Humane Indiana Shelter has added www.home-home.org a new interactive tool to help pet owners who can no longer keep their pets. The Home To Home™ program gives pet owners the opportunity to find new, loving homes without having to surrender them to the shelter. Through the program, pets can go from one home right into their new home. The program also offers potential new owners the opportunity to communicate directly with the current owners, providing firsthand information about the animals.
Home To Home’s user-friendly, re-homing website for dogs, cats and other animals, requires filling out a brief online form, uploading a picture of the pet, and hitting “submit.” The site also serves as a resource to help families find a pet through a “search” feature. The service is free to use; however, there are some rules to the site, such as no money is allowed to exchange hands. Re-homing fees don’t lead to better outcomes for pets, but quality communications will. Humane Indiana Shelter personnel will monitor the site to ensure that the rules are followed.
“This program is ideal for pets that are used to home life,” said Jessica Petalas-Hernandez, Shelter Director, Humane Indiana. “Bringing a pet to any shelter is stressful and scary for them. So avoiding a shelter is best for the pet,” she explained. She added that most pets are surrendered due to unavoidable living situations. She urges pet-owners to use the Home to Home tool as soon as they discover relocation is necessary.
Home To Home™ link can be found on Humane Indiana’s shelter web page www.humaneindiana.org/shelter and pets are also promoted on Humane Indiana’s Facebook page to help generate interest. While re-homing pets through Home To Home™ will alleviate the need for some pets to be surrendered to the shelter, it will not be suitable for all pet re-homing needs. As always, animals may be surrendered directly to our shelter.
Humane Indiana’s participation in Home To Home™ is due to the generous support from a Maddie’s Fund Grant, #ThankstoMaddie. Our share of the Maddie’s Fund Grant covers the cost of our organization’s own Home To Home™ branded website www.humaneindiana.home-home.org and a year of web hosting.
To learn more about Humane Indiana visit HUMANEINDIANA.ORG or call 219.513.8911.
Humane Indiana is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization.