7 reasons to adopt your next best friend.

Adopting is the most effective way to break the cruel puppy factory supply chain – and by offering your heart and home to a rescued animal, you’ll not only be enriching your life, but also saving theirs!

If you’re thinking about extending your family with a four-legged friend, here are seven great reasons to adopt from a rescue group or shelter:

All good rescue groups have an application process to ensure that you’ll be perfectly matched with your new friend — think of them as matchmakers! By finding out more about you, your living arrangements and lifestyle, they can match you up with the paw-fect candidate.

The ultimate aim for pet rescue and adoption organisations is to find loving, permanent homes for the animals in their care. This means that both the animal and their new human companion need to be suited to each other. So the more information you can provide, the better your chance of finding your four-legged soul mate.

As long as animals are purchased from pet shops and online, cruel puppy factories will continue to exist. Don’t let pully mills take advantage of unwitting people — or subject dogs to lives of misery — for the sake of profit. Adopting from a rescue group or shelter is the simplest, most powerful way to take a stand against puppy factory cruelty.

Rescue groups, foster networks and animal shelters help animals who have been forgotten, abandoned or given up on through no fault of their own. These animals ask for little more than the chance to share their lives with someone who loves them — especially those who have never been given the chance before. By adopting from a rescue group, you’ll not only be making a friend for life — you’ll be saving one.

Tragically, all types of companion animals can be victims of cruelty, or may be surrender for various reasons, from border collies to bulldogs, rabbits to ferrets, and just about every companion animal you can think of. All of them deserve a loving home. So make adoption your first option whenever you’re in search of a new four-legged or feathered friend for life.

Due to the sheer volume of purebred and ‘designer’ dogs in need – many of whom would likely have come from puppy factories – volunteers have established groups with the aim of assisting these dogs with finding their forever homes. For a list of rescue groups in Australia, check out Savour Life’s ‘Adopt a Dog’ responsible adoption site, PetRescue’s rehoming directory, or head over to The Rescue Network to view listings of dogs (and cats!) awaiting adoption.

Good rescue groups will ensure that any dogs, puppies, cats or kittens adopted out will be vaccinated, desexed, wormed and microchipped — all of which is included in the adoption fee. Often, animals are cared for by dedicated volunteer foster carers until their forever homes can be found. This allows for them to be properly assessed in a home environment — which can be really helpful if you already live with animals or children, as foster carers can provide helpful insight into the behaviour of animals in their care.

Your money won’t only go towards making sure your new friend is happy and healthy, but it’ll help the organisation save more lives. You can’t get a better deal than that.

Older animals are tragically often the last to be chosen — and the first to be euthanised. Senior dogs and cats can find it particularly difficult to cope in new, strange environments like shelters and pounds. Thankfully, there are rescue groups assisting in the transport and foster care of these special animals, with the aim of getting them into more suitable environments — and matching them with someone who can provide the love and friendship they are only too happy to return. We like to think of older dogs and cats as ‘friendship experts’ — after all, they’ve got years of experience behind them!

Every time an animal is adopted to a forever home, a place is opened up in the rescue and foster care network for another animal in need. So when you take your bestie home from a rescue group, they’ll be able to start the rescue cycle over again with another lucky animal.

One kind act = two saved lives!

Right now, thousands of dogs and puppies, cats and kittens — and many other animals — are ready and waiting for their perfect someone to come along. Could it be you?

If you’re thinking about adopting, head to Savour Life’s ‘Adopt a Dog’ responsible adoption site or PetRescue.com and meet some of the animals in your state currently in need of a forever home.

Not quite ready to commit to a furred or feathered family member for life? Consider temporary foster care. You can enjoy the company of a rescued animal temporarily, while still saving their life. Learn more about becoming a foster carer.