Our Contact Information
Central Mailing Address: PO Box 767 Boston, MA 02112
Phone: 508-317-7786 (temporary line, accessible 24 hours)
Web: www.assistanimals.org
Email: president@assistanimals.org
For those wishing to adopt an animal, our procedure is as follows:
1. Fill out an application, providing your personal contact information, references, and types or name of animal(s) you wish to adopt
2. We will follow up with you, check your references, arrange for a home visit, etc. You'll foster the animal for several weeks prior to adopting, to ensure that the arrangement works out for all involved. We can cover expenses during this time period.
3. If all goes well, we will finalize the adoption, present you with a certificate, collect the adoption fee, and do an adoption followup interview.
It's that easy!
Please note that we are a 100% volunteer-run organization, so it may take us up to a week to respond to you. Clearly, we attempt to be as prompt as possible, but don't hesitate to call back or follow up with emails if you haven't heard from us. Generally, email is a quicker way to reach us than the phone.
Please leave your phone number when calling or emailing about any animal - we will not respond to inquiries without a given phone number.
Please also ensure that you are seriously interested in having a potential new pet prior to contacting us, and read the information carefully re. each animal to learn more about his/her history, demeanor, and health. Ensure that you have a place to keep the animal prior to contacting us - particularly when inquiring about horses or farm animals. Recently we've spent a great deal of time on potential equine adopters, who later learned that the places that they'd had planned to keep the horses at were no longer available. This takes up a lot of our precious time and help, delays placement of the animal, and gets everyone's hopes up for no reason, so please check to make sure that you do have the accommodations for certain, and have an alternate available, prior to contacting us.
Be prepared to fill out our foster application, as all adopters must foster their intended pets for several weeks, to ensure that the arrangement works out. The application includes information about yourself, your family, your other animals, your experience, etc and will request 3-4 character references, which may not include your friends or family. Some of this information can be considered to be of a personal or confidential nature. Please understand that we must obtain this information from each foster/adopter, in order to ensure the safety of our animals. Every application is kept strictly confidential, in a locked file, and is viewed only by management in the Animal Placement Services department. We do take a photo of each foster/adopter as well, and these are stored in the same locked file and are never shared with anyone. You may supply your own photo if you wish, or provide us with a color copy of your driver's license if you choose. If you are not able or willing to fill out the application in its entirety, please understand that we will not be able to process it further, until the information is supplied.
Please read the foster care/adoptive contract in its entirety prior to signing, as you'll be responsible for upholding and complying with its terms whether you have chose to read it or not. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask prior to signing.
Safety for both the animals and the public is one of our main concerns at the AASA, so we do have more strict policies that many other shelters and organizations, in effort to help create a safer community. We strive to prevent many preventable tragedies from occurring.
Please note that we do not place animals in homes where they will be permitted unrestrained outdoor access. This includes outdoor cats (with the exception of barn or feral cats), and dogs being let off-leash for any reason outside of a fenced area (electric or invisible fences are not acceptable). We are extremely strict about this rule, and do not make allowances for swimming, hunting, events, "just" going from the car to house, etc. If we learn that an indoor cat is allowed outdoor access without being in a carrier or harness, or that a dog has been let off-leash for any reason, at any point during the foster or adoptive period, we have in the past, and will again take back the animal, with no refunding of the adoption fee, and will place him or her in another home.
If you feel strongly about using "voice command" instead of a leash, or are otherwise unprepared to follow these simple rules, we recommend that you look elsewhere for an animal. There is no factual or empirical evidence to support the importance of or benefit of letting a dog go off-leash. However, there is a wealth of information supporting the importance and necessity of leash useage, from animal-safety, public-safety, and owner-protection points-of-view. We do follow-up with post-adoption home-checks throughout the life of the animal. We are very strict about the enforcement of this very important safety rule, so please keep this in mind prior to contacting us.
We also require that all animals are transported in a motor vehicle in one of three manners: 1. In a crate attached to the vehicle's seatbelt system, 2. In an approved pet seat belt attached to the vehicle's seatbelt system, or 3. In the rear of an SUV, if a permanently-installed metal grate is in place, to prevent the dog from entering the driver's area, and as protection from being ejected through the windshield in a crash. Again, if you are unable or unwilling to comply with these safety policies, please look elsewhere for your pet. Thank you.
