that the pet owner will have to meet with potential adopters, not all of whom will be interested in adopting the cat, dog or other pet. An upside is that the current pet owner will have precise control in picking his pet’s new owner.
- Contact an animal rescue organization. There are many animal rescue organizations that are comprised of volunteers who help to place adoptable dogs, cats and other pets. Some organizations have an animal shelter facility, while others only have foster homes available for adoptable pets. Others don’t offer a shelter or foster care service, but they will help to find potential adopters by posting the pet’s profile on their website, in newspapers, in their newsletters. Seek out breed-specific and species-specific rescue organizations, when possible.
- Bring the pet to an animal shelter. Surrendering a pet to an animal shelter can take just a few minutes. Owners are usually asked to provide basic information on their pet’s personality, health, etc. The pet is then assessed for behavior and temperament, and if deemed adoptable, the dog, cat, bird, small animal, livestock, exotics like skunks and potbellied pigs, will be placed in a home as soon as possible. The upside of a shelter is that they’ll take an animal immediately, and they’ll oversee the entire adoption process. The downside is that the pet owner surrenders all control in the adoption process and the pet’s time in the shelter is often stressful and frightening. It should also be noted that while some shelters are no-kill shelters, others do euthanize pets who are elderly, ill, or pets who have behavior problems.
Surrendering a pet to a new owner can be a difficult and emotional process, but it’s one that’s necessary for an array of reasons. Understanding the options available to owners who can no longer keep a pet is the first step toward securing a safe, healthy and happy future for a dog, cat or other pet.
Related Reading
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