- Animal Haven (dogs & cats) Phone: (212) 274-8511.
- ASPCA (dogs & cats) Phone: (212) 876-7700, x5.
- Bideawee (dogs & cats) …
- The Humane Society of New York (dogs & cats) …
- Posh Pets Rescue (dogs & cats)
- Sean Casey Animal Rescue (dogs & cats)
- Muddy Paws (dogs only)
- Brooklyn Bridge Animal Welfare Coalition (cats only)
Rehoming your pet is heartbreaking. It frequently results from events like losing a job or a home, suffering an illness or an injury, or being PCSed to a place where owning pets is prohibited.
If you have no other choice but to rehome your dog or cat, here are some suggestions on alternatives as well as how to find your pet the best home possible.
In times of temporary hardship, many animal shelters offer programs to keep people and their pets together. Some keep pet food banks, provide affordable veterinary care to those who qualify based on their income, or foster pets temporarily.
If behavior issues are the reason you’re considering giving up your pet, other animal welfare organizations have training resources.
Speak with your pet’s veterinarian. He or she is the one who is most familiar with your pet and may have other customers who want to add a pet to their families. Many veterinary clinics permit clients to post flyers inside the facility to aid in finding new homes for dogs and cats.
Despite how appealing it may seem, rehoming a pet through Craigslist could put the animal in grave danger. Many animals that were advertised on Craigslist were abused and neglected before being adopted by backyard breeders, hoarders, dog fighting rings, or other criminal organizations.
The classifieds are great for selling your couch, but not for finding a pet-friendly home. There are better options.
Consider a professional pet matching community, such as Rehome. Adopt-A-Pet oversees it, with assistance from Chewy and other pet businesses.
Millions of potential pet adopters can view your pet’s profile on Adopt-A-Pet, the largest nonprofit pet adoption site in the country. To create a pet profile, review applications, meet potential adopters, and complete your pet’s adoption, Rehome offers thorough instructions and checklists.
Get Your Pet is another excellent do-it-yourself resource. Through this website, pet owners who must find new homes for their animals can connect with those looking to adopt.
A safer alternative to classified ads for person-to-person adoptions is Get Your Pet. The website provides advice on interviewing potential adopters, suggestions for questions to ask, locations to meet, and even a directory of participating veterinarians who will conduct a free pet exam.
Take a good color photo of Fluffy or Fido. Make your high-quality photographs easily accessible if you already have them. If not, as soon as possible, take a photo that demonstrates your pet’s best features.
A fearful, depressed, or highly stressed animal in a less-than-ideal environment may be depicted in shelter intake pictures. If you give your pet to a shelter, they might use the supplies you provide.
Prepare a brief description/biography. List any housetraining, cratetraining, and/or obedience training that your dog or cat has received. How does she get along with other animals, children, strangers?.
Describe her medical background and present health, as well as any medications she might be taking. What are her preferred and least preferred dishes, treats, and pastimes?
Be honest. A new home for your cherished dog or cat can be found with the assistance of full disclosure, which will also make the transition easier for the animal. For instance, being upfront about the fact that your dog needs more training could prevent him from being kicked out of his subsequent residence for being disruptive.
Tell me if your pet needs medication or any other special care. If she’s not up front, she may be given up by new adopters who are ill-equipped to care for a special needs animal.
Prepare your pet. Make sure your dog or cat is well-groomed, has all of her shots, and is free of fleas and ticks. Have your pet spayed or neutered if you haven’t already.
There might be affordable vaccination and spay/neuter clinics nearby. Verify with neighborhood pet stores, shelters, and VIP Petcare community clinic locations.
Request the adoption of your dog or cat from reliable family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. Speak with other pet owners in your neighborhood, local vets, groomers, pet store employees, boarding or daycare employees, and other people working in the local pet care industry.
Many nonprofit humane societies and animal rescues welcome requests from people looking to rehome a pet in exchange for courtesy listings on their websites.
Once a potential adopter gets in touch with you, think about having an interview with them and paying them a visit to ensure that their home will be your pet’s forever home.
Do they have the financial resources to care for your pet, especially if he has special needs or a long-term medical condition? Do they have prior experience caring for pets? Do they have a home and/or yard big enough to accommodate your animal?
Most importantly, do they have reasonable expectations about sharing a home with your pet? For example, leaving an energetic dog at home alone for 8 to 12 hours a day is probably not going to go well.
Giving your pet to a humane society, an animal rescue, or a local animal shelter is an option if you can’t find a place for them on your own. In fact, many adoption agreements stipulate that you must return pets to the organization rather than finding new homes on your own.
