Advocacy and Rescue

If you are planning to bring a pet into your home, please explore shelters and rescue organizations before choosing to buy a pet. Rescuing a pet is rewarding and brings peace of mind in knowing that you have saved a pet's life and given it a second chance. Local humane societies are over-crowded with animals in need of and deserving of good, loving homes. If you are set on a certain breed, there are also "breed-specific" rescue organizations all over the country. Adopting pets from pet stores who are working with shelters and rescue organizations is encouraged. However, purchasing your pet from a pet store is not, as many of these animals are unethically bred at puppy mills and other inhumane locales.

To learn about puppy mills and dog, cat and animal welfare issues, please visit the Humane Society of the United States' website at www.hsus.org.

A Leg Up Rescue - "A Leg Up Rescue is a nonprofit 501c3 all-volunteer organization dedicated to rescuing companion animals from life-threatening situations, fostering them, and finding homes for them. All of these companion animals were either in danger of being euthanized in animal shelters, neglected or abused, or taken from the public (when space permits) so they are not bounced around to different homes or collected and sold to research labs by 'bunchers'."

ARF - "Baseball manager Tony La Russa and his wife, Elaine, co-founded ARF in 1991 after he rescued a terrified stray cat that ran onto the field during an A's-Yankees game. ARF saves dogs and cats who have run out of time at public shelters and brings people and animals together to enrich each others lives. ARF strives to create a world where every loving dog and cat has a home, where every lonely person has a companion animal, and where children learn to care."

Bad Rap (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible about Pitbulls) - "Organization placing homeless Pit Bulls in the San Francisco Bay Area. Includes pictures of dogs available for adoption."

Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society - "Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society is one of the oldest private animal shelters in the San Francisco East Bay Region. We offer a unique environment that nurtures and shelters companion animals until they are placed in loving homes. Established in 1927, we are a private, non-profit organization supported solely by private contributions."

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary - "At the heart of Southern Utah's Golden Circle of National Parks, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is home to about 1500 dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds and other animals. Their goal is to work with people and humane societies to bring about a time when there are no more homeless pets."

Calaveras Humane Society, - "The mission of the Calaveras Humane Society is to promote an excellent quality of life for the animals of our county. Our vision is to work for the day when every adoptable animal will have a forever home and when sterilization is a routine part of dog and cat care. We are an all-volunteer force of citizens who simply care about the destiny and comfort of pet animals. We try to pick up where the county government leaves off."

Delta Rescue - "Dedication and Everlasting Love to Animals."

Feral Cat Foundation -"Feral Cat Foundation is dedicated to the rescue and humane treatment of homeless cats and kittens."

Furry Friends - "Furry Friends Rescue is a non-profit, all-volunteer companion animal rescue organization dedicated to rescuing, fostering and finding homes for companion animals in the San Francisco Bay Area."

Give Me Shelter Cat Rescue - "Give Me Shelter Cat Rescue, a 501(c)3 organization that is dedicated to helping stop the over population of abandoned and unwanted cats. We are committed to rescuing as many cats as we can that are slated for euthanasia. We work very closely with many shelters here in the Bay Area as well as working to help stop the overpopulation of feral cats."

Grateful Dogs Rescue - "Grateful Dogs Rescue, a non-profit organization, was founded over 10 years ago by Michelle Parris, a former SF Animal Care & Control (SF ACC) volunteer. She made it her mission to rescue SF ACC shelter dogs not made available for adoption. Rather than letting these dogs be euthanized, Grateful Dogs Rescue saves as many as possible by fostering them until a loving home is found. Many of our volunteers continue to donate their time by working with the animals at SF ACC."

Hopalong Animal Rescue - "Hopalong Animal Rescue is a non-profit organization whose mission is to eliminate the euthanasia of cats and dogs through rescue, spay/neuter and education programs."

Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation -  ?Here at the Lost Dog Ranch we strive to give our guests the best possible care ever. Our guests arrive tired, confused and hungry but soon they find a comfortable bed, a place to call home (temporarily), good food and even a friend or two to bunk with. Some of them enjoy lying in the sun, a good game of chase or perhaps a refreshing bath to cool them down on those hot summer days.?

Milo Foundation - "Domestic animal sanctuary on 280 acres of land in Northern California, with regular adoption locations in the Bay Area."

