I have been looking around lately for rescue dogs and have put in a couple inquiries, filled out some adoption forms, but haven’t heard back much (yet). However, this morning I found two puppy sisters at the shelterpetproject.org site, followed a link to adoptapet.com, and called the number of a small-town rescue group. They had me fill out a form, then called me right back to arrange a meeting on Friday, and even said we could take the dogs home that day if we wished.
Whoa! Things are going like lightning all of a sudden! Other shelter groups wanted to call our vet or visit our house first. There are some other things that worry me about this situation too, but I thought maybe you guys know of some way I could check them out?
I called our vet’s office and the lady who answered the phone hadn’t heard of them, but didn’t think that was very unusual.
Look for a group that has a connection to a local vet.
As an example, our favored local group gets their animals spayed/neutered and shots at a local vet. They also include a bag of food, a toy and gift card to the vet for the pet’s next visit.
They often have (formerly)sick and special needs animals that the vet has treated for free, no increased adoption fee.
Do you have a county animal shelter/Humane Society?
I went to adopt at our local Humane Society branch and they didn’t have a dog for me but they gave me a list of about 20 local rescues to check out.
The one I ended up going with was on that list, and they did have me fill out an adoption application first but they did not require a home visit. They just wanted to talk to me and then have me meet the dog in person first. Then they quickly got me matched up with my Morgan. A couple months later they happily turned Grady over to me too
I don’t know what their criteria is for letting people adopt. I put on my application that I had just lost my dog at 13 years old and was ready for adoption and had a home that was set up for dogs and I’m a lonely middle-class lady with a job. Could be that is all they needed to hear!
Anyway, maybe call a local government-funded shelter and see if they have heard of this group. If they have then consider them legit. (FWIW my vet had not heard of the rescue either, but I swear they are legit!)
Ask for a few local references that you can check out. If they are legit they should have no problem providing those to you. If they hesitate you should back away slowly.
We always adopted our mutts from the county animal shelter. I still remember, as a kid, some heartbreaking pictures on the wall of badly-mistreated dogs.
You can also try looking them up in any of the nonprofit listing services like GuideStar.
This is a question that’s hard to answer, actually. Not all groups work with a local vet. For example, the greyhound rescues that I’ve volunteered with get their dogs from rescue groups in Florida who take them off the tracks and vet them down in Florida.
To some extent, pet rescue groups know other groups in their same geographical area, especially if they “compete” for adoptions, like they all work with the same specific breed. Also sometimes groups form because board members or volunteers get disgruntled and leave to form their own organization.
Which leads to the main reason it’s so hard to check up on the reputability of rescue groups: any old Joe can form his own 501c3. You don’t need any business experience and far less documentation than is needed to form a for-profit business. Years ago the close-knit greyhound adoption circles discovered (and worked together to get prosecuted) some asshat who had a legitimate 501c3 and was picking up dogs from the Florida groups, ostensibly to adopt elsewhere in the country. That’s standard practice. But he was an asshat because instead of adopting the dogs out, he was selling them to laboratories for animal research.
Shelters go all over the spectrum in picking homes, everything from background checks and home visits plus a large fee (I have heard of $5000), to basically a email interview.
I concur. You can and probably should do some asking around, but this isn’t a big red flag to me at all.
A lot depends on what resources the shelter has. For example, my local humane society is a private not-for-profit, but they’ve got the contract for the city to handle strays. That means they handle upwards of seven to eight thousand animals a year, and they do not have the resources to keep them indefinitely. That means that if they don’t let you adopt a given animal, the alternative may be to send that animal to the kill room. It’s a harsh reality, but it is their reality. The shelter does screen potential adopters–it’s a fairly perfunctory screening, though. Show some acceptable ID, answer the questions on their form in a reasonable manner, and pay the fee (usually $75-150 for dogs, more for puppies, less for cats), and they’ll let you take home today any animal that is already spayed/neutered, while others will be delivered to the vet you select for spay/neuter as soon as it can be scheduled.
A no-kill shelter or one that has substantially more resources can afford to keep an animal around until just the perfect situation appears, and they can afford to be a lot more choosy about what constitutes that perfect situation. A shelter that has to make room for whatever Animal Control brings in this afternoon can’t be too picky.
Philosophies differ, too. Some rescue groups really want you to prove that you will be the perfect pet parent; others trust that most people are good enough.
First, take a good hard look at the dog … look for obvious abuse … otherwise I’m not sure where you get your dog is as important as how well you and the dog bond … if your personalities click right away, then you’ll have a fine companion wherever he/she comes from …
With my last dog, we clicked immediately, no question he was the right dog … took a few months until he wasn’t shy of my feet [rolls eyes] but after he was an excellent dog for me and my family …
Don’t pay for any pet until you have seen the pet at the shelter , if you’re asked to send money to ‘hold’ the dog for you hang up ! There may NOT even be a dog you could be looking a photos of any dog or it could be stolen dog . I agree call a your vet or see if your city has a shelter and if they have any dogs for adoption. It’s great you’re going to get a shelter dog.
A legit animal rescue group is going to want to know if are allowed to have pets and if own or rent . You will have to prove you own your house or get a note from your landlord saying it OK to have a pet . I had to prove I owned my condo .
