If you are reading this, you may be a shelter's visitor, volunteer, or employee, and would like to help a pit bull (or pit bulls) in a shelter. The animal may not have a lot of time and hopefully PBRC can help you save it by getting exposure for him or her. Note that rushing an adoption to get a pit bull out of a shelter may not be doing the dog a favor. If the dog has less than two weeks of availability, we suggest working hard to find him a foster home.
First, you may want to contact specialized rescue groups in your region to see if they have room, but don't set your hope too high. Most pit bull rescues are overloaded and will probably tell you they are full.
PBRC cannot take dogs either as we are not a dog shelter. We don't maintain a database of referrals and all the foster homes we know are full. PBRC's mission is to offer free Internet exposure for pit bulls in need, as well as to provide adoption information and breed education. All of the dogs available for adoption on the web site are in independent foster care or animal shelters. PBRC is not responsible for the dogs featured in the web site, or their placement. The dog's best chance is for you to find a foster home or extend his/her availability at the shelter until a home is found.
Be advised, it can take months to find the right home for a pit bull. The dogs should be temperament tested by someone experienced with this before being approved for adoption. While people-aggression should not be tolerated with this breed, animal-aggression, to a certain degree, is to be expected with a fighting breed. If the shelter doesn't have the staff to evaluate dogs, it may be in everyone's best interest to not adopt out impounded pit bull type dogs other than to specialized groups that take precautions and only adopt out pit bulls with sound, stable temperaments.
The dog should be spayed or neutered and have current shots. Please do not rely on spay/neuter contracts, especially with popular, indiscriminately-bred breeds, like pit bulls. Responsible, caring individuals would rather adopt an altered dog, while dog-fighters and other unsavory individuals prefer intact dogs. You will increase the dog's chance of finding a good home if s/he is altered prior to adoption.
When the dog has been evaluated and approved for adoption, we invite you to list him/her with PBRC to help get the word out about him/her. You will need to fill in the listing form. Make sure you have the director's approval before submitting shelter dogs to PBRC.
Note: The descriptions of the dogs should be written in collaboration with shelter staff. Please verify the shelter's policies concerning out-of-state adoptions, adoption fees, spay/neuter, home visits, etc. Ask the staff to visit PBRC or print out this page and any other page(s) with pertinent information.
When you are contacted by potential adopters or receive an application, you should print out the post and/or the application and give it to the adoption coordinator at the shelter who may want to take it from there.
PBRC receives applications every day from people who want to adopt a pit bull. Our volunteers carefully review the applications, rate them, comment on them, and forward them to the caretakers of the dogs selected by the applicant. This is only a pre-screening service and we advise that information included on the application be verified, and that additional screening be done by the shelter, including reference check and home visit. If the shelter is open to out-of-state adoptions, PBRC may be able to help arrange a homecheck if we have volunteers near the potential owners.
Please avoid same sex-placements and multiple-dog homes, and do not place a pit bull without providing essential breed information to the new owner(s). You need to understand these dogs in order to find a good home for them. PBRC has a breed-information page that contains excellent information. Take the time to read it so you can, in turn, educate potential adopters.
Our recommendations page was specifically created for caretakers that are fostering and placing pit bulls. Check out the screening page for tips on evaluating potential homes.
Don't rely ONLY on the listing with PBRC to place a dog because, as you'll notice, there are a lot of pit bulls available in the site. Other ways to advertise include posting flyers at veterinarian's offices, groomers, pet stores and anywhere there is a public bulletin board.
There are many places online to advertise, too, including www.1-800-save-a-pet.com and www.petfinder.com. Kyler Laird also has an excellent listing of on-line rescue organizations, and you may be able to find other virtual shelters on that site. Check out our Links page for additional rescue resources.
We hope these suggestions are helpful. Good luck and don't hesitate to email us if you have additional questions. |
