Morning Side BARC

There are three main ways to adopt a pet for your family. The location of the pet really depends on what type of breed you are looking for. In this article we will discuss mostly dogs and cats, how to adopt them, and where to adopt them.

The three main ways to adopt a pet include a breeder, private owner, or retail location. The retail location can be a pet store or humane society. First let’s discuss a breeder. If you are going to adopt a dog or cat of a specific mix, you are going to want to find a breeder that offers that particular combination. Most often you can find a breeder through an online internet source that gives you a description of the breed. You will want to check out a few breeders to compare the cost of that pet, as well as the facilities. You should never exchange money until you have seen the dog or can be guaranteed the breeder has the animal’s best interests at heart. Most often, adopting through a breeder is going to be expensive, and they do not pay for vet costs once you have adopted the pet. In other words, if you have exchanged the money but haven’t picked up the dog, any vet visits will be for you to take care of, even neutering or spaying will be out of your pocket.

With a humane society, you will find any pet is going to be neutered or spayed before the animal will be released. This type of location offers rescued animals, pre-owned, and occasionally new pets. The retail stores will be the same depending on what city you are located in. Although some retail stores will just have specific breeds directly from the breeders. In these places you cannot adopt a dog or cat until it has all of the proper shots and has been neutered or spayed. They will also be looking into your background.

In fact, both the breeders and retail shops are going to want your history. They will ask why you are adopting a pet, perhaps even stop by your home or ask where it is located, as well as call some references. Most places will not allow a pet to be adopted until they are satisfied that it is going to a good, “forever home”.

With private owners you will experience something a little different. Private owners are not breeders, but someone who can no longer take care of their pet or has had a litter of kittens or dogs. It is very easy to adopt from most private owners as they have the pets up for free or a small fee. You will be responsible for the neutering or spaying. Also, the fee is usually less than the humane societies and breeders. The conditions may be less than stellar for some homes. It will depend on where you have found your pet. You always want to make sure the cat or dog is healthy and has had at least one visit to the vet before private adoption.

Anyone who has ever started looking around for an animal to add to the family knows that getting a new pet can be very expensive, and it seems almost impossible to find a free pet. Many breeders ask for several hundred dollars, even for the smallest dogs or cats. Golden Retrievers are usually $700 to $800, Maine Coon cats can cost up to $900 or $1000, and rare exotic animals run much higher.

However, considering all of the pets in the world who are currently homeless, and are living in animal shelters without a loving family, it seems unreasonable and nonsensical to spend hundreds of dollars for a pet when there are so many who need to be saved.

While there are a number of animal rescue organizations and pet shelters around the country, there is only one resource which you should always start with, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

Healthy Pets Aren’t Always Free

Before we examine why it’s best to start with the ASPCA, which does charge some fees for adopting and rescuing pets, it’s important to note that it is possible to find a free pet, if you are careful and follow a few important guidelines.

Searching through the classified ads in the newspaper or online classified ads like PetsAds or PetsClassifieds.us, you can locate listings for free pets that people are giving away. It’s critical to understand that most free pet ads are from people who are giving away their pets for the following reasons:

They are moving to a place that doesn’t take pets.

They can no longer afford to have a pet.

They found a stray, but can’t keep it.

These are usually well-meaning people, but keep in mind that if they have a pet that they can no longer afford to keep, the pet may not be 100% healthy. If you do decide to take the classified ad route, just remember that most of the things that the fees pay for at the ASPCA, you will have to pay for anyway – including all shots, medical checkups and neutering.

It is perfectly okay to find free pets on your own, just remember that pets are never “free”. You will need to pay for the up-front (and continuing) health care for the rest of it’s life.

ASPCA and Pet Adoption

The ASPCA is a wonderful organization that helps to promote animal shelters and rescue organizations that take excellent care of animals across the country. At the ASPCA Website, you can adopt and save homeless animals in the following ways:

Find a Shelter

By clicking on the “Find a Shelter” link, you are taken to a search page where you can search for local animal shelters by city and state. The ASPCA doesn’t technically endorse the shelters listed by this utility, but it provides the search function to animal lovers who need a resource to find local shelters.

This is a very comprehensive National Shelter Directory, and it is a service to help families with lots of love to offer to connect with animals that need the love. Buying a pet from a local shelter is essentially like getting a free pet, because the fees to adopt a pet cover many of the upfront medical costs you were incur if you’d picked up the animal as a stray or free from a classified ad. Animal shelters take care of the upfront health concerns, so that when you adopt a pet from a shelter, you can be certain that the animal is healthy and well cared for.

In addition, many shelters offer a unique incentive for people to have their pets properly neutered by offering a discount or refund for the procedure with local vets.

ASPCA Adoption Center

The ASPCA Adoption Center provides listings of hundreds of cats and dogs who need a home. The main page of the adoption center explains everything you will need in order to adopt a pet. This is good to read even if you aren’t going to the ASPCA, because most shelters require the same information. Things you will need if planning to adopt a pet:

· Two forms of identification with your address on it (at least one picture ID)

· Two personal references who can be reached by phone

· Proof of vaccination for the pets that you already own.

