How Do You Adopt an Animal?

This post is brought to you in association with the RSPCA. 

Adopting an animal is a really noble and kind act.  It not only gives an animal a second chance at a happy life it also reduces the demand for pets for sale.  Call or click on the website of a UK charity that cares for animals, such as the RSPCA, to search for animals available for adoption in your area.  They will always have animals available for adoption because there are more animals than there are people to care for them and irresponsible or unintentional breeding means that the UK’s cat and dog population is booming.

Photo via Amber Dubya

The vast majority of people in the UK take good care of their pets and other animals.  But there is a significant minority of people who abuse, neglect or abandon their pets.  Wild animals can become injured by people, other animals or traffic and need help becoming rehabilitated to the wild or caring for in the long term if that is not possible.  In the UK, the task of caring for pets and animals that need help is not undertaken by the government because the cost to the taxpayer of doing so would be huge.  Instead, a UK charity like the RSPCA has to take on the challenge – and expense – of giving care and protection to animals. 

A key part of caring for those animals is finding good, permanent homes for them.  Unfortunately not all animals can be adopted, perhaps because of ill health or because they have an unsuitable temperament.  The RSPCA tries very hard to make all of their animals adoptable by giving them proper medical care and behaviour therapy to help them become suitable to be someone’s pets.  Those animals deemed fit for adoption might only be recommended to experienced pet owners, or to households with no other pets or children.

The RSPCA advertises the animals in its shelters as being available for adoption as and when they are capable of being rehomed.  Volunteers and staff working at the animal shelters can advise people as to which particular animals in their care would be a good match for their particular homes.  They therefore need to ask a lot of questions to make sure that they know enough about the prospective adopters, their home and their family to be able to match them to the right pet. 

Sometimes they need to visit a prospective adopter’s home to check things like whether there are very busy roads nearby and what steps have been or can be taken to keep an animal like a dog safely contained in the garden.  The RSPCA might then make a further visit after the animal has been adopted, to check that the animal is settling in well to its new home and to offer any advice needed.

Photo via Sonja McAllister

If you do choose to adopt an animal through a UK charity such as the RSPCA, be prepared to answer all of their questions honestly and to heed any advice they may offer.  Their only intention, when asking these questions, is to find the right pet for you.  They do not want to have pets returned to the shelter if they can possibly avoid it!