Features

November is the Time for Thanks

Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month, National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week and Thanksgiving mean that November is the time to give and receive thanks. Animal welfare is often seen as a thankless job, but it is important to find the thanks – even if it is silent. Each time you have grateful eyes looking up at you, consider it a thank you for the care you have given. Each time you have a successful adoption, consider it a thank you for the love that you have provided. Each time you hear from Petfinder.com, consider it a thank you for all your tireless efforts.

Shelter Challenge Contest

Keep voting in the $100,000 Shelter Challenge! Visit the Animal Rescue Site to see where your group rates in the challenge – and then use the tools provided on that site to get the word out to your supporters.

Congratulations to the winners so far!
Week 8: South Wood County Humane Society
Week 7: Natchitoches Humane Animal Shelter
Week 6: Rhode Island SPCA

November is Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month

Encourage your adopters to ‘Fall in Love’ with a senior pet in November. Happy to curl up on your couch or at your feet, older animals’ demanding days are past and concentration is on company. Make the mature pets in your shelter or foster homes stand out – give them special fancy collars or beds; ask a professional photographer to donate his or her time to create great portraits of your adoptable seniors; or have a special senior adoption event at your normal off-site venue.

Blog Highlight

With lots of people, come lots of animals. New York City’s Animal Care and Control handles about 44,000 animals each year. As a response to try to keep those numbers as low as possible, they created the Safety Net Program. ...Read More.

Promote Your Pets beyond Petfinder

Featured Pet Module

Any Web page can feature adoptable pets, just as we do on the Petfinder.com homepage. Click here to access a file that you can take to local businesses to get them to target your pets. Or, tell them to visit our Featured Pet Module page. This module features one pet at a time. You can specifiy that the module draw from the pet list of one adoption group or many.

Add Petfinder's Pet Search to Your Site

Our Pet List Scroller dramatically increases visitors to your pet list. Your whole pet list can be featured on any Web site. Use this to show off your Adoptable, Stray, or Happy Tail pet lists. You can specify just your organization or several.

From Our Library

Basics of a Successful Adoption Program

It is the responsibility of the animal shelter to seek permanent, responsible homes for the adoptable animals placed in their custody. To that end, shelters need to formulate written policies and guidelines that will be followed when processing adoptions.

While the majority of adoption guidelines are in fact just that, they are still items that must be considered prior to making an adoption decision. It is not effective to rely solely on the individual discretion of the adoption counselor.

It is impossible to act in the best interest of the animals if there are no guidelines. Animals should not be adopted just to prevent euthanasia or haphazardly without forethought of the animal's welfare.

Acting as the temporary guardian of an animal and making a "correct" determination about adoption placement is a difficult task (continued...)