(This service allows owners to screen adopters and send their pet directly to a new home. Follow the link above to walk through their process.)
Is there any way to resolve the issue or situation without surrendering your pet? Does the pet have a behavioral or medical issue that may be treated or improved? Check out our pet training partners here, or find a veterinarian here.
Try re-homing your pet among friends or family members that you know well. Ask them to help spread the word among their social circles to find a new owner that you trust to care for your pet.
Carefully utilize social media. For example, Facebook groups can share images of pets in need of a new home.
Should all other options fall through, consider bringing your pet to the RHSPCA as a last resort. See the FAQ below for more information.
If you must bring your animal here, filling out a personality profile for your pet will help us best place them. Please take the time to fill this form out. Potential adopters like to know everything they can about an animal. If we have this form stating what the animal's personality is like in a home environment, they may be more likely to adopt.
How long do you keep animals? We do not have a set period of time. We keep animals as long as they are reasonably friendly, reasonably healthy, and adjusting reasonably well to the shelter environment. Your animal could be moved into the adoption program, transferred to a limited admission rescue group, or sometimes it means that your animal could be euthanized if medically necessary or for extreme aggression toward people.
What is “reasonably healthy”? Animals with minor health problems, such as colds, ear infections, and flea allergies can generally be treated in-house. We follow very extensive cleaning protocols every single day to reduce the spread of illness from one animal to another. We also house animals separately from one another to further reduce the risk of illness outbreaks. However, if an animal’s condition worsens, or if the virus they are carrying is deadly, such as parvovirus in dogs, we may have to euthanize the animal. Unfortunately, for more serious health problems or those that would require extended care in a quiet environment, we are not always able to keep the animal. Sometimes the animal’s health needs are cost-prohibitive. We cannot invest a large sum of money in one animal, to the exclusion of others. Sometimes we simply cannot provide a quiet environment for the number of weeks or months it would take to make an animal healthy again, such as with a hip replacement. Sometimes a disease is fatal or contagious to other animals, such as feline immunodeficiency virus or leukemia. Health problems falling somewhere in-between are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. What is “adjusting reasonably well”? Many animals accept this change in living environment very well, and remain friendly and happy. Some animals are fine for a while, but begin to deteriorate behaviorally over time. Some animals though, while fine with your family in your home, simply may not be able to adjust at all to the stress of a caged environment with so many other animals nearby. Cats, especially those that are declawed, generally have a more difficult adjustment. We simply do not feel that it is humane to force an animal to live in a cage for an extended period of time if it is not eating, drinking, or sleeping due to a very high stress level.
Are all surrendered animals put up for adoption? In choosing to leave your animal with us, you are choosing to allow us to make that determination for your animal. What someone might choose to work with, or around, in an animal they have had for a while and are attached to is quite different from what most adopters are willing to take on in a brand new animal, especially when there are so many others to choose from. Our experience has been that most people are looking for an animal that is as close to perfect as they can get in terms of health and behavior. Most of the animals put onto the adoption floor fit those criteria, so that we have the greatest chance for quick placement and successful adoptions. This way, we help as many animals as possible.
Can I call and find out if my animal was placed? Yes. If you call us, we will give information on the current status of the animal. However, we can only speak to the person who surrendered the animal. To preserve the privacy of all parties, we will not discuss animals surrendered to the shelter with anyone other than the person who surrendered them. In surrendering your animal to us, you signed a statement releasing all rights to that animal. We do not discuss further details on the home the animal was adopted to, and we are not obligated to discuss the reasons for euthanasia. The decision to euthanize an animal is extremely stressful on the staff that must make those decisions, and it weighs heavily on us each time. We have policies in place to ensure that we serve each animal as best we can.
