Animal Welfare Professionals

HI Christine,

I am an adoption coordinator at the only open admissions shelter in Palm Beach County, Florida. I also work on feline behavior assessments, behavior modification and training. What I started doing was speaking to front desk staff and asking them to tell people that want to surrender their cats due to issues like inappropriate urination, inter-cat aggression, petting aggression, etc. if they would like to speak to me and see if I can help them with their cat's behavior before making the decision to surrender. Most people say yes and I have found that the best way to prevent surrenders due to behavior is stopping it before they even get through the door. 

We do have some rehome resources that we give them so their pet doesn't have to enter the shelter, but frankly most people surrender them here anyway once they have made up their mind that this is what they want to do. We do have a waitlist and since we are constantly over capacity, it varies from 30 to 60 days out for surrender appointments. We don't charge a fee, and we do also recommend a food pantry run by one of our local private shelters if the issue happens to be lack of resources to feed their pets. We do give them a list of affordable vet clinics, but we do not provide that service ourselves or any financial aid. 

We do have a questionnaire for surrenders. The questions are basically why the animal is being surrendered, if they are friendly with kids, other animals, etc, the animals' sleeping habits and such. 

This is one of the rehoming links we suggest: Rehome Your Pet or Adopt Directly | Home To Home™

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ADRIANA DELGADO
Animal Care Coordinator
Palm Beach County Animal care and Control
FL
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Hi Adriana,

hank you so much for sharing this. I really appreciate the detail, especially your approach of trying to address behavior issues before a cat is surrendered.

We are a private, limited-admission rescue, and while I would love for us to be able to offer that type of one-on-one assistance, we simply don't have the manpower to speak individually with everyone requesting to surrender a cat. We do maintain a resource page on our website with rehoming and other assistance options that we can direct people to. Thank you also for sharing the Home To Home resource. We will take a closer look at that as well.

I'm particularly interested in your waitlist process. Who determines which cats are placed on the surrender waitlist, and what parameters or criteria do you use? Are all owner-surrender requests eligible, or do you prioritize based on the circumstances?

With appointments running 30–60 days out, how do you manage and track the waitlist? Do you follow up with owners before their appointment to confirm they still need to surrender? If someone cancels or doesn't respond, do you track whether the cat was rehomed, the owner was able to resolve the issue, or there was another outcome?

This is exactly the kind of information I was hoping to learn from other organizations.

Kindly, 

HI Christine,

I am an adoption coordinator at the only open admissions shelter in Palm Beach County, Florida. I also work on feline behavior assessments, behavior modification and training. What I started doing was speaking to front desk staff and asking them to tell people that want to surrender their cats due to issues like inappropriate urination, inter-cat aggression, petting aggression, etc. if they would like to speak to me and see if I can help them with their cat's behavior before making the decision to surrender. Most people say yes and I have found that the best way to prevent surrenders due to behavior is stopping it before they even get through the door. 

We do have some rehome resources that we give them so their pet doesn't have to enter the shelter, but frankly most people surrender them here anyway once they have made up their mind that this is what they want to do. We do have a waitlist and since we are constantly over capacity, it varies from 30 to 60 days out for surrender appointments. We don't charge a fee, and we do also recommend a food pantry run by one of our local private shelters if the issue happens to be lack of resources to feed their pets. We do give them a list of affordable vet clinics, but we do not provide that service ourselves or any financial aid. 

We do have a questionnaire for surrenders. The questions are basically why the animal is being surrendered, if they are friendly with kids, other animals, etc, the animals' sleeping habits and such. 

This is one of the rehoming links we suggest: Rehome Your Pet or Adopt Directly | Home To Home™

HI Christine,

As an open admission shelter, we can't say no to anything. We even have to take owner surrender animals with a bite history as long as they have an appointment and are current with a series of specific vaccines. Customer service is responsible for tracking the waitlist, but this is the way it works:

If someone comes in wanting to surrender their dog or cat (and this is the same info we give if they call on the phone) their animals have to be current on certain vaccines before we even give them an appointment. For dogs it's nasal Bordetella and a couple of others. For cats, it's the FVRCP vaccine. Rabies we don't demand because we give that here on intake.

Once they have that, they either email or bring us their vaccine certificates and we give them the surrender date appointment. That goes to a google calendar that keeps all of the surrenders for each day.

I believe customer service does follow up to remind them of their appointments, but I'm not 100% sure. If they don't show up, customer service does call to see what happened and why they didn't come to the appointment. 

Hi Adriana,

hank you so much for sharing this. I really appreciate the detail, especially your approach of trying to address behavior issues before a cat is surrendered.

We are a private, limited-admission rescue, and while I would love for us to be able to offer that type of one-on-one assistance, we simply don't have the manpower to speak individually with everyone requesting to surrender a cat. We do maintain a resource page on our website with rehoming and other assistance options that we can direct people to. Thank you also for sharing the Home To Home resource. We will take a closer look at that as well.

I'm particularly interested in your waitlist process. Who determines which cats are placed on the surrender waitlist, and what parameters or criteria do you use? Are all owner-surrender requests eligible, or do you prioritize based on the circumstances?

With appointments running 30–60 days out, how do you manage and track the waitlist? Do you follow up with owners before their appointment to confirm they still need to surrender? If someone cancels or doesn't respond, do you track whether the cat was rehomed, the owner was able to resolve the issue, or there was another outcome?

This is exactly the kind of information I was hoping to learn from other organizations.

Kindly, 

HI Christine,

I am an adoption coordinator at the only open admissions shelter in Palm Beach County, Florida. I also work on feline behavior assessments, behavior modification and training. What I started doing was speaking to front desk staff and asking them to tell people that want to surrender their cats due to issues like inappropriate urination, inter-cat aggression, petting aggression, etc. if they would like to speak to me and see if I can help them with their cat's behavior before making the decision to surrender. Most people say yes and I have found that the best way to prevent surrenders due to behavior is stopping it before they even get through the door. 

