Animal Welfare Professionals

Reply from discussion thread, "Why People Interested in Pets Leave the Shelter Empty Handed"

Most people only visit a shelter once in their life, and I think there is stigma around shelters, as well as uneasiness from the general population as our community hasn't always been presented the most positively.  At Brother Wolf, in the month of July we have had 131 adoptions so far and the greatest factor that contributes to that is our policy of open adoptions.  Some people who come into a shelter may be worried they are going to be judged, and a lot of shelters' take a very black and white approach.  At Brother Wolf we are not looking for reasons to say no to someone, but looking for all the reasons we should say yes.  By having open adoptions it becomes more conversational based adoptions, where we can educate potential adopters from what they've given us.  Sometimes people go into a shelter, and are immediately denied when asked, "do you have a yard?" "do you have a home?" "can you afford food?" this can cause an immediate barrier on our end by then closing the adoption if they don't have the "right" answer but may also stop that person from ever going to another shelter again resulting in funding more breeders and puppy farms.   Through conservational counseling, letting go of biases, and the goal of saying yes we have made it possible for a tremendous amount more of animals to go home. I attached our adoption training with examples of open conservation practices and ASPCAs guide to open adoptions.