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  • 1.  Owner Surrender to Foster

    Posted 08-14-2025 08:26 AM

    Our shelter, like many others are doing  OS by appointment only.  Are any of your shelters doing an Owner to Foster program?  If so, can you share any SOP's, applications, statistics?

    Thanks, 

    Amber


    #FosterPrograms

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    amber francisco
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  • 2.  RE: Owner Surrender to Foster

    Posted 08-23-2025 05:32 PM

    I was previously on the board of a small rescue that did trial a program like this. We did have one successful Owner to Foster dog. Unfortunately, the majority of cases we felt we got burned on since the owners ended up rehoming the animals despite having signed a contract. It also became uncomfortable to have posted animals for adoption only to have to backtrack to our followers/applicants. The program was discontinued after we felt that our time, energy, and financial resources would be better spent focusing on animals in shelters. 

    I would be very interested to hear some successful takes on this though! I think it would definitely help with the foster shortage.



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    Olivia Wilhelm
    Founder/Director
    Friends of Felix Senior Dog Rescue and Sanctuary
    New York
    www.friendsoffelix.org
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Owner Surrender to Foster

    Posted 08-24-2025 10:15 AM

    We let owners foster on occasion. We're a small rescue, but we're nationwide so there are areas where we just can't get a foster and we would like to try to get the dog placed. We've been fairly lucky. Just had such a case in Michigan. We actually lined up two adopters and had issues with both. :(  One dropped out and the other got the dog and I always call or text our adopters (several times) to see how things are going. She said she was not letting the dog get away with anything (which to me was a warning sign) and then she said she was getting a trainer but had to wait as he was busy. She dropped that he uses an e-collar and I got right back to her "An electronic collar?" We're talking a 6lb Maltese and I immediately said she violated the contract which she did and the owner got the dog immediately.  We're all about positive reinforcement and we spell it out in the adoption contract and talk to the adopters. It really helped that the owner and I were clearly doing the best for the dog but this woman talked the opposite of what she was doing. We found another terrific adopter and the owner couldn't thank me enough for the hard work put in. Most cases like that went smoother. The only issue I came across is that the owner raises the dog a certain way and sometimes overlooks unwanted behavior. Having a real foster have the dog in his/her home they see and correct behaviors and put that time in before adoption. Or they also get the dog out of a house with terrifying children (which is the reason some give toy breed dogs up) and the dog is able to de-stress before that next step. All we want to do is help the dogs in need and avoid owners dumping them in shelters which are so overcrowded and scary for little ones.



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    Susan Leavitt
    National Coordinator, East Coast, President of the Board
    American Maltese Association Rescue
    New York NY
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Owner Surrender to Foster

    Posted 08-24-2025 11:37 AM

    We are a small rescue with a small shelter building, and for over a year now we've been administering shelter services for the city in a separate small building.  The city has no language regarding owner surrenders, just strays, so typically the few owner surrenders we take are the "emergencies."  The only surrender-related owner to foster program we offer is our "puppy program" whereby the owner surrenders the litter of puppies to us but agrees to foster them until we can get them placed.  They sign a contract that explains that they must also agree to let us spay the momma dog (daddy dog gets neutered if they have him).  They get their momma dog back at no cost to them.  If they have friends or relatives that want a puppy, they have to adopt it from us.  We vaccinate, worm, chip, and sterilize the puppies at no cost to them.  If they cannot agree to our terms, we decline their participation.  People are so happy to find an outlet for their pups and get their momma dog spayed for free that they gladly comply.  When we put the pups up for adoption, we forward the applications to the foster the same as any other.  We've only had one non-compliance issue when the foster brought in a bucket of puppies (literally), said he could no longer care for them and quickly left.  They were all "littles" so we were able to place them quickly.   Having a pet brought in unexpectedly is always a risk when anyone fosters as is the legal liability for that pet while it is in foster.  We can usually get help with puppies but if we had adult animals brought in without a place to put them, we'd be stressed even more than normal.

    We encourage people who want to surrender their pets to use the Adopt-a-Pet rehoming service.  Additionally, we offer them a courtesy listing on our website.   Since we use ShelterLuv and we built a courtesy post application, this is an easy process for us.  We only post adult pets (6 months or older), and we keep the owner information confidential.  If we get an inquiry about a pet, we forward it to the owner to follow up with the person inquiring.  We make it very clear that courtesy listed pets are not in our custody and are not being offered for adoption through our program.  Periodically we send out emails to the listed owners requesting update status and if they do not respond within a designated timeframe, we remove their listing.   



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    Cindy Huth
    Volunteer
    Denison Animal Welfare Group (DAWG)
    TX
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Owner Surrender to Foster

    Posted 08-25-2025 05:54 AM

    Hi Cindy, your Rescue sounds a bit like ours. And I think we are going to implement an owner Foster contract. We've never done that. It's always been a verbal or text agreement. Generally, we only do it when we are scheduling a transfer of puppies out to a partner rescue in Colorado. And twice while working with an animal control entity in a different town, puppies that were committed to transferring were adopted out without our knowing until the very last second. That's always frustrating because our rescue partner has of course arranged for fosters on their end. They're expecting a certain number to come in and maybe the hardest part is that because it's last minute they can't fill those spots with other puppies. It actually happened two transfers in a row with the same AC and I had to stop accepting owner Foster arrangements from them because rather than understand understanding how that affects everyone else they became belligerent. Luckily, they are the exception, most are so grateful to get a litter gone all at once and knowing they're going to a truly outstanding rescue in Colorado, they are happy to comply.  having them sign a contract might help us reduce the number of back outs. So thank you!

    New Mexico is one of the places, and it seems to be all over the state except for a few pockets of more responsible ownership, where we just need to get as many puppies and dogs out as we can. The overpopulation issue is massive. In my area we do have two free spay neuter clinics. They do thousands of surgeries a year and it still estimated to be about five years before we see a reduction in the number of unwanted litters.



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    JUDITH PEARSON
    President
    The Dixon Animal Protection Society
    NM
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    Original Message


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