We do have some rehome resources that we give them so their pet doesn't have to enter the shelter, but frankly most people surrender them here anyway once they have made up their mind that this is what they want to do. We do have a waitlist and since we are constantly over capacity, it varies from 30 to 60 days out for surrender appointments. We don't charge a fee, and we do also recommend a food pantry run by one of our local private shelters if the issue happens to be lack of resources to feed their pets. We do give them a list of affordable vet clinics, but we do not provide that service ourselves or any financial aid. 

We do have a questionnaire for surrenders. The questions are basically why the animal is being surrendered, if they are friendly with kids, other animals, etc, the animals' sleeping habits and such. 

This is one of the rehoming links we suggest: Rehome Your Pet or Adopt Directly | Home To Home™

Hi Christine,

My last shelter was a cat-only, ~3,000/yr, nonprofit, limited admission shelter. Roughly 20% of our admissions were owner surrenders. 

We managed our admissions based on different aspects of the organization's capacity using the Capacity for Care model: housing (including foster), adopters, surgery). population by type of cat and/or type of housing they needed. For example, our goal was to have three senior cats at any time. That kept our length-of-stay for senior cats at a healthy level. 

We had waiting lists only for a handful of special populations, like senior cats and cats on special diets, and we kept those lists short - maybe 6 cats each, max. 

Our public admissions, rehoming support, behavior advice, etc. all fell under our organization's Helpline.  That included a program called Keeping Cats in Homes that helped cover veterinary expenses, pet deposits, and other one-time expenses and that provided emergency boarding. But we started where you did and expanded over time. 

On our admissions request form, we just asked a single question, "Why are you looking for a new home for your cat?  We did have questions on the form about behavior, health, and litter box use. If someone indicated litter box issues, additional questions would pop-up. For animals we were taking, we would have more conversation with people, certainly if the reason for surrender was related to the pet. 

Interestingly, though it seemed like many of our requests involved behavior problems, when we moved to a case management system (we used FreshDesk), we found it was only 1-2%. They just took a lot of time! There is a National Cat Behavior Helpline that opened this year. You could refer people there. 

We moved from using the word "intake" to "admissions" quite a few years ago. "Intake" felt cold. It took a while for everyone to get used to it, but we were glad we did it. 

I recommend checking out the public-facing flow of the system my last shelter used. Start on this page.  This is the web-based system, but it was mirrored in phone and email. It basically follows this flow:

1. First point of contact. This could be an autoresponder on your email, your outgoing voicemail message for the admissions request extension, or verbiage on the appropriate page on your website. 

Provide a very brief description of your admissions guidelines and capabilities. Refer people to your resources for other support: rehoming resources; behavior advice; other community support for veterinary care, housing assistance, etc. 

2. Direct people to an admissions form so you can gather basic information. You can use something as basic as a google form.  Set expectations for admissions and for follow-up. 

Based on this information, you'll have some cats who are definite nos, some maybes, and some probablys. 

3. Use canned email responses to follow up with the nos. Provide a brief explanation for why you can't take the cat and share what resources, information, and advice you believe will be helpful. 

Follow up with the probablys and maybes to collect whatever additional information you need to determine if you have the capacity to provide the cat with appropriate care. Based on what you learn, either decline or move forward with scheduling or adding to a waitlist. 

I built and managed a helpline for a national sanctuary and led the development of the one at my last shelter. My two biggest pieces of advice are these: 

• Write good canned responses that are appropriate for a variety of situations. It takes time to build a good library of thoughtful email templates, but it will ultimately save you an enormous amount of time. 
• Give people meaningful advice that truly helps them. Don't just tell them what's easy to tell them to wrap up the call. When someone contacts you about their anxious 13 year old cat who's in renal failure and has had an inappropriate elimination issue for six years and the owner can't take the cat to their new house so they called to see if you could take the cat, don't give them a list of other shelters in the area to call.  This happens too often in our field. I understand why, but it's so unfair to almost everyone involved. 

I'd be happy to jump on a call if you'd like to chat about any of this. Just shoot me a dm!

Thank you! This is incredibly helpful and much closer to the type of model I was hoping to learn more about since we are also a cat-only, nonprofit, limited-admission rescue.

I would love to dig a little deeper into your "definite no, maybe, probably" process. Once a request was categorized as a maybe or probably, what happened next?

Who reviewed those requests and ultimately made the yes/no decision? Using the Capacity for Care model did you create any other hard numbers for each area- fosters, in-house, medical, etc.? Did you use any type of checklist, scoring or numbering system to evaluate the requests and help determine which cats were accepted? Or was the decision more subjective based on the information provided? For example, did you weigh factors such as age, medical or behavioral needs, urgency of the owner's situation, anticipated length of stay, adoptability, foster availability, or other circumstances? I'm particularly interested in whether there was a consistent set of criteria that guided the decision versus evaluating each request individually.

I'm also very interested in the timeframe. How quickly after receiving a surrender request did you generally make the initial categorization, and how long did it typically take to give the owner a final yes or no? If you didn't currently have capacity for a cat you otherwise would have accepted, did you keep that request open and reevaluate it, place the cat on a waitlist, or decline and ask the owner to contact you again?

We receive a significant number of owner-surrender requests and simply don't have the manpower to provide one-on-one assistance to everyone who contacts us. We do maintain a resource page on our website, so your suggestion of developing thoughtful canned responses for different situations really resonates with me. I especially like the idea of building a library of responses over time based on the types of requests we receive most often.

That decision-making piece-how you got from "maybe/probably" to an actual yes or no, what criteria were used, how quickly that happened, and what you communicated to the owner during the process-is really what I'm trying to better understand.

Thank you again. This is extremely helpful.

Hi Christine,

My last shelter was a cat-only, ~3,000/yr, nonprofit, limited admission shelter. Roughly 20% of our admissions were owner surrenders. 

We managed our admissions based on different aspects of the organization's capacity using the Capacity for Care model: housing (including foster), adopters, surgery). population by type of cat and/or type of housing they needed. For example, our goal was to have three senior cats at any time. That kept our length-of-stay for senior cats at a healthy level. 

