Some people want to adopt a pet or help animals but they don’t want to adopt the responsibility that comes with it. Or maybe it’s not so much they don’t want the responsibility as it is circumstances prevent them from taking it on. (Such as they work too much, don’t have the room to keep a pet, or live in a place where pets aren’t allowed.)
Yet, they’re still able to adopt a pet. How? Through pet adoption programs like the ones I’ve listed below.
If you want to adopt a pet, but can’t, or, if you’re like me and are already at capacity in your household but still want to help other animals, why not consider sponsoring a pet instead?
7 No Responsibility Pet Adoption and Sponsorship Programs
1. Sponsor an abused, neglected, or abandoned dog or cat through the ASPCA. (In their email that they sent out, they suggested a gift of as little as $18 a month could provide vet care and behavioral therapy in addition to food and shelter.)
2. Give to the SPCA’s One Dog, One Day, All the Difference program. As little as $10 can give a dog “one more day, one more week, one more month to find a forever home.”
3. Sponsor one of the Best Friends Animal Society’s sanctuary animals for $25. There are lots to choose from. (The cool thing is you can choose from dogs, cats, barnyard animals, bunnies, birds, or wildlife.) View their pictures and read their stories to see which animal you’d be happiest sponsoring.
4. Participate in the Elephant Sanctuary‘s Feed an Elephant for a Day program. You get to pick the elephant from a list that tells you fun facts like how much they eat and what their favorite food is. Starts at $30 to feed one elephant for a day. ($540 will feed all 17 for a day!)
5. I’m kind of partial to gorillas, and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International provides an opportunity to adopt a gorilla and perhaps help save the species in the process. Adoptions start at $50 for an infant, $100 for a mother/infant pair, and $300 for a silverback.
6. The Defenders of Wildlife have a Wildlife Adoption Center where you can choose from 24 different adoptable species. Prices start at $20 (for animals such as bald eagles, sea turtles, or penguins) and go up to $250 (for a giant wolf). You can adopt single animals or as a mom and baby “package,” by the family, packs, colonies, or groups.
7. The World Wildlife Fund has an animal adoption program similar to the Defenders of Wildlife, but they offer over 80 animals to choose from. (Including three new ones for Halloween: black jaguar, Tasmanian devil, and wolverine.) Also, adoption prices are fixed at $25, $50, or $100. (You get different goodies based on the amount you pick.)
What You Get When You Adopt
Speaking of getting things when you adopt, the cool thing, and what this article is all about, is you don’t have the physical effort and time commitment responsibilities that come with caring for an animal. You send in your gift or donation (or whatever it happens to be called at the place you pick) and right away you have the satisfaction that you’re helping animals in need.
Yet, many of these adoption centers also give you mementos to thank you for helping out with your monetary donations. Sometimes you also get pictures of the animal you adopted, or certificates, fact sheets, subscriptions to an organization’s newsletter or magazine, or a plush animal representations of the kind you adopted.
It’s a nice reminder that you did something good in the world.
Did You Know?
Adopting pets for others also makes a nice gift. Especially if you know someone who’s nuts about a certain species.
Courtney Mroch also writes in Pets and Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.
Related Articles
Five Non-Cash Ways to Help Animals/Shelters This Holiday Season
How to Put Your Shopping Dollars to Work Helping Animals
79 Animal Rights, Welfare, and Service Organizations Worthy of Your Donations