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Rehoming Your Pet
Rehoming your pet or even an animal you've found somewhere can be difficult. Not even considering the emotional aspects of giving up an animal, just the practical details can be overwhelming. You don't want to accidently turn the pet over to someone who will harm it or treat it poorly.
One thing for sure, "Free to Good Home" ads attract good families for your pet. They also attract dog fighters looking for an animal to use as bait, pet hoarders, people with good intentions who are absolutely unable to truly take care of ANY pet, and people who actually make a living out of gathering animals together and selling them all off to labs, dog fighters and the highest bidder. We do NOT recommend that you advertise any animal as Free to a Good Home. You are asking for trouble for your pet. That being said, what are you to do if you cannot keep the animal? Some Considerations When You Request a Rescue's Help
Rescues are bombarded with requests to take pets in on a daily -- HOURLY -- basis. When a rescue says they are full and cannot accept your pet, they are NOT uncaring or unfeeling. It's amazing how many times rescue workers get blamed for being a crummy rescue worker for not taking in an animal, when they are overloaded with too many animals to possibly take in even one more pet. The sad fact is, there are too few rescue organizations to handle the MILLIONS of dumped, lost and stray pets in this country.
So, if you are asking a rescue to take in a pet, if at all possible, consider fostering the pet for the rescue. The animal will not have to go through the trauma of losing its home with you, going to another foster when it finds a home (it thinks) and then losing that to go to a third home. If you can foster your pet through adoption, you will be making it easier on your pet. Contact your vet and get a copy of all of your pet's vaccination, treatment, HW testing, feline leukemia testing, and surgery records. You can use a marker and obliterate any reference to you and your identifying data, but otherwise, your pet will have to start over, medically speaking. Sometimes our rescue pays to have a dog spayed only to find out at surgery time that she's already been spayed. Certainly it isn't in the pet's best interest to be given duplicate vaccinations. Not to mention the fact that duplication of past medical care adds unneccessary expenses to a rescue's budget that could be used to help an animal who actually needs the care. Take current digital photos of the pet showing it from either side and it's face. The rescue will probably want to see these. If you wind up putting the pet on petfinder.com yourself, you will need them too. Some rescues are breed specific. Our rescue is a beagle specific rescue, and we've had people inside their pets (which truly looked like some sort of corgi / golden retriever mixes) were beagles. We're learned to require photos to even consider taking in an animal. Be honest about why the pet is being given up, and about any health issues. If you are giving up the pet because it's been 2 years and it still isn't housetrained, you just didn't know how much work having a pet would be, it barks non-stop and your neighbors are complaining, or it is nippy with your young child when food is around -- SAY SO!!!!! It's something that people interested in adopting the pet will want to know. Someone without kids may not care that your pet will take food out of a child's hands; but a person with little kids is probably going to care. If we unknowingly adopt that animal out to such a family it is probably going to be returned or dumped. Help possible future families make informed choices about a pet they are looking to take home. If your pet has medical issues -- must eat grain free foods, etc. -- tell us so (1) we can take care of it while it is in our care and avoid diagnostic vet bills, and (2) so we can let possible adopters know of such issues and anticipated care costs related to them. An informed adopter is a more successful adopter. Finally, if you want to keep the pet but you are giving it up because of a particular problem, MAYBE we can help you figure out a way to keep your pet. Click on the Listings Below to Read How-To Instructions
CLICK HERE: How-To Set up a FREE Petfinder.com Pet Classified (Includes Additional Re-Homing a Pet Information) CLICK HERE: How-To Set up a FREE ChipIn.com Online Fundraiser (You do NOT have to be a charity, and you can raise $ for ANYTHING, from a birthday party to paying vetbills for a pet you are keeping) |