Animal Admissions

As your community animal resource, we encourage and support you, should you need to find a new home for your pet.

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Rehoming Services

We can help you make your home a better fit for your pet or we can work with you to find the best way to rehome your pet.

Needing to rehome a pet is a very difficult decision for families, and we show compassion and understanding to those families who must make that choice. We support you and offer resources and services to help your pets find to the next chapter in their lives.

If you are caring for a stray pet (a pet that is not your own), please contact your local animal control officer first for next steps, rather than utilizing our admissions application. Your local animal control officer can be reached at your town’s non-emergency police department number by looking up the number here.

Rehoming Resources

Working together, we will try to help you to find a solution to rehome your pet(s) before considering admission to AWS. Pets that can be find new homes without having to come to AWS ensures that our valuable resources and kennel spaces at the shelter are reserved for at-risk and in-need animals with no owner.

We offer several programs and services to support you and your pet and maintain that lifelong bond. If you dog’s behavior is why you’re considering rehoming, we offer dog obedience training, both public classes and private consultations. We also may be able to provide suggestions and/or resources to alleviate pet behavior issues over the phone. If you are facing unaffordable veterinary bills, we provide affordable veterinary care at our Community Veterinary Clinic.

There are many community resources to help you find a suitable home for your pet. Try social media where you’ll find dedicated rehoming pages and groups. There are also online services available in some parts of the country to help people rehome their pets. We encourage you to explore all avenues in your community before submitting an animal admissions request to AWS.

We can help your mother dog/cat and her new litter through our Mother Spay Program. Once the litter is 8-10 weeks old, we will spay the mother at no cost to you (and she goes home with you!). We will find homes for all the little ones through our animal admissions and adoption processes. 

Animal Admissions Application

If other re-homing options aren’t suitable for your situation, we are here to help. To get started, please click on the application for your pet’s species.

Please note that all animal admissions are done by appointment only. Making an appointment allows us to plan for the best care and support for you and your pet and to maximize available resources.

While in our care, all animals receive safe and comfortable housing, nutritious meals, any necessary veterinary care, preventatives and vaccinations and plenty of enrichment and exercise with our professional staff and dedicated volunteers.

There is no fee to admit your pet to AWS. Donations are always accepted, and we will gladly take the pet’s favorite toys, beds, etc. and make sure they go home with the new family!

All admissions decisions are at the discretion of AWS staff and are based on available space and resources.

Questions?

For more information on our rehoming resources, including our pet admissions process, please contact Our Animal Care Team via email or telephone at (207) 985-3244.

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@aws.maine

In today's modern world, technology really makes a difference when getting pets adopted. In our newest blog post, learn how you can use simple technology (like your cellphone!) as an AWS foster or volunteer to help get our resident pets into their happy homes. *Hint: it involves selfies!*

Check out our blog online and let us know your favorite way to take photos of your pet!
Senna has one fabulous head of hair! This handsome guinea pig is up for adoption with his brother, Richard, whose hair is equally as beautiful but note quite as lush 😉 
Either way, both boys can’t wait to be pampered by their new people! Stop by our Adoption Center today to meet these handsome pigs! #peruvianguineapig #guineapigadoption #adoptaguineapig #adoptme #maineaws #aws