We had waiting lists only for a handful of special populations, like senior cats and cats on special diets, and we kept those lists short - maybe 6 cats each, max. 

Our public admissions, rehoming support, behavior advice, etc. all fell under our organization's Helpline.  That included a program called Keeping Cats in Homes that helped cover veterinary expenses, pet deposits, and other one-time expenses and that provided emergency boarding. But we started where you did and expanded over time. 

On our admissions request form, we just asked a single question, "Why are you looking for a new home for your cat?  We did have questions on the form about behavior, health, and litter box use. If someone indicated litter box issues, additional questions would pop-up. For animals we were taking, we would have more conversation with people, certainly if the reason for surrender was related to the pet. 

Interestingly, though it seemed like many of our requests involved behavior problems, when we moved to a case management system (we used FreshDesk), we found it was only 1-2%. They just took a lot of time! There is a National Cat Behavior Helpline that opened this year. You could refer people there. 

We moved from using the word "intake" to "admissions" quite a few years ago. "Intake" felt cold. It took a while for everyone to get used to it, but we were glad we did it. 

I recommend checking out the public-facing flow of the system my last shelter used. Start on this page.  This is the web-based system, but it was mirrored in phone and email. It basically follows this flow:

1. First point of contact. This could be an autoresponder on your email, your outgoing voicemail message for the admissions request extension, or verbiage on the appropriate page on your website. 

Provide a very brief description of your admissions guidelines and capabilities. Refer people to your resources for other support: rehoming resources; behavior advice; other community support for veterinary care, housing assistance, etc. 

2. Direct people to an admissions form so you can gather basic information. You can use something as basic as a google form.  Set expectations for admissions and for follow-up. 

Based on this information, you'll have some cats who are definite nos, some maybes, and some probablys. 

3. Use canned email responses to follow up with the nos. Provide a brief explanation for why you can't take the cat and share what resources, information, and advice you believe will be helpful. 

Follow up with the probablys and maybes to collect whatever additional information you need to determine if you have the capacity to provide the cat with appropriate care. Based on what you learn, either decline or move forward with scheduling or adding to a waitlist. 

I built and managed a helpline for a national sanctuary and led the development of the one at my last shelter. My two biggest pieces of advice are these: 

• Write good canned responses that are appropriate for a variety of situations. It takes time to build a good library of thoughtful email templates, but it will ultimately save you an enormous amount of time. 
• Give people meaningful advice that truly helps them. Don't just tell them what's easy to tell them to wrap up the call. When someone contacts you about their anxious 13 year old cat who's in renal failure and has had an inappropriate elimination issue for six years and the owner can't take the cat to their new house so they called to see if you could take the cat, don't give them a list of other shelters in the area to call.  This happens too often in our field. I understand why, but it's so unfair to almost everyone involved. 

I'd be happy to jump on a call if you'd like to chat about any of this. Just shoot me a dm!

Hold onto your britches–this is a long one! I've tried to answer your questions. I hope this is helpful! 

We had recently gone through a transition in how we staffed our Helpline prior to me moving on last year. Before the transition, initial inquiries were responded to by our Shelter Associates. Once we had a maybe or probably, the case was escalated to an Admissions Associate. Several months before I left, we started having all admissions-related cases go through our Admissions Associates from the beginning. Years before that, we had one primary person who ran our Helpline with some support. I've seen each of these models work in different shelters. 

We did have a couple of other hard capacity numbers, but most of them were in motion. We had a limited number of foster homes that could take orphaned neonates, for example. They were also the homes that could take our sick neonates. And they traveled and had company in town. So we didn't have a set capacity for neonates. It was like that for almost all cats and kittens that needed extra special care: seniors, medical, behavior, most foster. 

So knowing what cats we could take meant certain staff staying in regular communication. Those staff had an active Google Chat and a weekly meeting. The group included our admissions supervisor, shelter supervisor, hospital supervisor, behavior programs manager, and foster supervisor. With all of them there, they got so many perspectives: admissions requests, shelter capacity, special housing capacity, isolation ward capacity, foster capacity, staffing capacity, surgery capacity, treatment capacity, adoption and spay/neuter events, upcoming holidays, shelter traffic, etc. 

By staying regularly connected with each other, this group could assess admissions capacity and identify bottlenecks we could try to address. 

So the decision of whether to take a cat or not was subjective, but well-informed. The definite nos were pretty clear, though they would shift throughout the year. The maybes and probablys depended on many more factors. The more care the cat was expected to need, the better-informed the decision needed to be. For complex medical cases, one of our vets would even review records prior to admission. But the admissions associates knew our basic guidelines and priorities and could use those to make decisions for the more basic cases. 

Here are a few examples of requests we might get and why we would or wouldn't take them. 

1. Request from a local member of the public to take in three two-week-old orphaned kittens found near a building being demolished. The county shelter does not have a foster program and will euthanize if there isn't a shelter or rescue that can help the same day. Finder works two jobs and can't foster. 

We would take them. It's a priority because they're local and the need is urgent. Although normally we wouldn't agree to neonates without a foster lined up, we'd know we would be able to find someone. If we got that request from someone who lived outside our metro area, we would say no. 

2. Request from a local member of the public to take their 11 year old cat with multiple medical issues (including needing a major dental) who has only ever lived with them, in the same home, with no other pets, and hides when visitors come over. Based on the owner's description, the cat needs a major dental. The owner is moving in one month and can't take the cat with them. 

We would not take this cat in this situation. Not just because of the timing; primarily because he would almost certainly be extremely stressed in a shelter setting, even in special housing. High potential for ending up on a feeding tube, especially with a mouth being a mess. We did take cats like this, but they were more likely to be cats who had been adopted from us as kittens, transfers from local shelter/rescue partners, or part of our Loving Legacy program (cats we agreed to take as part of planned giving relationships). 

