CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE THROUGH EMPATHY AND COMPASSION
Thinking about rehoming or surrendering your dog?
First, please review the resources below that may help keep your furry family member in their loving home.
Have you made the hard decision to rehome your dog but can continue to care for them till a new family is found, a minimum of 3 months? Then please look into our Friends of METTA Rehoming Assistance Program below, in the blue section.
Unable to care for your dog and must surrender? We often do not have foster homes available to accommodate the vast number of surrender requests we receive each day. Please use the search tool at the bottom to search for a no-kill shelter near you.
Friends of METTA Rehoming Assistance Program
Have you made the difficult decision to rehome your dog? METTA Rescue Family is not currently accepting owner surrendered dogs. Instead we'd like to support you in self-rehoming your dog.
This program is limited to Florida residents committed to caring for their dog for a minimum of 3 months. Dogs must be spayed/neutered and up to date on their rabies vaccine (or have a medical waiver). If you do not qualify for our rehoming assistance program, we would encourage you to still create an Adopt-a-Pet profile for your dog, through the link found in step one below, to help you rehome your dog.
How does it work?
This step is only available for FL residents that can keep their spayed/neutered dog for at least 3 months.
Once approved . . .
You continue to provide a loving home for your dog.
Adopt-a-Pet will help you find, screen, and meet potential adopters, as well as collect the rehoming donation.
Your dog's Adopt-a-Pet profile will be added to the Friends of METTA webpage.*
We will make an introductory post for your dog on METTA Rescue Family's Facebook page.*
Your dog will be shared in METTA's monthly newsletter, as long as their Adopt-a-Pet profile remains active.*
You will be provided with a rehoming checklist for things you can do to help get your dog into a safe new home.*
*Only available for FL residents that can keep their spayed/neutered dog for at least 3 months.
If you must surrender your dog,
look for a closed-admission shelter
As a final option, a closed-admission shelter (often referred to as "no-kill" shelters) would be a safer option than a county open-admission shelter. Open-admission shelters aren't able to turn animals away, causing them to possibly have to euthanize animals for space. Closed-admission shelters can turn animals away when they don't have space available, usually require an appointment, and don't have to euthanize due to space. However, they may euthanize for certain medical issues and if an animal shows aggression towards people or other dogs. Keep in mind, even if your dog has never shown any signs of aggression previously, you never really know how animals may respond to being in a stressful environment. We recommend you contanct the no-kill shelters near you to find out more about their specific protocols.
Best Friends Network
About 800,000 homeless dogs and cats are killed each year in America's shelters. That means around 2,200 animals are killed every single day. They are being killed because they don't have a safe place to call home. Those dedicated to no-kill want to end the killing of animals in shelters. To be considered no-kill, 90% of the animals the shelter takes in cannot be euthanized for reasons other than major medical or behavior.
The Best Friends Network is made up of over 2,600 no-kill shelters, rescue groups (including METTA Rescue Family), spay/neuter organizations, and other animal welfare groups across all 50 states. Every partner in the network has one common goasl: to save the lives of homeless pets.