Each year, ARF works to rescue countless stray and abandoned dogs and cats from rural Alberta communities with limited resources in order to give them a second chance. These animals have faced many hardships ranging from hunger, disease, abuse, and freezing temperatures to encounters with predators and vehicles. Once rescued, ARF animals are placed in loving, caring foster homes where they await adoption. In addition to warmth and love, they also receive the veterinary care they need to grow strong and live a healthy life.
We’ve rescued them once – we don’t want to have to rescue them again.
We strive to ensure that each animal is adopted into the best possible home based on its personality, habits and needs. To do this, we have an in-depth screening process that helps us match pets to new families and helps potential adopters understand the responsibilities involved in adopting one of our animals.
Please note: Because each animal’s best interest is our top priority, we fully support and promote reward-based training techniques and ask that our volunteers, foster homes and adopters do too. View our Position on Training for more information.
ARF’s Animal Adoption Process
Pre-Adoption Medical Care and Interventions
Some of the animals that join the ARF family come in with very serious medical problems. They are the lucky ones though and receive the necessary medical intervention before recovering in a foster home before meeting their forever family. It is only through the generous donations of our supporters that we can create these happy endings.
All dogs and cats are spayed or neutered before they are available for adoption and they have all had at least their first set of shots. This is done for the animals’ health and well-being, and to make a positive impact on the pet population problem. ARF’s dogs and cats also receive permanent identification in the form of microchips so that they can be identified if stolen.
ARF animals are adopted as they are. While any animal requiring veterinary attention is treated and we will do our best to make the adopter aware of any known medical conditions, once adopted, all medical costs (including booster and rabies shots) are the responsibility of the adopter. Please be aware that ARF cannot guarantee the future health or behaviour of any animal, regardless of the date of adoption.
Although we do our best to be as accurate as possible, all ages of the animals are estimates unless the animal was born in ARF’s care.
