Rehoming Your Pet
Richmond Animal League is not an open-intake facility, which means our shelter does not have the capacity to take pets from the public, either as strays or owner surrenders. We are obligated under these circumstances to encourage you to use your local animal control services or to take advantage of our courtesy listings and other rehoming options.
Rehoming keeps a pet out of the stressful shelter environment and results in a more comfortable transition from one home to another. Rehoming is an excellent resource for pets who may not do well in a shelter, like older pets or pets with medical issues (be honest in your rehoming post about any medical or behavioral issues).
A healthy pet is easier to rehome.
Make certain your pet is up to date on all age-appropriate vaccinations and provide copies of the vet paperwork to their new family. If your pet is not spayed or neutered, we highly recommend getting this done. In order to be listed on RAL’s courtesy listing site, your pet must be sterilized. Learn more about our clinic for options.
Are you rehoming because of behavior issues?
Our staff is happy to help provide behavioral resources for your pets’ training needs, to help you keep your pet, or to prepare them for a new family. Check out our Behavior Resource Library for tips and tricks on managing behavior challenges.
Are you rehoming your pet due to unexpected financial strain making it difficult to provide food or medical care for your pet? Please see our Pet Food Resources and Medical Resources pages!
Independent Rehoming Resources:
Network in your community
Reach out to friends or family.
Create flyers, and post them to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Next Door, Craig’s List, on the church, work or veterinary/pet store, restaurant, and coffee shop bulletin boards.
Make colorful and creative flyers highlighting special information about your pet.
Visit rehome.adoptapet.com to create a profile of your pet, and it will be seen by millions of pet adopters.
You then will have the ability to review applications on your pet, as well as meet possible new adopters.
Rehome will provide you with everything you need to protect the transfer of your pet ownership. It is simple, safe, and FREE.
Petfinder is a for-profit internet company that operates the largest online pet adoption website serving all of North America. The company reports that it currently lists more than 315,000 adoptable pets from nearly 14,000 animal shelters and rescue groups.
While you are not able to list your pet to rehome on PetFinder, they do offer resources and tools on their site.
Need help today? Fill out a short survey to post an animal in minutes.
Within 2 hours, Rescue Me will send information about your animal to hundreds of adopters in your area interested in your breed.
Many people receive adoption inquiries the same day.
Courtesy Listing Instructions:
To assist in independent rehoming Richmond Animal League does offer the opportunity to post your pet as a courtesy listing on our website. This offer only applies to pets who are sterilized and up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations.
To submit a courtesy listing request:
Visit our Courtesy Listing Page and click on “Sign Up” at the top of the pet list to create an account. (Adoption results from a courtesy listing are not considered RAL adoptions.) For support with your pet’s listing, email us at rehome@ral.org
Write a bio for your pet
Include fun tidbits about your pet, his/her likes, and personality. It's tempting to write all the negative reasons up-front, but using positive language can help find an owner who can meet your pet's needs, while also being transparent about your rehoming reasons.
For ex: Needs a lot of exercise can be reworded as “ will make a great running buddy”
Needs a lot of attention can be reworded as “loves spending time with people”
Hates other dogs can be reworded as “ needs to be the only pet or your one and only”
Also, remember that the word “children'' has a different meaning to everyone. Someone might consider an 18-year-old a “child” and see “no children'' as a reason they cannot adopt, but your pet might only need a home without toddlers. Use the profile to showcase your pet.
Provide your name and contact information (please note that only the legal guardians of a pet can submit a courtesy posting). This information will be visible on our website so interested parties can reach out to you directly.
Your pet will appear on our Courtesy Listings page on the RAL website.
Please note: Should your pet have a bite history, please contact us with more details for further approval.
Pets Adopted from RAL:
For pets adopted from RAL, we can offer a return request, however, can we not guarantee intake or a timeframe as our primary commitment is to our rescue partners to pull pets at risk of euthanasia.
In between these commitments, we work through requests for pets adopted from our shelter.
The first required step for our return request is to take advantage of our courtesy listings (see instructions above), along with completing this questionnaire.