3. Shelter partner, not local but one of our target in-state shelters, asks for help with seven-year-old cat who has high kennel stress with swatting and biting but did great when they had her loose in their admissions room. Beautiful cat, great with people outside a kennel. Lived well with dogs in a prior home but no cats. They have her in a foster home now where she's doing great but they're in a small, rural town and they haven't been able to place her from foster. 

We would probably take this cat, because we did have the things she needed - non-kennel housing and broad exposure to adopters. We would expect her to be adopted quickly, as a sociable, especially attractive cat with known positive dog history. She'd also arrive fully vetted. And the other shelter had a way to keep her until we had a room or office open up. 

In terms of timeframe, we responded to the initial inquiry within 24-48 hours (on average, quite a bit less than that). If there was a highly time sensitive situation like a found orphaned kitten in distress, we would just call right back. Beyond that, it depended–on the urgency, the client's response time, and how complex the case was. Easy yeses and nos in which the client initially submitted a complete admissions request might be resolved within a day or two. Situations where the client wasn't in a rush and where we needed a lot of information from the client and needed to get input from multiple people on the shelter end might take several weeks. If we weren't ready to schedule admissions (I don't think we schedule out more than a couple/few weeks) or place a cat on a waiting list (in those couple of cases where we kept them), we would decline the cat and let people know they could reach back out later. 

I know this was another very lengthy response. I'm still happy to talk by phone or jump on a video call if you'd like to talk in more detail. If you want to talk about Capacity for Care, I'm more than happy–one of my favorite subjects!

Karen

Thank you! This is incredibly helpful and much closer to the type of model I was hoping to learn more about since we are also a cat-only, nonprofit, limited-admission rescue.

I would love to dig a little deeper into your "definite no, maybe, probably" process. Once a request was categorized as a maybe or probably, what happened next?

Who reviewed those requests and ultimately made the yes/no decision? Using the Capacity for Care model did you create any other hard numbers for each area- fosters, in-house, medical, etc.? Did you use any type of checklist, scoring or numbering system to evaluate the requests and help determine which cats were accepted? Or was the decision more subjective based on the information provided? For example, did you weigh factors such as age, medical or behavioral needs, urgency of the owner's situation, anticipated length of stay, adoptability, foster availability, or other circumstances? I'm particularly interested in whether there was a consistent set of criteria that guided the decision versus evaluating each request individually.

I'm also very interested in the timeframe. How quickly after receiving a surrender request did you generally make the initial categorization, and how long did it typically take to give the owner a final yes or no? If you didn't currently have capacity for a cat you otherwise would have accepted, did you keep that request open and reevaluate it, place the cat on a waitlist, or decline and ask the owner to contact you again?

We receive a significant number of owner-surrender requests and simply don't have the manpower to provide one-on-one assistance to everyone who contacts us. We do maintain a resource page on our website, so your suggestion of developing thoughtful canned responses for different situations really resonates with me. I especially like the idea of building a library of responses over time based on the types of requests we receive most often.

That decision-making piece-how you got from "maybe/probably" to an actual yes or no, what criteria were used, how quickly that happened, and what you communicated to the owner during the process-is really what I'm trying to better understand.

Thank you again. This is extremely helpful.

Hi Christine,

My last shelter was a cat-only, ~3,000/yr, nonprofit, limited admission shelter. Roughly 20% of our admissions were owner surrenders. 

We managed our admissions based on different aspects of the organization's capacity using the Capacity for Care model: housing (including foster), adopters, surgery). population by type of cat and/or type of housing they needed. For example, our goal was to have three senior cats at any time. That kept our length-of-stay for senior cats at a healthy level. 

We had waiting lists only for a handful of special populations, like senior cats and cats on special diets, and we kept those lists short - maybe 6 cats each, max. 

Our public admissions, rehoming support, behavior advice, etc. all fell under our organization's Helpline.  That included a program called Keeping Cats in Homes that helped cover veterinary expenses, pet deposits, and other one-time expenses and that provided emergency boarding. But we started where you did and expanded over time. 

On our admissions request form, we just asked a single question, "Why are you looking for a new home for your cat?  We did have questions on the form about behavior, health, and litter box use. If someone indicated litter box issues, additional questions would pop-up. For animals we were taking, we would have more conversation with people, certainly if the reason for surrender was related to the pet. 

Interestingly, though it seemed like many of our requests involved behavior problems, when we moved to a case management system (we used FreshDesk), we found it was only 1-2%. They just took a lot of time! There is a National Cat Behavior Helpline that opened this year. You could refer people there. 

We moved from using the word "intake" to "admissions" quite a few years ago. "Intake" felt cold. It took a while for everyone to get used to it, but we were glad we did it. 

I recommend checking out the public-facing flow of the system my last shelter used. Start on this page.  This is the web-based system, but it was mirrored in phone and email. It basically follows this flow:

1. First point of contact. This could be an autoresponder on your email, your outgoing voicemail message for the admissions request extension, or verbiage on the appropriate page on your website. 

Provide a very brief description of your admissions guidelines and capabilities. Refer people to your resources for other support: rehoming resources; behavior advice; other community support for veterinary care, housing assistance, etc. 

2. Direct people to an admissions form so you can gather basic information. You can use something as basic as a google form.  Set expectations for admissions and for follow-up. 

Based on this information, you'll have some cats who are definite nos, some maybes, and some probablys. 

3. Use canned email responses to follow up with the nos. Provide a brief explanation for why you can't take the cat and share what resources, information, and advice you believe will be helpful. 

Follow up with the probablys and maybes to collect whatever additional information you need to determine if you have the capacity to provide the cat with appropriate care. Based on what you learn, either decline or move forward with scheduling or adding to a waitlist. 

I built and managed a helpline for a national sanctuary and led the development of the one at my last shelter. My two biggest pieces of advice are these: 

• Write good canned responses that are appropriate for a variety of situations. It takes time to build a good library of thoughtful email templates, but it will ultimately save you an enormous amount of time. 
• Give people meaningful advice that truly helps them. Don't just tell them what's easy to tell them to wrap up the call. When someone contacts you about their anxious 13 year old cat who's in renal failure and has had an inappropriate elimination issue for six years and the owner can't take the cat to their new house so they called to see if you could take the cat, don't give them a list of other shelters in the area to call.  This happens too often in our field. I understand why, but it's so unfair to almost everyone involved. 

