Adopting a dog or cat from an animal shelter is giving the gift of new life to an animal in his darkest hours.
Every year in the City of Los Angeles alone tens of thousands of dogs and cats land in shelters. Less than half of them will find a new home and a new life. The remaining animals are humanely euthanized. In the last six months of 2006 the City of Los Angeles took in approximately 25,000 dogs. Over 11,000 of them did not find a new home.
Contrary to popular belief, animal care and control services are not big killing machines run by heartless workers who love to send animals away for good. I have visited many shelters where sick animals or well behaved long term residents are mingling in back offices with their caretakers away from public scrutiny. True, it is not the norm but it happens more often than expected.
In addition to regular shelter employees all shelters have numerous volunteers who walk dogs, give them attention and affection, even train them. Shelter technicians and volunteers are very likely to have one or more favorite dogs. They spend as much time as possible with them. They even accompany them to public adoption events.
They are more than willing to talk to you about their charges. They know the good and the bad about their favorites. Of course, you will have to nudge them on a little if you want to hear about the downside of their favorite dog. But most will tell you when asked about it.
Dogs and cats are all listed in huge databases. They hold detailed information about the individual animal, breed, age, health status, lost or found, owner surrender, legal status and more. Most important to a potential adopter are notes added to the system by animal technicians. These notes reflect observations regarding the animal's temperament, behavior and idiosyncrasies.
Dogs surrendered by their owners come with a 'surrender report'. The owner of the dog is asked to describe his animal's character, demeanor and list specific cautions. The notes are your most valuable tools for selecting the right dog or cat for you.
The 'official' databases of dogs in public animal shelters are also fed to private animal rescue organizations. Rescue groups concentrate on making adoptable shelter animals available to the public on the Internet in large searchable web sites.
Petfinder.com is best known. Many animal shelters feed their information directly to them. But there are many similar sites. All show pictures of pets, list the animals in searchable categories and publish a brief description of the dog or cat.
After deciding with your family at home what kind of animal to get and defining what you expect from your prospective companion animal, you should go to some of these rescue websites and look at cats and dogs that meet your criteria.
An addition, visit the website of your local animal shelter directly. They list all of their dogs and cats and not just a selection. You can search their data by category, such as age, sex, breed and so on.
Time spent in front of a computer is time well spent and money saved. A well defined search will result in a small list of adoptable dogs that meet your criteria in your local area . Now you are ready to visit shelters and check out the dogs.
But wait, before you do so consider one more search option: Private dog rescue groups! They also maintain up to date websites with their adoptable dogs.
Private animal rescue groups offer advantages not found at animal shelters and pet finder Internet sites.
Private, non - profit animal rescue groups carefully test and select shelter dogs before rescuing them. Some of the larger groups have volunteer trainers who work with the animals to give them a head start at becoming good canine citizens. They also provide routine and specific veterinary care to their rescued animals. Sometimes at great cost to the rescue. In fact, veterinary care is one of the top five budget items for most rescue groups.
Many private rescue groups are breed specific. They are a good source for very adoptable pedigreed dogs and cats.
None of the rescue groups I know will take in aggressive animals.
Animal rescue groups work with volunteers and cover their expenses by adoption fees and donations. These range from $ 150.00 to close to $ 300.00 depending on the rescue group.
Public shelters provide basic veterinary care only. That includes vaccinations, treatment of minor ailments and frequently even spay and neuter. Their adoption fees vary between about $ 40.00 and over $ 100.00. Some public shelters in more remote locations may charge a little more.
While public animal shelters are open six days a week for six to eight hours, private animal rescue groups show their animals on weekends only. These adoption fairs are frequently located at pet food stores or similar businesses.
Armed with your short list of adoptable dogs, you can now go to the shelters or rescue groups and meet the candidates for adoption. In doing so, please do not make a rash decision based on some impulse. Rather keep in mind and apply the hints on selecting a shelter dog I previously explained.
Public shelters do not normally show you the notes on a specific animal or the owner's surrender report. Ask to see them!
It can be enlightening and save you from adopting the wrong dog and returning him to the shelter again!
My next article will explain the steps you need to follow before you actually adopt a dog.
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