Adoption Articles 

How to Sell Policymakers on Fee-Waived Adoption

May 2013
It’s been proven that free pet adoptions save lives, but some communities prohibit the practice. Animal advocates in Alachua County, Florida persuaded their County Commissioners to change their restrictive policy with patience, personal relationships, research and statistics.  Read More

Free Pet Adoptions: Study Results

November 2012
The University of Florida surveyed 1,928 adopters from a fee-waived adoption event and concluded that successful adoptions do not require a fee; free adoption promotions can increase adoptions without compromising the quality of a pet’s life.  Read More

The Truth About Free Cat Adoptions

August 2012
Research has proven that worries about free cat adoptions are unfounded. Now fee-waived adoptions are catching on in animal shelters nationwide.  Read More

Marketing Resource Guide

September 2011
Nothing boosts adoptions like great marketing. For some clever, out-of-the-box marketing ideas, take a look at these great resources.  Read More

A Place for Second Chances

November 2010
Discover how great customer service, marketing and out of the box ideas enable the Oregon Humane Society to adopt nearly 11,000 healthy and treatable dogs and cats each year.  Read More

Adoptable Ideas

January 2013
Do your Pits need some pizzazz? Looking for ways to give your bully breed dogs an image makeover? Need some tips on creative and successful strategies for finding homes for your Pit bulls, Pit mixes, and Pit-appearing dogs? Take a look at these ideas and resources.  Read More

Breed Stereotype and Effects of Handler Appearance on Perceptions of Pit Bulls

November 2012
Would posing an available pit bull in a picture with a child or elderly woman enhance the perception of the dog's friendliness and adoptability? You bet.  Read More

Muttville Nation: A Community in Love with Senior Dogs

September 2012
Older homeless pets - even those with age-related illnesses - do not have to be a big adoption challenge, says Muttville founder Sherri Franklin. Muttville has placed over 1,300 senior dogs since 2007.  Read More

Adoptable Ideas

September 2012
Wondering how to inspire people to take a second look at some of the pets who keep getting passed over? The Humane Society of Indianapolis shares a few promotions guaranteed to turn the spotlight on those harder-to-place pets.  Read More

One Good Story Can Raise Funds to Save Lives

May 2012
Bonney Brown, Executive Director of the Nevada Humane Society, capitalizes on the stories of special needs animals to find the pets homes, underwrite their care, pay for the rehabilitation of nearly all the treatable dogs and cats in the shelter, and generate more awareness and financial support for the entire organization.  Read More

Seeing Dogs as Individuals Key to Managing Behavior Problems

November 2011
An innovative program to evaluate and rehabilitate shelter dogs as individuals leads the way in helping dogs with all kinds of behavior challenges find lasting, loving homes.  Read More

Incorrect Breed Identification Costs Dogs Their Lives

February 2012
Can you be sure of the breed of dogs in your shelter? A recent study suggests that visual identification of breed is unreliable.  Read More

Using Data to Make Austin a No-Kill City

March 2012
Today, Austin has a save rate of 91%. That wasn’t the case just four years ago when 44% of the animals coming into the Austin Animal Center were losing their lives. Dr. Ellen Jefferson recounts how she used the shelter’s data to figure out bottlenecks in the system and develop and fine-tune programs to fill in the gaps.  Read More

Feline URI in Your Shelter? Have a 'Cats With Colds' Clearance!

February 2012
A great idea became a winning marketing tool at the Dane County Humane Society - and found new homes for cats with colds.  Read More

Our Hearts Are Ready: Are Our Shelters? Editorial

October 2011
It's a deadly mistake for shelters to assume that animal lovers won't open their hearts and homes to the most challenging cases in their care.  Read More

Marvelously Mature

September 2011
Senior pets may have an advantage with some adopters. Maddie's Fund surveyed several successful senior pet adoption programs, and found out what it takes to tap into a senior-friendly adoption market.  Read More

Bully for You!

May 2011
Special events are significantly increasing pit bull adoptions in Erie County, New York.  Read More

Humane Society Silicon Valley: Going the Extra Mile for Animals in Need

January 2011
Saving animals with treatable health and behavior conditions is the focus of this Northern California animal shelter.  Read More

Sherri Franklin: Fairy Godmother to Senior Dogs

June 2010
Sherri founded Muttville, an organization devoted to finding homes for senior canines, and in just three years, has placed nearly 700 dogs.  Read More

Solving the Pit Bull Problem

February 2010
Even though 70 to 80% percent of the dogs at Berkeley Animal Care Servicesin Berkeley, California are pit bulls or pit bull mixes, the dogs aregetting adopted. Read how the City of Berkeley does it - and how yourcommunity can, too.  Read More

Defenders of Pit Bulls

2006
Pit bulls have a friend in BAD RAP.  Read More

Finding Homes for Senior Pets

2007
Shelters find that many adopters have a "soft spot" for graybeards.  Read More

Saving Hard to Place Pets Editorial

2008
If animal welfare leaders are serious about wanting to end the killing, every animal welfare organization is going to need to sharpen their marketing skills to get the hard to place animals adopted.  Read More

Imperfect Pets for Imperfect People Editorial

2006
Unless shelters plan to get in the breeding business, it might be time to think about how to find homes for hard to place animals.  Read More

It Happened at EXPO: A Summary of Maddie's Daylong Workshop

2009
Maddie's eight-hour workshop, Is An Adoption Guarantee Really Possible? Four Steps to Success held in Las Vegas at The HSUS Animal Care EXPO, drew more than 200 attendees interested in saving the lives of their communities' healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats.  Read More

Pet Adoption Events at Shopping Centers: Everybody Wins

May 2012
Wouldn’t it be great to have thousands of potential adopters walk by your available pets in a single day? You can, with an adoption event at a busy shopping center - and it’s not as difficult as you may think. Find out who to contact, what to say, what you’ll need and when to make the approach.  Read More

Mingle With Our Mutts: A Successful No-Frills Adoption Event

2004
Shelters get together for a simple, easy, cheap, and effective adoption event.  Read More

SPCA of Texas

2000
The adoption, PR, and fundraising benefits of a strong offsite adoption program.  Read More

Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley

2004
Located in a bad part of town, HSTV took their pets to the people.  Read More

Furburbia

2002
Finding a site in a popular shopping mall works wonders for adoptions.  Read More

Maddie's Shelter Medicine Conference

November 2009
On October 23 and 24, 2009, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine hosted the second annual Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Conference in Gainesville, Florida. Eight power point presentations from the conference are available for viewing. They include: transitioning to adoption guarantee, creating a pet evaluation matrix, top adoption and marketing strategies and foster care.  Read More

Meet Your Match: Does It Deliver?

2006
Color coded systems matching dog behaviors to pet owners preferences: how it works, and what the shelters who are using that system have to say about it.  Read More

The Pros and Cons of Dog Transport

2006
How good of an idea is it to ship animals from over-populated shelters to communities with dog and puppy shortages?  Read More

Dog Transport Editorial

2006
When outside puppies and small dogs are imported, they'll get adopted while old and ugly local dogs languish in shelters and eventually get euthanized.  Read More