I'd be happy to jump on a call if you'd like to chat about any of this. Just shoot me a dm!

Hello! 

Unfortunately we are a non-profit with a municipal contract. While technically we are only contracted to take in strays, if we didn't take in owner surrenders we would have a lot more strays...

For those willing to share, we'd love to know:

·       Do you currently accept owner surrenders? If so, under what circumstances?

--> We do, we have a managed intake system. Animals are triaged based on need and date. Owners can request same-day surrender only for public safety risks and with the understanding that the animal will likely be euthanized if it's a public safety risk

·       Do you maintain a waitlist, use appointments, or make intake decisions case by case?

--> We use appointments, and each surrender is a conversation on need and any assistance we can offer.

·       Do you charge or request an owner surrender/intake fee?

--> We do have an owner surrender fee (waived as needed)

·       What questions do you ask to determine why the owner needs to surrender the animal?

--> We have a consult per surrender. This is post a general email that gives resources. Pretty much no matter what we ask that animals be posted on our Home to Home site for a week which allows us time to see an animal profile, and get an idea of the consult.

·       Do you have a formal diversion or "rehome" program designed to help owners keep their pets or find a new home without shelter intake?

--> Yes, our Pet Resource Center also handles our surrenders so they know best. We have pet food pantry, a low cost clinic (in-house), affordable spay/neuter and a behavior help line. We also offer supplies like crates, leashes, etc . Lastly, we offer a very limited Animal Haven program which is a long term board for those in crisis.

·       What resources do you provide-behavior support, veterinary assistance, pet food, temporary fostering, housing resources, rehoming websites, etc.?

--> Pretty much all of that. The caveat for temporary fostering is that it is on a strict basis (you need to have a sponsor/case manager essentially)

·       Do you provide financial assistance when the barrier to keeping the pet is something that could potentially be resolved?

--> Yes, we have a grant that we can utilize for medical costs if medical is the reason someone is looking to surrender. This grant is mostly for crisis medical. We do also have an in-house low cost clinic for the more managed issues.

·       If you do not accept the animal, what resources or next steps do you provide to the owner?

--> We have  rehoming packet that starts off every surrender. This goes into Home to Home, how to make a profile, and resources that also exist in the community

·       Have you changed the terminology you use with the public from "owner surrender" to "rehoming" or something similar? If so, has that made a difference in how people approach the process?

--> We have not currently. We do call our resources "rehoming resources" but we do distinguish PRC as assisting with "owner surrender" vs our regular "intake"

·       What has worked particularly well for your organization? And just as importantly, what have you tried that didn't work?

--> Works well: Our home to home does work and help divert several animals. The new low cost clinic has also been pretty helpful. I do think we need a lot more communication and transparency on our system as we still regularly have people come to us for same day surrenders and being frustrated that we cannot take the animals. We used to be a fully municipal shelter that had to do that - so community is used to it. It can be frustrating for people to be oh so happy we are now a no kill shelter and not understanding that these methods have helped get us here and I think we could use more conversations on that.

We're especially interested in actual policies, procedures, forms, resource lists, website pages, or programs that organizations are willing to share.

https://www.young-williams.org/pet-resource-center/  -- happy to share our rehoming kit email if you'd like it, just email ride@young-williams.org

Rachel, thank you - this is extremely helpful. I really like the idea of having the rehoming resources and Home To Home step occur before the surrender consultation rather than waiting until after an intake decision has been made.

I will be looking at your rehome kit. Thank you for sending it, and I have a couple of follow-up questions about what happens after that initial step.

When you say animals are "triaged based on need and date," how do you actually make that determination? Do you use a checklist, defined priority categories, a numbering/scoring system, or is it primarily staff judgment based on the consultation?

After the owner has received the resource email, posted on Home To Home for a week, and had the consultation, what determines whether the animal becomes a "yes," "not yet," or "no" for intake? Are there specific criteria that automatically increase or decrease priority?

For animals you determine you can accept, how far out are appointments typically being scheduled? And if you don't currently have capacity, does the animal remain in your managed intake system until space becomes available, or does the owner need to contact you again?

I'm also curious whether you use canned/template responses at different points in the process - for example, the initial resource email, an acceptance/appointment response, a "we can't accept right now" response, or a final decline.

We're trying to develop a more structured and consistent owner-surrender process, so understanding the mechanics of how another organization moves from the initial request to the actual yes/no decision would be incredibly helpful.

Thank you again for being willing to share what you've learned!

Hello! 

Unfortunately we are a non-profit with a municipal contract. While technically we are only contracted to take in strays, if we didn't take in owner surrenders we would have a lot more strays...

For those willing to share, we'd love to know:

·       Do you currently accept owner surrenders? If so, under what circumstances?

--> We do, we have a managed intake system. Animals are triaged based on need and date. Owners can request same-day surrender only for public safety risks and with the understanding that the animal will likely be euthanized if it's a public safety risk

·       Do you maintain a waitlist, use appointments, or make intake decisions case by case?

--> We use appointments, and each surrender is a conversation on need and any assistance we can offer.

·       Do you charge or request an owner surrender/intake fee?

--> We do have an owner surrender fee (waived as needed)

·       What questions do you ask to determine why the owner needs to surrender the animal?

--> We have a consult per surrender. This is post a general email that gives resources. Pretty much no matter what we ask that animals be posted on our Home to Home site for a week which allows us time to see an animal profile, and get an idea of the consult.

·       Do you have a formal diversion or "rehome" program designed to help owners keep their pets or find a new home without shelter intake?

--> Yes, our Pet Resource Center also handles our surrenders so they know best. We have pet food pantry, a low cost clinic (in-house), affordable spay/neuter and a behavior help line. We also offer supplies like crates, leashes, etc . Lastly, we offer a very limited Animal Haven program which is a long term board for those in crisis.