· Proof of income

While this may seem excessive to some people, it’s important to understand that there are a lot of people out there who would not think twice about harming or being cruel to animals. The job of the ASPCA and all animal shelters across the country, is to protect animals from cruelty, and to make sure that animals are placed in homes where they have the best chances of being as loved and cared for as they deserve to be.

The benefits of adopting through the ASPCA (many animal shelters offer these same benefits):

14 days of free follow-up vet care

A leash, collar, and pet carrier to help bring the animal home

Educational literature about pet behavior and pet care

Free spay/neutering, vaccinations, microchipping and registration, all provided as part of the adoption fee.

 

Obviously, the only good option for finding a free pet is going through the ASPCA, or through a local animal shelter. This will ensure that you are getting a healthy pet, and you can feel good about doing your part to save an animal from a live without a home, and without love.

Support Animal Rescue Efforts With a Portrait

When you adopt your new pet, show people how much you love your new furry friend by having a pet portrait done by professional artist Nikky Hughes of Los Angeles. Nikky was classically trained at the Mission Renaissance art school, and she focuses on capturing not only the beauty, but the unique character of each animal. She will accept photos through the mail of pets, and then create stunning portraits from those pictures. Pet portraits are ideal because they can be done from a photo (as apposed to getting the pet to “pose” at a studio.)

The great thing about Nikky is that she’s a pet lover herself, and this is reflected in how she runs her business. Nikki donates 5% of every commission to an animal rescue foundation. This is a wonderful way that you can help to support the cause of animal rescue – and receiving a stunning portrait of your new pet in the process.

[NOTE: The advice that follows is based on the recent experience of a Morningside area resident who stuck herself with a used needle while cleaning up after her dog, and on her research of public health resources and doctors' advice. Be warned that she is not a medical expert.]
If you stick yourself with a discarded syringe, don’t panic but do seek medical advice as soon as possible.
Treatment to forestall possible infection with Hepatitis (types A and B) and, in the unlikely worst-case scenario, HIV needs to begin very soon – within hours to about a day – in order to be effective.

1. If possible, save the syringe/needle. While it’s not routine to run tests on the needle (because there’s usually not enough moist blood in/on it for effective testing), it can be helpful for your doctor to examine the syringe and see what type it is and how fresh it seems to be. The longer the needle has been lying there, the better off you are (although you’ll probably still need a tetanus shot).
Experts believe that HIV doesn’t live for more than a few hours outside the human body. Hepatitis can live longer and is much more infectious. The less blood is in/on the syringe, the better. The kind of disposable syringe usually used by addicts is less dangerous in terms of accidental disease transmission than a syringe that a health-care worker would use to draw blood, because the needle is smaller and less blood (or none) is actually drawn back into the syringe. To carry and store the syringe safely, it’s recommended that you put it in a screw-top glass container – tip downward, of course.

2. If you can make the needle-stick wound bleed, do so. That helps to flush it out. Hold the wounded spot below your heart so blood will flow to it. Then wash it well (with antibacterial soap if available) and put a dressing on it.

3. See a doctor promptly. The New York City Health Department suggests visiting the Riverside Clinic, on 100th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam (call first: 212-865-7757). It provides HIV and Hepatitis screening/treatment for free, plus it’s one of the few locations where you can have truly anonymous testing done. [However, visiting your regular physician and/or an infectious diseases specialist is helpful.]
The doctors’ potential concerns were, in descending order of seriousness: HIV, Hepatitis, tetanus, and simple infection.

- HIV is apparently extremely unlikely in this context; you may be comforted to know that the CDC has no documented cases of HIV transmission resulting from an accident involving a discarded needle outside of health-care settings. Nevertheless… your doctor may give you an HIV test immediately, even though an infection from the needle accident won’t yet show up. (They do this in order to establish that you don’t already have HIV so their reporting is accurate.) You can then be tested again in six weeks, by which time a new infection would show up. If your doctor feels there is any realistic risk that you may have been exposed to HIV, he or she can prescribe a course of powerful (i.e., unpleasant) anti-viral drugs that must begin immediately.

- Hepatitis A and B can both be prevented from developing if you start the immunization process within a couple of days of the incident. Several vaccinations over a period of six to nine months are needed to provide full immunity. There’s no vaccine for Hepatitis C but there are treatments, so your doctor will probably test you for that too.

- Tetanus booster shots are necessary if it’s been years since your last one. No big deal!

- And in terms of simple infection, keep an eye on the wound and make sure it’s not getting red or swollen. If it does, ask for antibiotics.

4. Take precautions. The CDC recommends that, for the sake of others’ safety, you should act as if you have a serious infectious disease until you know for sure that you don’t. In other words, don’t share body fluids or donate blood or organs until you know you’re in the clear (the CDC says six months). Also check in with your doctor if you notice a fever up to six months after your needle-stick.

5. Finally… Ask lots of questions and make sure your fears are taken seriously by your doctor(s), even if you know the odds are strongly in your favor.