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  • 1.  Policy on Accepting Returned Animals

    Posted 08-22-2024 12:45 PM

    I founded the nonprofit Washington Adoption Center for Retired Research Animals (WACRRA) with the mission to rehome retired research animals through successful adoptions. I have a question regarding policy for adopters who would like to return the animal they adopted--would you be able to share some of your policies so I may learn from them? This has not been an issue yet, but I would like to be prepared in the event it does happen. Thank you!


    #AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
    #Rehoming

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    Holly Nguyen
    Founder and President
    Washington Adoption Center for Retired Research Animals (WACRRA)

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  • 2.  RE: Policy on Accepting Returned Animals

    This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous
    Posted 08-23-2024 02:36 PM
    This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous

    In general most rescues require animals be returned to them if the adopter can't care for them anymore. Not much more detail to it! The main thing is that you'd have to be prepared to have space for a returning animal. If you can't actually take an animal back because you have no fosters or kennels, and the adopter can't find a new home on their own, they will be forced to surrender it to their local animal control/services.

    That's a situation happening now with the rescue group I recently joined as a volunteer. Someone needs to return a dog because it's becoming too dangerous for their small child, but nobody can foster the dog and they don't have a facility. They've tried to help the adopter but all attempts to mitigate the dog's behavior haven't worked. Not sure what's going to happen but I feel like they failed the adopter by requiring and promising to take dogs back, and now they can't.


    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Policy on Accepting Returned Animals

    Posted 08-24-2024 12:07 AM

    Good morning!

    The rescue I volunteer with requires in its addition contract that all cats be returned to us, should the adopters become unable to keep it.  We have been fortunate to always have been able to honor that.  If there is no foster home available, we have been fortunate to partner with a cat boarding facility for short term stays until a foster opens.  We are always very thankful to those adopters who honor the contract by returning their cats and never shame them.  They are doing a hard thing, and doing exactly as we asked.  

    We emphasize at adoption that we know life can change and that we will help our adopters with any situation that arise and always take the cat back gladly if there is no solution.   There is no way to know that we always get out cats back, but we lay the foundation that our adopters are part of the family and they can rely on us to have the best interest of the cat always.  



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    Diane Metz
    Board of Directors, Volunteer, and Foster Mom
    Orange Street Cats, Inc.
    Albany NY
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Policy on Accepting Returned Animals

    Posted 08-24-2024 07:05 AM

    I'm a co-national coordinator for a  breed specific rescue and in our contract we have where the new adopter agrees to returning the dog (at any time in his/her life) if the adopter cannot keep the dog for any reason. They can suggest someone they know who might take the dog but it must be cleared through us. Since we're national and are a foster based rescue, the adopter agrees to pay any return costs to us. We've had several dogs returned to us because owners get dementia, go into assisted living or a nursing home, pass away or have fallen on hard times. It's part of why we try not to adopt out too far from the dog's foster. It's  part of our commitment when we rescue dogs to care for them for the rest of their lives and never put them in jeopardy of being dumped, going to un unsafe home or ending up in a shelter. It's not easy but we don't want to fail them like other people did. 



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    Susan Leavitt
    National Coordinator, East Coast, VP Board
    American Maltese Association Rescue
    NY
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Policy on Accepting Returned Animals

    Posted 08-24-2024 09:05 AM

    Hello! We are a small cat rescue run out of homes. Because of this, we didn't want to require or promise to take in the animal in case we didn't have the ability to do so at the time. Our adoption contract requires that the adopter at least contact us and give us 72 hours to determine if we are able to take the animal before they can make any arrangements on their own. We have only been open since January this year, we have had only 1 return due to a health issue so far. It was a complicated situation but the cat ended up being way older than we were told during intake, so we took her back and after an expensive hospital visit, we made her a long-term resident of our rescue. We were able to find another cat for the adopter and just switched them out.



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    Jeffrey Boegli
    Secretary/Treasurer
    Kitty Rescue Corp
    New Port Richey, FL
    https://kittyrescuecorp.org
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Policy on Accepting Returned Animals

    Posted 08-25-2024 05:38 AM

    We are a farm and exotic animal sanctuary/rescue. It's written into our adoption contract that if for any reason the adopter can't keep the animal they adopt they can return the animal to us. There is also a note in the contract that if the adopter knows someone who may be interested in adopting the animal that they can suggest that person to us and we have them fill out the adoption application. We have had guinea pigs and bunnies returned. 



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    Lisa Burn
    Co-founder/VP
    Farmhouse Animal & Nature Sanctuary
    Myakka City, FL
    https://farmhousesanctuary.org
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Policy on Accepting Returned Animals

    Posted 08-26-2024 10:50 AM

    If it's within 30 days of adoption, we will accept the pet bac k with no surrender fee and no waiting period (to the best of our ability as it of course depends on space!).

    If it's been more than 30 days, they go through our normal surrender process (with a $25 surrender fee and possible waitlist depending on our current space/number of surrenders before them on the list).  We do offer a number of pet retention programs to try to help the pets stay in through homes, including training resources/covering training fees, pet food or supplies, and pet deposit payments for rentals. 

    https://rvspca.org/resources-education/crisis-intervention-services/



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    Erin Dams
    Community Relations Coordinator
    Roanoke Valley SPCA
    Roanoke VA
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    Original Message


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