If you are contacting us to surrender an animal, please do so as much in advance as possible. It's difficult to place animals on short notice. Do not attempt to drop the animal off at any of our mini-shelters or foster homes, without making prior arrangements with us. Please note that we do not accept wildlife (call animal control or your nearest vet hospital for a rehabber phone number), sick or injured animals (bring to a vet clinic and ask them to contact us if the animal needs placement following treatment), pit bull/associated-breed dogs, wolf hybrids, snakes, or other animals that require live feed, with the exception of live cricket feeds for some reptiles/amphibians.
Although we do not require a donation accompanying surrendered animals, your assistance in covering vet care for your animal is appreciated. Since we do not yet have our 501(c)3 status, you may write a check or money order out directly to the animal hospital or care facility that we'll be using in your area.
If the animal is not current on vaccinations or health certificates, we will bring him or her to a vet within 24 hours of surrender, and s/he will be kept in isolation until that is accomplished. If you can bring the animal in ahead of time, we sincerely appreciate it. We do require that animals be visibly healthy upon surrender. If we have any suspicions of your animal being ill upon examination, you will be directed to take the animal to the nearest vet clinic or 24-hour hospital.
All animals must be infestation-free, so please give your pet a flea/tick dip, or apply a topical treatment such as Frontline, Advantage, or Biospot within 48 hours of surrendering the animal. Do not use Hartz products, flea powder, or flea collars. Save the empty package, as we will need it for verification. If we find ectoparasites during our initial inspection, you will have to take the animal back, treat the infestation, and return at a later time.
We are a no-kill organization. We will never euthanize an animal because he or she is "old" or has non-contagious health issues, mild-moderate behavioral issues, or because a home cannot be found. We have a multi-tiered foster and mini-shelter program across the country, which keeps the "unadoptable" animals in the system for as long as necessary, to live out their natural lifespans.
The only conditions under which euthanasia will be performed include: 1. If the animal is ill, in severe pain or distress, and the problem cannot be reasonably and affordably treated, especially if a poor prognosis is presented. (Note - In the event that treatment is too costly for our budget, we will always attempt to fundraise if we are given sufficient time, and if the prognosis appears good.) 2. If the animal has a severe behavioral problem which prevents him or her from having a reasonable quality of life, and/or presents a potential danger to him/herself, other animals, or the community. 3. If the animal is involved in a rabies investigation, and the local municipality or state requires us to relinquish the animal. All animals are humanely euthanized by sodium pentobarbitol injection, by a licensed veterinarian. Animals are fed a last meal if appropriate, and someone will stay with the animal throughout the procedure. We will contact you if at all possible prior to doing so, and you may be permitted to take your prior pet's remains for burial/cremation, if you wish to.
The AASA operates throughout the United States. We regret that we cannot place or take in animals in foreign countries at this time, but we will attempt to provide assistance in your area if at all possible. Please note that we do not accept animals in as surrenders between state lines - the animals must be initially placed in the state in which they reside, so we have volunteers set up in most states who will process them. The only time we transport animals between state lines is once the animal has entered the foster care system. At this point, the animal has been kept in the state of origin for a minimum of 14 days, in a mini-shelter or other isolative facility, and has been given all appropriate vaccinations. In addition, the animal has a current health certificate, and is free of all ectoparasites (such as fleas) and internal parasites (such as intestinal worms) which could harm other animals or transmit infection to people. The animals are transported in closed, climate-controlled vehicles, in a container or harness strapped into the vehicle's main seatbelt restraint system, for protection of both the driver and animal.
As a final note on animal surrenders: Please make sure that you truly are unable or are unwilling to keep your pet any longer. We can help you explore your options, but once the animal is signed over, s/he cannot be given back. You will need to provide us with information re. your pet's care and history, and will need to sign a surrender contract, which gives our organization ownership of the animal. Please read it carefully, and ask any questions you may have. We will provide you and any children involved with materials that may help answer some of your questions re. animal surrender, and may help to make the process easier. If you'd like to include an un-signed note to accompany the animal to his or her new home, that's fine. We encourage children to make "good luck" (as opposed to "good bye") cards to go along with their pets.
