Adopt a Pet for the Holidays

Many shelter employees have mixed feelings over families adopting animals during the holidays. They feel that people will make an impulse adoption and will then later return the animal back to the shelter after the holidays.

But Mike Arms, president and CEO of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, California, says "why not" to animal adoptions during the holidays. Arms said, “All these people are going to get a pet anyway. If shelters close their doors – they are only leaving themselves out as an option. The public will get pets where they can, from backyard breeders or pet stores. Now, you have an impulse purchase about to happen, which is exactly what you don’t want. Most shelters today screen people, so not all pets are adopted to all families. There’s a great deal of effort to match the lifestyle of the family with a pet’s personality. The backyard breeders and the pet stores are all about their love of the buck.”

After his years of experience, Arms noticed that animals adopted around the holidays are less likely to be returned to the shelter.

[Source: Steve Dale's Pet World]