I Need Help With My Pet

Santa Fe Animal Shelter wants to help prevent shelter surrender, whenever possible. We believe the best place for a companion animal is in their home with the people who love them. Santa Fe Animal Shelter’s CASA program, Community Assistance for Santa Fe Animals, is a safety net program that assists qualifying pet guardians. We may be able to assist pet guardians with access to veterinary care, low-cost vaccines and spay/neuter, pet food, and more. Guardians must live in the City or County of Santa Fe. If you need assistance with your pet, please get in touch with our CASA Program at 505.983.4309 ext. 1141.

If you are in crisis and need assistance for yourself or your family, here are some resources that can help:

Pet Food Bank

The CASA food bank offers free food and supplies to qualifying dog and cat guardians within Santa Fe county and city. For current or new food bank members, please contact CASA directly with any questions at 505.983.4309 ext. 1141 or email casa@sfhumanesociety.org.

Behavior and Training

Santa Fe Animal Shelter recommends partnering with a professional to address your pet’s behavior and training concerns. SFAS has a comprehensive behavior and training library and links to other libraries and training resources to help you and your pet build and maintain a loving bond.

If your pet is displaying concerning behaviors like fear, stress or aggression, we recommend that you establish care with a certified trainer and a veterinarian to try and address the behavior issues. There are some medications, forms of mental stimulation, and calming collars, scents, supplements and treats that may help.

Veterinary Resources

Santa Fe Animal Shelter believes that every animal deserves the best care possible, regardless of circumstances. We have 2 veterinary facilities to provide our community with access to high quality care and a wide variety of services. We also have a Veterinary Resources List of veterinary services in the Santa Fe area.

If you live in Santa Fe County or City and need financial assistance for veterinary care, please get in touch with our CASA Program at 505.983.4309 ext. 1141.

Financial Assistance

  • Santa Fe Animal Shelter’s CASA Program: 505.983.4309 ext. 1141 or email casa@sfhumanesociety.org. Must be a resident of Santa Fe city or county.
  • Care Credit is a credit card specifically for veterinary care with possible no-interest payments.1.800.677.0718.
  • Scratchpay offers alternative payment plans to pay veterinary bills over time.

Pet-Friendly Housing

In need of pet-friendly housing? Here are some resources to help you in your search.

Pet-Inclusive Housing Resources

If you’re looking to have a productive conversation with a landlord about keeping your pet in your home, the Michelson Found Animals Pet-Inclusive Housing Initiative website has some great resources. The Humane Society of the United States also offers tips for resolving landlord issues and finding pet-friendly housing.

Online Housing Search

Most online search engines, like Zillow, have filters to help you search for pet-friendly housing. One of the best is the National Rental Research Dashboard hosted by My Pitbull is Family. 

Show Off Your Pet

Let your landlord know that your pet is spayed/neutered, up to date on vaccines, and licensed. Santa Fe Animal Shelter offers low-cost wellness services, as well as pet licenses. Use this article from Realtor.com to write your pet a special “resume” to share with a landlord.

Rehome Your Pet

If someone is caring for your pet until you are able to do so again, consider signing an agreement so that you can be reunited with your pet at a later time. The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement has created a Temporary Pet Guardian Contract template to use in these cases.

If you can no longer care for your pet and need to rehome them, here are some steps to take: 

  1. Post your pet on Rehome by Adopt-A-Pet.com.
  2. Post your pet on our Home to Home Adoption page.
  3. Post your pet on your local Nextdoor.com page to see if anyone in your community would like to adopt your pet.
  4. Post a photo and bio of your pet on your social media channels. Try to find a local or New Mexico pets page on Facebook.
  5. Talk to your friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, or other social networks about your pet.
  6. Contact a breed-specific rescue if your pet meets the criteria.
  7. Make your pet more adoptable by getting them spayed or neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated. If you need financial assistance, contact our CASA program at 505.983.4309 ext. 1141.

Surrender to the Shelter

Shelters are stressful places for any animal, but especially for a pet that has been used to a home environment and the love of a family. Surrendering your pet to the shelter should be the last resort because with increased stress and anxiety in the shelter, pets are more vulnerable to disease and deteriorating behavior, making it harder to adopt them into new homes. We strongly encourage you to rehome your pet on your own with the resources we have available. 

If you have made efforts to rehome your pet and have been unsuccessful, we may be able to help you rehome your pet. We do everything possible within our means to accommodate the acceptance of pets based on both parties’ needs; however, our resources determine when and how many animals we can accept. If you have no other alternative but to surrender your pet to the shelter, first call us to discuss your needs with an Animal Resource Center (ARC) team member at 505.983.4309 ext. 1606.

Under our coordinated entry program, guardian-relinquished animals are accepted by appointment only, unless it qualifies as an emergent circumstance under our surrender protocol.

What if I need to surrender my adopted pet?

If you adopt an animal from Santa Fe Animal Shelter and are concerned the pet is not a match, first call us to discuss your needs with an Animal Resource Center (ARC) team member at 505.983.4309 ext. 1606. We do everything possible within our means to accommodate the acceptance of pets based on both parties’ needs, however, our resources determine when and how many animals we can accept. We may suggest a donation toward their care if the animal is returned more than 30 days after adoption.

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