People sometimes don’t understand why The Animal Protectorates has such an in-depth adoption process – it’s just an animal, right? No, not to us. Not to our mission.
The Animal Protectorates is a rescue organization whose mission is to care for orphaned pets as if they are our own – suddenly left alone in the world. We approach every adoption with that in mind – if that pet were ours and something happened to us would the contemplated home be where we would want our own pet to live. What we are looking for specifically is a home where the pet will be safe; well cared for (mentally and physically); where they will have a low amount of stress; and, any other factors that that we realize the specific pet needs after the extensive amount of time we take to get to know them.
In contrast to our mission are shelters, some humane societies and other types of rescue organizations (with municipal contracts to do animal control) who don’t have the luxury of time and therefore their mission is different because of necessity. Many of these shelters don’t have the resources to care for the number of animals they are required to accept (they must intake any animal from their jurisdiction). Their mission is to adopt animals to almost anyone willing to take them. With the volume of animals coming in exceeding the number of spaces available, these animal shelters must act with a sense of urgency to place the animals because their days are actually numbered.
We realize that we are very fortunate to be able to keep our Scholarship Pets (we call them that because they get sponsored living, food and care like a person gets a scholarship to school) for as long as needed to get to know them and be rigorous with the adoption standards we use to find what we feel is a matched home for them. Isn’t that what you would want for your own pet if they were suddenly left alone in the world?
These animals have been somewhere before, but we generally know nothing about their past – except the trauma they have gone through during a stressful transition from living in a home, then to the shelter, now to our care. We press pause for them. We get to know them and their inclinations – a glimpse into what they know, their fears, and what makes them happy. One of our major goals for the Scholarship Pets is to build them a Homing Dorm – a comprehensive space where they will live in a home-like setting with a living room and kitchen space. The Homing Dorm will also have confidence building activities; a designated area for volunteers to work with them (no matter what the weather is like outside); and a meeting area where potential matched families can get to know them over time prior to the final adoption.
Please help us get to our Homing Dorm goal and make a donation today!