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Finding Your Companion a New Home
Having to find another home for a companion animal can be very traumatic for you and certainly for your animal. If circumstances make it impossible for you to keep or properly care for your animal and if you have exhausted resources such as trusting friends and relatives, please consider the following important information when deciding how and where to relinquish your animal. Don’t rush into a placement because you are pressured by time. If you are unable to find an excellent home for your animal, take him or her to an animal shelter operated by a humane organization. Don’t avoid a shelter just because it performs euthanasia. A humane death is far better than being “warehoused” for years in a cage or a cruel, slow death by disease, exposure, starvation, or being crushed under the wheels of a car. A peaceful end is certainly preferable to the lives that so many animals lead-tied to the end of a chain or kept continually in a garage or basement where fresh air, proper food, clean water, exercise, regular health care, companionship, respect, and love are in short supply.
Choose a shelter that (a) checks out prospective homes carefully by doing home checks; (b) requires spaying or neutering; (c) does not give or sell animals to research institutions or guard dog companies; and (d) would use a painless sodium pentobarbital injection intravenously (just as good veterinarians do) if euthanasia were to become necessary. Visit PETA’s page on animal shelters for more information on what to look for in a reputable, caring shelter.
If your animal friend is old, very shy, or very dependent on you, and you cannot find a home with someone he or she trusts and loves, the kindest course may lie in taking him or her to a veterinarian or shelter to be euthanized. Animals who have been with you a long time may suffer and pine terribly when you are gone. As a final kindness, remain in the room to comfort your old friend during euthanasia.
Never sell or give your animal to a pet shop. Persons operating pet shops are interested in making a profit and often have little to no concern about what happens to the animals after they leave the store. Without a thorough screening process, animals are sold to people buying on impulse and to people who are unfit to care for an animal.
WARNING!
There are people who acquire animals for laboratories or to sell as guard or attack dogs. These individuals often pretend to seek animals as family companions and bring children or senior citizens along with them to gain your confidence. Don’t think it can’t happen to you. Always ask for identification (legitimate callers will not object when you tell them why). Write down the person’s full name, driver’s license number, address, and telephone number and explain that you will visit his or her home (to ensure that he or she actually lives there). Ask for (and check) references from veterinarians, neighbors, and employers.“Free to a good home,” a buncher’s five favorite words. Many unscrupulous individuals obtain animals through ads and sell them to laboratories, use them in dogfights or rituals, or subject them to other torture. Click here for more information. To ensure that your animal is going to the best place possible, please don’t place an ad. Click here to find an animal shelter near you. For more guidance on selecting a shelter, click here.
Many people run these ads thinking that they are doing the best thing for the animals they have rescued and/or can no longer keep. Are there "free to a good home" ads in your local newspaper? At PETA, we routinely contact people in our area who place “free to a good home” ads and provide them with detailed information about the dangers that the ads pose as well as information about proper procedures for placing animals. Click here for more info on “free to a good home” ads.
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