Before you surrender your dog or cat, look over the surrender and adoption policies of each organization. Find out if they collaborate with other organizations to increase the likelihood that the animals under their care will be adopted.
Ask about the process for accepting owner-surrendered pets. There may be surrender fees and waiting lists, and some shelters are unable to take owned animals. Learn about their euthanasia policy and efforts to care for and place pets in new homes.
Offer the above-described photo and history when giving up your pet to help efforts to find him a new home.
Ask if courtesy posts are permitted if surrender is not an option (for instance, if the shelter is at capacity). These can give your pet additional exposure to potential adopters.
Most shelters are open-admission, meaning they take all incoming animals. When these shelters run out of room or money, or when they have animals that are dangerous and cannot be adopted into the community, they have to put animals to death to make room for new arrivals.
Shelter has the unfortunate moniker “kill” shelter because these actions are only taken if they are unable to transport victims to other rescue organizations.
However, there are safe and legal restrictions on the number of animals that shelters are allowed to care for. Animals with a history of aggression should not be adopted out by shelters, in addition.
When a shelter is full, older pets, large breed dogs, and animals with special needs, behavioral problems, injuries, or illnesses are the first to perish. An animal that arrives could only have three days before it is either adopted or killed.
Sadly, euthanasia frequently occurs when the shelter’s ability to provide for homeless animals in a safe and ethical manner is greater than the supply of adopters. This also applies if there are no transports to shelters that have space.
Other organizations only accept the kinds and numbers of animals they can rehome, and they do not put animals to death to make room for new arrivals. Although they are frequently referred to as “no-kill” shelters, the name is deceptive.
No animal shelter supports killing animals, but many don’t have the tools to handle the flow of incoming animals in a humane way. And even no-kill facilities put animals to death when they are deemed unadoptable because of illness, aggression, or other issues.
Some people effectively “never kill” their pets because they keep them for months or even years. This is potentially cruel because a shelter serves as a place of refuge rather than a home. In addition, even the best shelter conditions can cause animals to degenerate in as little as a few weeks.
Finally, explore breed-specific rescues. Due to their rarity compared to breed-neutral animal welfare organizations, you might need to look outside of your town or municipality.
Many breed rescue organizations accept hybrids of the breeds they specialize in. In most cases, these rescues are foster-based. In the event that your pet is accepted, she will do so and reside with a verified foster family until being adopted.
Giving up a beloved dog or cat is difficult. A little preparation and research could help you avoid some heartache and find your pet a loving, permanent home. If you have to make this choice, we wish you luck.
Read our blog post about PCS and your pet if you are a member of the military and are thinking about finding a new home for your pet because of PCS orders.
Places to Surrender Your Dog Free or Nearly Free
There are numerous non-profit organizations in most major cities that will accept your dog. You might need to travel a bit to find a suitable location because these organizations might be harder to find in rural areas.
The majority of the time, shelters are run and managed locally. So, to find the shelters open in your area, you’ll need to look around a little (Google is your friend).
Different shelters have different policies regarding surrendered dogs. Some people accept any dog that is presented to them without any fees.
However, many shelters will charge owners a fee to surrender their dog because the majority are non-profit organizations that lack the resources to care for an endless number of dogs.
Such fees can vary from as little as $20 to as much as $150 or more. Even if you find a shelter that accepts dogs for free, you should probably consider giving them a small donation if you can.
Simply tell the staff at the shelter that you don’t have the money if the fee will be a problem for you. They’ll probably be able to take the dog for free or use money you’ve already donated to pay the surrender fee.
Just give the shelter a call in advance to inquire about its procedures and policies before heading there. You might be able to donate any uneaten food, along with toys, crates, and other pet-care items.
Don’t worry about the staff at the shelter making you feel bad or guilt-tripping you into giving up your pet. In fact, the majority of shelters educate their staff on how to be sympathetic and considerate of owners in these circumstances. Most employees at shelters are animal lovers, so they are aware of how difficult it is to give up a four-legged friend.
If you can’t find a local shelter or rescue that works for you and your pooch, you may want to investigate Rehome. Rehome is affiliated with Adoptapet.com, and it is intended to help owners find a new family for their four-footer.
You get to choose the family or individual who adopts your dog, and the procedure is totally free for owners (adopters must pay a small fee).
We made the decision to create a phony account to test out the procedure. We could inform our readers of what to anticipate in this way. Rest assured that I informed a Rehome representative of our plans. We didn’t want to create anyadditional work for the staff.
