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Shelters Are in Crisis.
Approximately 6.5 million animals entered U.S. shelters in 2023. With limited resources and too many animals in their care, shelter professionals are working overtime to give animals what they need.
Together, we can save lives. By adopting or fostering from your local shelter, you give one animal the love and care they deserve and create space for the next animal who desperately needs it. Our actions can ease the strain on shelters and support the professionals who dedicate their lives to helping animals. Who knows? Your life might change in the process, too. That’s The Rescue Effect.
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Adoption Resources
What to Expect When Adopting
Animals aren’t looking for perfection, they’re looking for loving homes. The ASPCA’s resources can help during every stage of your adoption journey.
Before You Adopt
Before welcoming home a new companion, prepare your home, your schedule and your budget.
After You Adopt
Use our guides to help you bond with and care for your new companion.
Our Role in The Rescue Effect
The ASPCA partners with local shelters and provides tools, training and relocation services to give more animals opportunities to find homes. Here are some of the ways this work helps animals.
Our Shelter Medicine Services team works directly with shelters across the country through remote and on-site consultations. Their work has impacted almost 500,000 animals since 2002. With more veterinarians board-certified in Shelter Medicine Practice than any other sheltering organization in the world, we operate the largest training program for future shelter medicine specialists.
Additionally, the ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center (BRC) and Cruelty Recovery Center (CRC) provide sheltering, veterinary care and behavioral care for hundreds of the most in-need and vulnerable dogs – victims of neglect, abuse, natural disasters and more. The BRC includes teaching spaces where the ASPCA hosts shelter professionals from around the country, sharing strategies they can take back to their own facilities to help the animals in their care.
As the largest transporter of adoptable shelter dogs and cats in the U.S., we also partner with shelters and rescues across 40 states to safely relocate over 250,000 animals to regions where they will have a better chance of adoption.
“The ASPCA has been a partner and friend to our team in the midst of massive devastation. We needed to get animals to safety, and you organized transports and let us use your facility. We lost our vans, and you gave us one of yours. We needed funds, and you provided emergency grant relief. Brother Wolf is stronger today and will rebuild stronger in the future thanks to the ASPCA."
Leah Craig
Executive Director, Brother Wolf Animal Rescue
Hurricane Helene Response
“For me, fostering a senior dog was very important,” Katherine says of Sailor, an eight-year-old Shih Tzu whom she took in during his recovery from a severe injury to his right hind leg. “They’re so sweet and loving and often get overlooked. There’s some work involved, but it made me a better person and it was rewarding to see Sailor gain confidence.”
Katherine H.
Adopter
“With more animals entering shelters than leaving, we need to continue working together to keep pets in loving homes and out of shelters. The ASPCA partners with shelters and rescues nationwide to help animals through relocation, training, sharing resources, and we ask the public to join us by adopting, fostering and volunteering.”
Matt Bershadker
ASPCA President and CEO