Animal Welfare Professionals

I am the oddball. I am a nonprofit organization that rescues, rehabilitates and rehomes reptiles. I know reptiles are not for everyone. I am currently doing adoption events at my local Petco as a Petco Adoption Partner. I am looking for other venues and suggestions on where you think my animals would have a chance at getting adopted. I like Petco because they can get all the supplies they need. I feel awkward becoming an adoption partner with Petsmart because I am already a partner with Petco. Do I need to get over it and just use any venue that will allow me

#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms

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Suzanne Burgess
Director
Aunt Annas Reptile Rescue
CA
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Years ago, we were in Petco as well as PetSmart. Currently, we use PetSmart and have cats in one Pet Supermarket. As long as you are careful not to "mix" branding, it shouldn't be an issue, but are you able to go to different Petco's in your area?

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Candy Sullivan
Managing Director
Candy's Cats, Inc.
FL
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Suzanne,

I personally love reptiles and we rescue them as well. I would say reach out to Petsmart. It's all about giving the animals the best chance at finding a forever home and I think the retailers understand that. Do you have any small family owned pet stores near you? We partner with three family owned franchise type pet stores for our pet food bank. Two have offered to host an adoption event for us.  In exchange we list them on our website as community sponsors and share social media shoutouts. 

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Lisa Burn
Co-founder/VP
Farmhouse Animal & Nature Sanctuary
Myakka City, FL
https://farmhousesanctuary.org
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I'll give you an oddball answer! When I worked in animal control, I was sent to a comic convention to inspect a reptile show. Of course, you're not a performing artist and would probably have to pay your way in, but consider if there are other local events drawing folks who might also be interested in reptiles. Steampunk, comics, anime... 

When I lived in Illinois, a friend brought me to ReptileFest, an event run by the Chicago Herpetological Society. If you haven't already, I'd recommend networking with them to see if they can give you pointers. My understanding is that they rescue and adopt out a lot of reptiles, although I may be mistaken.

Maybe community parties, library events, etc. See if schools would be interested. Showing up to these would be more about visibility than direct adoptions.

Here's a shot from the hip, but see if there are any local non-reptile rescues that you might team up with. Maybe you can put fliers on their tables to get more visibility for your rescue, or you can join in local parades together, etc.

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James Pawlowicz
Humane Rescue Alliance
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You could try reaching out to local universities/colleges that have maybe herpetology clubs or classes, or even any animal care/wildlife classes and clubs. Some of them have reptile shows or you could bring some available reptiles into their classes and meetings so they can learn about the reptiles and maybe someone would want to bring one home with them!

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Laurel Nelson
Cat Welfare Supervisor
Nebraska Humane Society
NE
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