Here’s how it works:
Start by visiting the Rehome Home Page. There, you can check out some information on the program and see a cute video of a darling little doggo. Once you’re ready to begin, just click the “Get Started” icon.
You must begin answering questions about the animal you wish to rehome on the following page.
The first few questions are simple enough. Rehome probably uses the biting question to screen out potential rabies cases because infected dogs rarely survive for more than 10 days.
However, the fourth query might give some owners pause. Just be truthful to protect your dog’s welfare. Rehome just wants to comprehend why you need to find a new home for your pet; they are not trying to judge you or make you feel bad about it.
The dropdown menu offers a number of choices, such as recurring expenses, behavioral issues, landlord issues, and allergies.
Your options for the final question range from less than a week to more than two months (there is also an “other” option that lets you enter a date).
On the next page, you’ll provide more basic information:
You’ll then need to check a box affirming that you’re over 18, and another affirming that you agree to Rehome’s terms and conditions.
You’ll begin giving more details about your pet on the following page. This includes:
After that, you’ll be asked to upload one to four pictures of your dog. You can even add a video if you like.
You’ll need to provide additional basic information about your dog after uploading photos and videos (if you choose to). You have three answers to the questions below: yes, no, or unknown.
You don’t have to respond to the final three questions if you don’t want to.
You’ll then have a chance to “share your pet’s story. Include some descriptive words for your dog and be sure to mention her personality to potential owners. This is your chance to “sell” your dog to potential adopters and demonstrate her awesomeness.
You will have the opportunity to describe the food your dog consumes and any dietary information that potential adopters should be aware of below this section.
Rehome will ask you to accept a fee on the last page. However, the person who adopts your dog will be responsible for paying this fee, not you. Keep in mind that Rehome uses the fee to support shelters and rescues; you do not receive it. It appears that you have no choice in this matter.
After that, they’ll ask you one more time: How did you learn about Rehome? There are a few options from which you can choose. You will be asked to check your inbox and confirm your email address after making your choice. The button in the email must be clicked to activate your pet’s profile.
You just need to relax at this point and wait for texts from potential adoptive parents.
Danger To You Or Other Pets
Even those without financial difficulties occasionally need to find new homes for their dogs.
Unfortunately, when there are several dogs living together who don’t get along, this frequently occurs, leading to frequent dog fights and stress for the affected puppy.
Finding a home for the canine victim or the canine aggressor is always a challenging and challenging decision for the owner.
This may also happen if the dog is hostile to everyone else in the house, especially young children.
No matter how easy-going a dog is, they still need daily care and attention.
Some owners may not be able to meet these requirements due to a sudden decline in health, in which case they will need to find a home where their cherished pets can be cared for.
When my own grandma was diagnosed with a crippling autoimmune disease, she was forced to find a new home for her energetic Catahoula cat.
In the end, she was able to locate a family friend who opened her home to Charlie.
Like you and I, our dogs are susceptible to a variety of serious medical conditions that call for intensive care and ongoing attention.
Sometimes owners simply cannot afford it, whether it be for a condition that needs daily medication or an illness that requires surgery.
Although it is utterly devastating for everyone involved, owners occasionally have to find new homes for their pets.
I’m Moving and My New Place Does Not Allow Dogs
With diligence, its possible to find a pet-friendly residence. Even though it’s not always simple to rent an apartment with a dog, try to haggle the terms with prospective landlords and be prepared to pay a little bit more. Talk to your friends and family if you absolutely must move right away and are unable to find a place that will accept your dog. They may be willing to care for your dog for a considerable amount of time while you look for other arrangements. 1:46.
FAQ
What is a valid reason for giving up a dog?
The dog is aggressive toward other dogs, strangers, or family members, which is a common justification for giving up a dog. The family cannot afford to treat the dog’s separation anxiety. The dog exhibits a different behavior that needs attention, such as fearfulness, difficulties housebreaking, or escape issues.
Is it cruel to abandon a dog?
A pet going through this would likely become very confused and scared. Additionally, you have no way of knowing how long they’ll live or what kind of care they’ll receive. Animal abuse, which is a crime in nearly all 50 states, is defined as “abandoning” a pet.
How do you deal with rehoming a dog?
- Write a letter to the dog you gave away. Take time to say goodbye to your dog.
- Read the letter that Tiffy, my adopted dog, wrote to her former owner.
- Know that your decision has brought happiness to another family.
- Be gentle with yourself.
How traumatic is it for a dog to change owners?
Actually, dogs always experience stress and trauma when they are rehomed. If the previous environment was a happy one, anxiety and depression in dogs are not difficult to experience. These dogs actually miss their former owner and want to feel the sorrow.