For many families, the decision to surrender a pet is not one done lightly. The experience can be very painful, and full of uncertainty. We at Journey Home Animal Care Center understand that the surrender of an animal is difficult, and want to give those considering it more information about the process and the outcome as well as alternatives.
When considering surrender to Journey Home, we ask that you call ahead to see if we have space available for your animal. After that call, we can either accept or decline your animal. If accepted, we will schedule an appointment for you to come in during our working hours to bring in the animal, sign a variety of paperwork, and pay our surrender fee. These forms ensure that we have all of the necessary information to care for your pet, and can give their future adopter a full understanding of any concerns, history, or personality quirks. Veterinary records for your pet are also extremely helpful. Your surrender fee accounts for a partial cost of any veterinary care, food and boarding that your pet may need, and the labor needed to coordinate and intake your animal.
Surrendered pets are evaluated by our veterinarian, and when they are cleared of health and behavioral concerns they are made available for adoption. There are plenty of families who are looking for just the right pet, and surrendered animals are just as capable of finding new homes as our strays and transfers.
Taking in a surrender can take approximately two weeks or more, depending on how much space our facility has available. Due to this unavoidable wait, we also recommend several other alternatives to surrender. One alternative is courtesy posting, where we can assist with placing your pet on our social media page, our website, and Petfinder without having them in our facility. This allows potential adopters to contact you directly with questions on the animal, and for them to find their new home without having to be admitted to our facility. We also recommend considering training solutions if your possible surrender is due to undesirable behaviors. Many behaviors can be corrected through the help of an experienced person. Our staff are happy to provide recommendations of reputable trainers and sources of information on correcting behaviors. If you are considering surrender due to the cost of keeping a pet, consider visiting our facility or one of our mobile pet pantries for assistance with the cost of pet food or supplies. More information is available by calling (970) 625-8808 or emailing info@jhacc.org.
DISCLAIMER: This post has been reviewed by any pertinent staff members of JHACC. Artificial Intelligence has in no way been used to create this content, and it is considered correct to the best of our knowledge as of the date of publication.
