There are many alternatives available to pet owners who need to re-home a pet before surrendering the pet to an animal shelter. Some alternatives include re-homing the pet yourself directly to a new home, seeking out behavior assistance for behavior problems, and going to one of the local low cost veterinary clinics for medical problems. The following information may help you before you decide to surrender a pet.

Try to re-home the pet yourself. Talk you people you know about whether they know any friends or family members looking for a pet. Many people obtain their pets from friends and family members who can no longer keep them for whatever reason. It will be much less stressful for you and for your pet if you can take them directly from your home to a new home. Here are some helpful tips:

• Talk to family, friends, and coworkers.
• Get your pet spayed or neutered and updated on vaccines.
• Create flyers and post to social media sites.
• Feature your pet on a free re-homing website.

Take your pet with you if you are moving. You can move and take your pets with you! It can take some time to find a rental property that allows pets but be persistent and give yourself plenty of time.  If your pet is spayed or neutered, current on vaccinations, and has done any obedience classes, it will be more likely for a landlord to allow you to have pets.

Seek out advice for behavior problems.  There are many simple tricks out there for basic behavior problems. Click on the link on Behavior Tips on our website for some basic advice or look at the advice on websites such as the Dumb Friends League. Talk to your veterinarian in case there is a medical cause of the behavior. Add aggression referral to veterinarian.

Ask us for assistance with pet food.  When we have donations of pet food available, we can provide food to citizens in need.