·       What resources do you provide-behavior support, veterinary assistance, pet food, temporary fostering, housing resources, rehoming websites, etc.?

--> Pretty much all of that. The caveat for temporary fostering is that it is on a strict basis (you need to have a sponsor/case manager essentially)

·       Do you provide financial assistance when the barrier to keeping the pet is something that could potentially be resolved?

--> Yes, we have a grant that we can utilize for medical costs if medical is the reason someone is looking to surrender. This grant is mostly for crisis medical. We do also have an in-house low cost clinic for the more managed issues.

·       If you do not accept the animal, what resources or next steps do you provide to the owner?

--> We have  rehoming packet that starts off every surrender. This goes into Home to Home, how to make a profile, and resources that also exist in the community

·       Have you changed the terminology you use with the public from "owner surrender" to "rehoming" or something similar? If so, has that made a difference in how people approach the process?

--> We have not currently. We do call our resources "rehoming resources" but we do distinguish PRC as assisting with "owner surrender" vs our regular "intake"

·       What has worked particularly well for your organization? And just as importantly, what have you tried that didn't work?

--> Works well: Our home to home does work and help divert several animals. The new low cost clinic has also been pretty helpful. I do think we need a lot more communication and transparency on our system as we still regularly have people come to us for same day surrenders and being frustrated that we cannot take the animals. We used to be a fully municipal shelter that had to do that - so community is used to it. It can be frustrating for people to be oh so happy we are now a no kill shelter and not understanding that these methods have helped get us here and I think we could use more conversations on that.

We're especially interested in actual policies, procedures, forms, resource lists, website pages, or programs that organizations are willing to share.

https://www.young-williams.org/pet-resource-center/  -- happy to share our rehoming kit email if you'd like it, just email ride@young-williams.org

Happy to help!

When you say animals are "triaged based on need and date," how do you actually make that determination? Do you use a checklist, defined priority categories, a numbering/scoring system, or is it primarily staff judgment based on the consultation?

--> We actually use a triage system vaguely based on this article: Frontiers | The Evolving Role of Triage and Appointment-Based Admission to Improve Service, Care and Outcomes in Animal Shelters

I swear we got our original documentation from Maddies Fund, but I'm so sorry I can't seem to find it. I think at this point it's in everyone's head 5 days, two weeks, or 4 and based on appointment availability after that. When we are full, we just push them out longer. I will continue looking for it though.

Essentially - Does this animal need to be immediately removed for the safety of the animal or person? If so, within 5 days or sometimes same day if it's really bad.

Does this animal need to be removed for managed behavior or medical reasons? If so, 1-4 weeks out

Does this animal need to be surrendered due to housing landlord issues? 1-4 weeks (typically). Housing insecurity we try to work out through the dates needed. This is where we tend to get middle of the ground appointments.

Overall we do 3 surrenders a day, and work out the schedule based on that number.

After the owner has received the resource email, posted on Home To Home for a week, and had the consultation, what determines whether the animal becomes a "yes," "not yet," or "no" for intake? Are there specific criteria that automatically increase or decrease priority?

--> All animals are a yes, (municipal contracted shelter, we have to) it's just about when it will be a yes. Caveat is some animals we can't accept like birds, or fish, or some exotics. Many of our appointments end up being waived as they find homes via re-homing tips, or we support them through a transition and they cancel.

For animals you determine you can accept, how far out are appointments typically being scheduled? And if you don't currently have capacity, does the animal remain in your managed intake system until space becomes available, or does the owner need to contact you again?

--> Typically we aim for appointments to be about 1.5 week out to match our LOS. During busy season it's up to 8 weeks. All of our surrenders are in one building, and we based this off the average LOS of surrendered animals in that building.

I'm also curious whether you use canned/template responses at different points in the process - for example, the initial resource email, an acceptance/appointment response, a "we can't accept right now" response, or a final decline.

--> First email is canned. We do have canned quick email for appointment reminders but we do not typically have other canned responses. Fun but we do have an auto text system for rehoming, so if you text "REHOME" to 865-355-627 you can see some of our canned follow up.

Best of luck!

Rachel, thank you - this is extremely helpful. I really like the idea of having the rehoming resources and Home To Home step occur before the surrender consultation rather than waiting until after an intake decision has been made.

I will be looking at your rehome kit. Thank you for sending it, and I have a couple of follow-up questions about what happens after that initial step.

When you say animals are "triaged based on need and date," how do you actually make that determination? Do you use a checklist, defined priority categories, a numbering/scoring system, or is it primarily staff judgment based on the consultation?

After the owner has received the resource email, posted on Home To Home for a week, and had the consultation, what determines whether the animal becomes a "yes," "not yet," or "no" for intake? Are there specific criteria that automatically increase or decrease priority?

For animals you determine you can accept, how far out are appointments typically being scheduled? And if you don't currently have capacity, does the animal remain in your managed intake system until space becomes available, or does the owner need to contact you again?

I'm also curious whether you use canned/template responses at different points in the process - for example, the initial resource email, an acceptance/appointment response, a "we can't accept right now" response, or a final decline.

We're trying to develop a more structured and consistent owner-surrender process, so understanding the mechanics of how another organization moves from the initial request to the actual yes/no decision would be incredibly helpful.

Thank you again for being willing to share what you've learned!

Hello! 

Unfortunately we are a non-profit with a municipal contract. While technically we are only contracted to take in strays, if we didn't take in owner surrenders we would have a lot more strays...

For those willing to share, we'd love to know:

·       Do you currently accept owner surrenders? If so, under what circumstances?

--> We do, we have a managed intake system. Animals are triaged based on need and date. Owners can request same-day surrender only for public safety risks and with the understanding that the animal will likely be euthanized if it's a public safety risk

·       Do you maintain a waitlist, use appointments, or make intake decisions case by case?

--> We use appointments, and each surrender is a conversation on need and any assistance we can offer.

·       Do you charge or request an owner surrender/intake fee?

