After months of declining animal intake numbers during the pandemic, local nonprofit Street Paws is starting to see intake numbers rising again as owners relinquish their pets to the shelter. Today, the shelter is releasing an urgent plea to the pet-owning public: Please consider the shelter as the last resort for your beloved pet. If you are able to adopt your pet from your loving home directly to another, that may be the better alternative.

“We understand that many people in our community are in danger of losing their homes right now and will need to find new homes for their pets,” says Street Paws President, Kristi Butler. “We empathize with you, and we want to help, but we have limited resources. If you have any lead time at all, we are asking that you post your pets on the Rehome website and try to find a new home that way, leaving the shelter as a last resort.

Rehome is a program of Adopt-a-Pet.com, the nation’s leading nonprofit pet adoption web service, is free to use and provides a lot of support for those needing to find a new home for their pets. In addition, the adoption fees collected can be donated entirely to Street Paws. Visit https://street paws.org/about-us/important-re sources/ and click Re-homing your Pet.

To learn more about Street Paws and their adoption process, visit https://streetpaws.org/adopting/available-pets/ to start your pet search. You can also find their pets, along with privately-owned pets in your community needing homes, on Adoptapet.com.