Animal Welfare Professionals

Good Afternoon,

 I am looking for some advice or assistance that occurs often at our shelter. I am the adoption manager at the Capital Area Humane Society in Lansing, MI.

 We often have adoptable pets that are placed on a prescription diet which then creates a barrier to adoption. Patrons are often hesitant to adopt an animal that has known additional expenses. We usually waive the adoption fee to assist the adopter, but prescription food can be extremely expensive. These pets, as friendly as they can be, often wait many months for their forever homes.

 I am wondering if you have any suggestions for resources for adopters that are in this situation? We would love to give adopters some resources to share with them.

 I look forward to hearing from you.

Hi, Anne

We are an all-volunteer all-foster home based cat rescue that "specializes" in difficult cases.  Some of these cats have not infrequently ended up on prescription diet and lifetime meds.  One thing we've done for the ones we know will be on our payroll, so to speak, forever is to creat a Forever Foster program.  We pay the vets care and medication bills and the Forever Foster caretaker provides the love and all litter and supplies, etc.   We have found this to be especially useful to senior folks who want to adopt, but are hesitant due to the spectre of bill vet bills with any cat they might adopt.  We try to use it sparingly, for obvious financial reasons, but for those cats that languish in foster care for months or even years, this can be a win-win-win.  We free up a foster home, the cat gets a home to call their own, and the caretaker gets someone to love.  

Hi Anne,

In Denver, we have a pretty awesome Pet Food Pantry program that is very active in distributing pet food to owners with socioeconomic challenges. They are not allowed to give out prescription food, although they get a large amount donated to them - usually from great pet guardians whose have lost their pets due to age or illness.  We collect that food to use for our fosters and send a couple months worth home when they are adopted. We then tell the adopters that if they are struggling to purchase the food, we will continue to look for their variety at the Pantry and obtain it for them when possible. We are very clear that the availability varies greatly and we may not always be able to help them, but at least it gives them an occasional break from purchasing the food.   I have also found that many vet offices are willing to donate recently expired prescription food to rescues as well.

Hope that at least gives you some food for thought! Best of luck, Susan