--> We do have an owner surrender fee (waived as needed)

·       What questions do you ask to determine why the owner needs to surrender the animal?

--> We have a consult per surrender. This is post a general email that gives resources. Pretty much no matter what we ask that animals be posted on our Home to Home site for a week which allows us time to see an animal profile, and get an idea of the consult.

·       Do you have a formal diversion or "rehome" program designed to help owners keep their pets or find a new home without shelter intake?

--> Yes, our Pet Resource Center also handles our surrenders so they know best. We have pet food pantry, a low cost clinic (in-house), affordable spay/neuter and a behavior help line. We also offer supplies like crates, leashes, etc . Lastly, we offer a very limited Animal Haven program which is a long term board for those in crisis.

·       What resources do you provide-behavior support, veterinary assistance, pet food, temporary fostering, housing resources, rehoming websites, etc.?

--> Pretty much all of that. The caveat for temporary fostering is that it is on a strict basis (you need to have a sponsor/case manager essentially)

·       Do you provide financial assistance when the barrier to keeping the pet is something that could potentially be resolved?

--> Yes, we have a grant that we can utilize for medical costs if medical is the reason someone is looking to surrender. This grant is mostly for crisis medical. We do also have an in-house low cost clinic for the more managed issues.

·       If you do not accept the animal, what resources or next steps do you provide to the owner?

--> We have  rehoming packet that starts off every surrender. This goes into Home to Home, how to make a profile, and resources that also exist in the community

·       Have you changed the terminology you use with the public from "owner surrender" to "rehoming" or something similar? If so, has that made a difference in how people approach the process?

--> We have not currently. We do call our resources "rehoming resources" but we do distinguish PRC as assisting with "owner surrender" vs our regular "intake"

·       What has worked particularly well for your organization? And just as importantly, what have you tried that didn't work?

--> Works well: Our home to home does work and help divert several animals. The new low cost clinic has also been pretty helpful. I do think we need a lot more communication and transparency on our system as we still regularly have people come to us for same day surrenders and being frustrated that we cannot take the animals. We used to be a fully municipal shelter that had to do that - so community is used to it. It can be frustrating for people to be oh so happy we are now a no kill shelter and not understanding that these methods have helped get us here and I think we could use more conversations on that.

We're especially interested in actual policies, procedures, forms, resource lists, website pages, or programs that organizations are willing to share.

https://www.young-williams.org/pet-resource-center/  -- happy to share our rehoming kit email if you'd like it, just email ride@young-williams.org

Here is the full discussion response with that point included naturally:

Elle's House Animal Rescue is a small, home-based nonprofit organization, so our ability to accept owner-surrendered dogs is very limited. Like many rescues, we receive far more requests than we have space, funding, or foster homes available. Because of this, we review each request individually rather than guaranteeing intake.

We do accept owner surrenders in certain circumstances, but only when we have adequate space, quarantine ability, financial resources, and a safe placement plan. We also consider the urgency of the situation. Dogs facing abandonment, serious neglect, an owner's medical crisis, homelessness, domestic violence, hospice care, or immediate danger may receive priority. However, we cannot always accept a dog simply because the owner has given us a short deadline.

We do not maintain a traditional numbered waitlist because our capacity can change quickly. Instead, we collect information, review the circumstances, and make intake decisions case by case. When we may be able to help, we schedule a phone conversation, evaluation, or meet-and-greet before confirming intake.

Some of the questions we ask include:

• Why does the owner need to surrender the dog?

• How long have they owned the dog?

• Is there a specific deadline?

• Has the owner attempted to rehome the dog?

• Is the dog spayed or neutered?

• Is the dog current on vaccinations?

• Are veterinary records available?

• Does the dog have any medical conditions?

• Has the dog ever bitten or shown aggression?

• How does the dog behave around children, dogs, cats, and unfamiliar people?

• Is the dog house-trained or crate-trained?

• Are there specific behaviors making it difficult to keep the dog?

• Would help with food, veterinary care, training, supplies, or temporary placement allow the dog to remain in the home?

We do not currently charge a formal owner-surrender fee. However, when appropriate, we may ask whether the owner can contribute toward vaccinations, spay or neuter, veterinary care, food, or supplies. Many dogs arrive needing immediate medical attention, and our organization has no paid staff. We operate through fundraising, donations, adoption fees, and personal funds contributed by our family.

One of the most disheartening explanations we hear repeatedly is, "I just don't have time." As rescuers, it can be extremely difficult to hear someone describe a pet-a living being who depends entirely on them-as an inconvenience in an already busy schedule. My first emotional reaction is often frustration because I want to ask how someone can simply stop having time for an animal that has trusted them completely.

Even though that response is upsetting, we try to redirect the conversation toward solutions. We ask what specifically is taking too much time and whether assistance with exercise, training, food, veterinary care, crate training, behavioral support, or temporary help could make the situation manageable. Sometimes the owner is overwhelmed and can be helped. Unfortunately, other owners have already made their decision before contacting us. In those cases, our priority becomes keeping the dog safe while encouraging the owner to remain responsible and actively participate in finding an appropriate new home.

Whenever possible, we try to prevent surrender before accepting the dog into rescue. Depending on the situation and our available resources, we may provide pet food, crates, puppy pads, behavior suggestions, low-cost veterinary referrals, spay and neuter information, or help creating and sharing a rehoming post. We also encourage owners to contact trusted friends and relatives, veterinarians, trainers, breed-specific rescues, and reputable rehoming platforms.

We may provide limited financial assistance when the barrier to keeping the dog can realistically be resolved. As a small rescue, we cannot offer ongoing financial support, but we may be able to help with a bag of food, supplies, a low-cost vaccine appointment, or part of a veterinary expense when funding is available. We evaluate these requests individually because we must also protect the resources needed for dogs already in our care.

When we cannot accept the animal, we try not to leave the owner without direction. We explain honestly that we are at capacity and provide available contacts for local shelters, other rescue organizations, low-cost veterinary clinics, food-assistance programs, trainers, and rehoming websites. We also explain the importance of screening potential adopters, checking veterinary references, asking detailed questions, meeting all household members, and avoiding giving the dog away for free without verifying the home.

