Animal Rescue of Stokes County

Do you have a pet you can no longer keep for economic reasons? Have a stray animal came up to your property and you cannot keep it due to economic reasons? Has a loved one died and left you to care for their beloved pet, but your unable or unwilling to?

There are many reasons why keeping the family pet is not in the best interest of the pet or the family, we want you to know that you do have options rather then taking it to the local shelter.  Keep in mind, our shelter makes every effort to rehome adoptable pets, but there are only a few of them and they have 60-80 animals a WEEK coming through their doors.  The sad fact is, most people think there is something wrong with animals at the shelter and choose not to adopt from there, when the truth is there are very loving and very adoptable pets at the shelter.  However, the Stokes County Animal Shelter's primary purpose is Animal Control, not an adoption agency.  Therefore, only 2% of the animals that come through their doors make it out alive. Every Thursday, the animals in their care, with the exception of puppies and kittens under 6 weeks of age, are euthanized in a gas chamber.  There are exceptions and they do work hard to place the highly adoptable pets, however room dictates how many for how long.

If your like most of us, that is not an acceptable way reward a beloved pet who has spent its life knowing love and care just becuase their owners can no longer keep them. We understand that there are times when the animal must be placed, here is how Animal Rescue of Stokes County can help.  Even though we are not able to take the pet into our orgainzation, for we are sadly lacking in foster homes, we have 2 foster homes which are bursting at the seams.  There are a few steps you can take to help us help you and that animal.  Please read how you can ensure the pet in your care does NOT end up dying prematurly when there are options available to you.  In the event we do have an opening, we can take your pet if it fits into our guidelines for adoptability.  We do require a $50.00 surrender fee to aid in the cost of vetting and maintaining that animal unti it is placed.  A small price to pay to ensure your pet is safe and going into a situation where it can be cared for and loved for the remainder of its life. 

Please note we can help but we cannot do it all, we are only a few people.  But we are dedicated to this cause and to the animals in our county by assisting and placing as many as we can in loving homes.

This is one of five we recently placed, Zues.  This little boy ended up with a Dobie Rescue group in IL.  We check the groups out taking our referrals before we send them ensuring they place the same value that we do on these animals. We do not send any animals we assist in placing to individuals, only groups in our approved network.

We are very successful in placing animals once we have all the information we need, we have about a 92% placement rate.  However, it does require some effort on your part as well, we cannot do it all.  What we need from you to help you is this:
 
1. A close up shot of the animal's face, a sweet look where the animals personality shines through.  Preferably shots where the animal is relaxed and having a good time work best. The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is extremely true in this case. 

2.  We need a side body shot, to get an idea of the animals size have the animal standing beside someone.

3. We need any information that you can provide of what you know of the animal, i.e., male/female, altered, shots if any (records must be included if you have them), personality traits, what you have noticed if anything like is he/she good with children, other pets, is it reserved and timid or playful and loving.

4. Your contact name and number and the best time to reach you.  The group who will accept the animal will most likey be contacting you, or we will put you in touch with them to work out details of pick up for the animal in need.

5. It is your responsible for caring for that pet and its safety until we get a group to accept it, you will be responsible for driving the first leg of a transport with the pet, alot of times groups from out west or up north take these animals in, we set everything up.. all you have to do is get the animal to its location to meet the next person on the transport.  The most you would drive is an hour to an hour and a half... the first leg... there are usually 6-9 people taking the time out of their lives doing the very same thing on that day to get the pet to its destination.  All the people on a transport drive this amount of time to save these kids.

Why would I do all of this you ask just to get rid of my problem or a problem someone dumped off on me?  The truth is many won't, many people just want the problem to go away without any effort on their part, they would rather see the animal dead then give some of their time to ensure it will survive and live a long and happy life. And for those people, we are not your solution.  Your solution is the animal shelter, where it will assuridly be put to death by gas.  However, for those of you who are willing to put a little effort into saving the animal we are eager and willing to assist you. And at the end of the day, you have a saved this animals life and you having done something worth while, something to feel really good about. 

Until there is another solution for this county, an adoption center that is capable of taking in all kinds of animals at any time, (which we are working on developing)  and you cannot find anyone in your group of friends or family to take the pet, then this is your only humane solution that you can feel that you did everything in your power to help this animal.

If you are willing to meet our guidelines, we are here for you.  Please fill out the form and hit sumit, once we review your situation, we will contact you on what to do next. Remember, we are an all volunteer organziation, there are only two of us, we have lives outside of our rescue efforts, so it may take 24 to 48 hours to respond, but we will respond.