Do not place free pet ads in the newspaper or online classifieds - this can be very dangerous for the animal. Animal collectors/hoarders, people selling to labs or research facilities, pet store brokers, or other individuals involved in illegal or undesirable activities frequently look in the paper first. Sometimes they can appear very genuine, even bringing current "pets" or children to visit your pet. Sometimes the person can be elderly, or appear to have a disability - it's very hard to tell if the personis "for real" or not.
There are distinct reasons why people look in classifieds: they may be hiding something, they may have been declined by breeders or shelters to obtain a pet due to something learned about the person during screening, or they may not have enough money to purchase or adopt a pet from a reputable source. If the latter is the case, the person shouldn't be obtaining a pet period, because care and medical expenses will far surpass the initial cost of obtaining the animal. Even if the person seems good and genuine, and in fact, a few can be - placing an animal with an individual you do not know offers the animal no lifetime protection, and will not guarantee what will happen to the animal if the person can no longer keep him or her. The new owner will have the legal right to place the animal in the future, not you, and he or she may not be anywhere near as cautious as you would have wanted.
Please don't take a chance - Once the animal is handed over, it may become difficult to impossible to find out what happens to him or her. He or she could endure many years of suffering at the hands of someone undesirable. If you have run out of options and time, please bring your pet to a local unlimited-admissions shelter or pound, and contact us - we may be able to work out a boarding arrangement until the animal is placed, or at the very least, can assist them with placement services.
Adoption Fees are as follows:
Note: All animals come with starter kits of food, instructions, and various supplies, in addition to 24 hour support/information access for fosters and adopters. Small animals, birds, cats, and small dogs come with carriers or small cages. All dogs come with collar and leash. Farm animals come with halter and lead. Reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, fish etc are sent home in plastic containers with vents. Bettas and goldfish may not be kept in bowls, and are sent home with mini-tanks with a filter/aerator setup, which explains their elevated cost (but, everything that you need for them is included.) All pets are vaccinated as appropriate, and may also be spayed/neutered if appropriate. Group/multiple-animal discounts may be given. Dollar amounts given are suggested minimum donations for each animal - if you can give more, we, and the animals, appreciate it!
Pocket Pets (hamsters, gerbils, mice, rats, etc): $15.00
Guinea Pigs: $30.00
Degas:$35.00
Sugar Gliders::$45.00
Chinchillas: $75.00
Rabbits: $35.00
Prairie Dogs (where legal): $125.00
Small Exotics (hegehogs, etc.): $75.00
Ferrets: $75.00
Cats: $85.00
Feral/Barn Cats (outdoors only): $25.00
Dogs: $95.00
Goats/Sheep: $125.00
Cows, milk-producing: 250.00
Cows, non-milk-producing: $100.00
Horses/Ponies, Rideable: $650.00
Horses/Ponies, Unbroken but trainable: $450.00
Horses/Ponies, Companion Only: $150.00
Mini Horses: $125.00
Donkeys/Mules/Burros: $125.00
Llamas: $125.00
Lizards: $25.00 (full-grown giant iguanas: $250.00)
Turtles: $25.00
Tortoises: $45.00 (full-grown giants - $250.00)
Amphibians: $20.00
Crustaceans: $15.00
Snakes: We do not take in, nor adopt out snakes of any kind.
Domesticated Insects (non-venomous only):$15.00
Fish, Small (goldfish/betta, comes w/ mini-tank, choice of gravel, and aeration): $20.00
Fish, Freshwater (freshwater fish, will need tank, heater, etc.): price varies according to type
Fish, Saltwater or Brackish(marine fish, will need tank, heater, salt, etc.): price varies according to type
Fish, Pond (koi or large goldfish, will need outdoor tank, pool or pond): $10.00
Birds, Small(lovebirds, parakeets, etc): $35.00 ($50/pair)
Birds, Large(macaws, cockatoos, etc): depending on type, $250.00-$500.00
Birds, Farm (chickens, peacocks, etc.): $15.00
Wildlife: We do not take in nor adopt out wildlife. If animals of these nature are brought to us, they will be transported to the nearest wildlife rehab. specialist, or sanctuary.
Click to see our adopted pets!
Click here to see listing of pets waiting for homes
[Home] [Information] [Shelters] [Search]