We increasingly use the term "rehoming assistance" instead of immediately describing every request as an "owner surrender." We have found that this wording encourages owners to remain involved and consider solutions instead of assuming that transferring the dog to a rescue is the only available option. It places some responsibility back on the owner while still allowing us to offer guidance and support.

What has worked best for us is gathering detailed information before agreeing to intake, being direct about our capacity, requesting veterinary and behavioral records, and asking the current owner to participate in the rehoming process whenever possible. Social media networking has also been helpful because, in some situations, we can help find an adopter or foster without bringing the dog into our home.

What has not worked well is accepting a dog based only on an emotional or urgent message without having complete information. We have learned that we must confirm the dog's medical needs, behavioral history, ownership, vaccination status, and actual deadline before committing. As a home-based rescue, accepting one dog without proper planning can create safety and health risks for every other animal in our care.

We are still developing a more formal written surrender and rehoming-assistance policy. Our goal is to create a standard intake questionnaire, owner disclosure form, resource list, and rehoming guide so that we can respond consistently while protecting the dogs already in our care. We would also be interested in reviewing policies, forms, and resource lists that have worked well for other organizations.

------------------------------
Debi Olivas
Elle's House
Founder
Bakersfield, CA
------------------------------

Hi Christine!

We are a limited admission nonprofit that houses dogs and cats; but we are the only shelter in our county (Clermont County, OH, just east of Cincinnati) that accepts cats, so we're basically the de facto open admission shelter for cats. We take in just over 2,000 cats a year, including stray, owner surrender, and transfers. For our owner surrenders, each January we set our parameters for what we accept, based on the data from the year before. We track all the people who make surrender inquiries, and that spreadsheet has a key for the reason for surrender. If we find that we are saying no to a lot of calls where the owner is allergic, for instance, we may re-assess the following year if that's a category we agree to take. 

The categories that we always take, and treat as urgent:

• Owner died
• Owner went into hospice/assisted living, or health is extremely compromised precluding proper care of animal
• Owner is homeless/was evicted
• Hoarding situations

We schedule all cat intakes, but we will bump these up on the schedule as "urgent" and try to get them in within a week. 

The categories that we take, but don't mark as urgent (so they're schedule usually 2-4 weeks out):

• Cats adopted from us
• Owner recently got the cat and found out they were allergic

Categories we virtually never take unless there's some extreme circumstance:

• Owner is moving
• Lifestyle changes (divorce, new baby, etc)
• Behavior issues
• Medical issues they can't afford (we also run a low-cost clinic, so we treat these at our clinic so they can stay in the home)
• Financial issues (we have a pet food pantry and low-cost clinic, so we refer them there)

Our front desk has this key every year, of what we take, and what we consider as urgent, so they take down all the information about the surrender in an excel spreadsheet (I'm happy to share that with you if you're interested); then they schedule the ones that meet the guidelines; and refer the others to other resources as needed. Occasionally they will ask our Cat Care Coordinator about cases that may not clearly fall in one of the categories and she makes the final call. We only take cats from within our county. 

Devon Smith

Executive Director

League for Animal Welfare

·       Do you currently accept owner surrenders? If so, under what circumstances?

Yes! We accept all kinds of owner surrenders from litterbox issues, feral cats, owners moving ect. There are things that we do not accept like litterbox issues that have been going on for multiple years and have been to the vet and nothing has worked, or aggression behaviors that are extreme.

·       Do you maintain a waitlist, use appointments, or make intake decisions case by case?

Yes we do if we have a lot of people wanting to surrender at a time. We do case by case if it is extreme circumstances for the people or the pet.

·       Do you charge or request an owner surrender/intake fee?

We do charge depending on the cat coming in. $25 for friendly, fixed, no problems. $50 for friendly, not fixed, no problems. $100 for cats that have known medical or behavioral issues. We also take from out of county once we help people in our county first and we charge an additional fee on top of normal fees for that. We do work with people who can not afford surrender fees. We have something called an "Angel Fund". Members of the public or volunteers donate to this fund for people who can not afford to surrender. We take from this fund when needed. 

·       What questions do you ask to determine why the owner needs to surrender the animal?

We do ask upfront why they need to surrender the cat. We also ask the following:

- Is it up to date on vaccines, has it ever been to the vet, has the cat ever bit before, any health issues or diet restrictions, behavior issues, litterbox issues, has the cat ever lived with cats, kids or dogs. When they come in for their appointment we go over many more things about the cat. 

·       Do you have a formal diversion or "rehome" program designed to help owners keep their pets or find a new home without shelter intake?

Yes! We tell people to go on a website called "Home to Home". They can rehome their own animal from their own house and can select who gets the animal. They create a bio for their animal and include pictures. If we have a little bit of a wait for surrendering to the shelter, we tell them to post on there as well to see if they can rehome it sooner.

·       What resources do you provide-behavior support, veterinary assistance, pet food, temporary fostering, housing resources, rehoming websites, etc.?

We do provide behavior support and things to try before surrendering. We have a pet pantry in the back of our shelter with a wide variety of items that are donated items to the shelter that we have an abundance of or can not use including; blankets, towels, dry and wet food for dogs and cats. Also offer rehoming website.

·       Do you provide financial assistance when the barrier to keeping the pet is something that could potentially be resolved?

Yes, have the "Angel Fund".

·       If you do not accept the animal, what resources or next steps do you provide to the owner?

Offer to call other humane societies, reach to breed specific rescues, and or home to home.

·       Have you changed the terminology you use with the public from "owner surrender" to "rehoming" or something similar? If so, has that made a difference in how people approach the process?

We have not changed the terminology. Would be curious to see if that helps.

·       What has worked particularly well for your organization? And just as importantly, what have you tried that didn't work?

Something new that we are trying is an online form that we created that people can fill out for surrendering their cat. Asks basic questions so our Cat Care Director doesn't get bun barded with cat calls all day long.