Muttville - "Muttville is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to improving the lives of senior dogs. On a local level, Muttville rescues senior dogs and finds them foster homes or gives them hospice. On a global level, Muttville provides information about caring for older dogs and support for people who do."

Nine Lives Foundation - "The Nine Lives Foundation rescues cats from California shelters who are not adoptable because of illness, old age, medical and behavioral problems or special care needs. If not for the Nine Lives Foundation, these cats would not have a home and the chance of living a quality life. At the shelter, these cats are cared for and loved and are permanent residents."

North Shore Animal League - "North Shore Animal League America has grown to become the largest pet adoption agency in the world. Animal orphans are rescued not only from shelters close-by, but also from animal organizations in near and distant states."

One at A Time Rescue - " One at a Time Rescue is a non-profit 501(c)3 that was founded by a San Francisco Animal Control Officer, Jen Richardson, who wanted go the extra mile for the animals. She couldn't stand seeing neglected/abused animals being put to sleep."

Peninsula Humane Society - "PHS/SPCA, a private non-profit organization guided by the humane ethic, builds healthy relationships between people and animals. They provide a warm bed, nutritious food, veterinary care and a gentle touch for the lost, stray, unwanted and injured domestic and wild animals in their community."

Petfinder.com - "Petfinder is an on-line, searchable database of animals that need homes. It is also a directory of over 9,000 animal shelters and adoption organizations across the USA, Canada and Mexico. Their mission is to use Internet technology and the resources it can generate to 1) increase public awareness of the availability of high-quality adoptable pets and to 2) increase the overall effectiveness of pet adoption programs across North America to the extent that the euthanasia of adoptable pets is eliminated."

Pets In Need - "Pets In Need is a private, no-kill, community-based, humane animal shelter and adoption agency located in Redwood City, California."

Rocket Rescue - "An all volunteer nonprofit group dedicated to saving homeless and abandoned animals from euthanasia in overcrowded bay area shelters, literally giving them a second chance at life."

Safe Cat Foundation - ?Safe Cat Foundation, a California based non-profit 501 (c) 3 corporation, was formed to address the safety issues of domestic cats in our local animal shelters and in our society. We provide education and advocacy for various health and safety issues that affect cats in the home, wild or shelter, as well as rescue for cats abandoned in the wild or at the shelter providing fostering, medical care, spay and neuter services and adoption programs.?

San Francisco Animal Care and Control and The Friends of San Francisco Animal Care and Control - "The Friends of San Francisco Animal Care and Control (FSFACC) is the only nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds for the city's municipal, open-door animal shelter, San Francisco Animal Care and Control (ACC), and its partnering rescue groups, in order to establish or enhance programs of humane welfare, comfort and placement, public services and humane education."

San Francisco SPCA - "The San Francisco SPCA is a nonprofit animal welfare organization dedicated to saving homeless dogs and cats, to providing lifesaving care and treatment to dogs and cats in need,to helping pets stay in loving homes, and to cultivating respect and awareness for the rights and needs of animals and the importance of the human-animal bond."

Second Chance Rescue - "Second Chance Rescue is a San Francisco Bay area non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, staffed almost entirely by volunteers. We rescue dogs and puppies from high-kill shelters, and find them loving, permanent homes. Since we started rescuing dogs in 1993, we have saved over 5,000 deserving dogs and puppies."

The Animal Rescue Site - "The Animal Rescue Site focuses the power of the Internet on a specific need ? providing food for some of the 27 million unwanted animals given to shelters in the U.S. every year. Over 10 million animals are put to death every year in the U.S. alone because they are abandoned and unwanted. Each click on the site's purple "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button provides food and care for a rescued animal living in a shelter or sanctuary. Funding for food and care is paid by site sponsors and distributed to animals in need at the Fund for Animals' renowned animal sanctuaries (including Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Texas and the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in California), pet shelters supported by the Petfinder Foundation, North Shore Animal League, and other worthy animal care facilities supported by the GreaterGood.org foundation."

The Fund for Animals - "The Fund for Animals was founded in 1967 by prominent author and animal advocate Cleveland Amory, and for 37 years, spearheaded some of the most significant events in the history of the animal protection movement by employing hard-hitting advocacy campaigns and operating world-famous animal care facilities, such as the Black Beauty Ranch. The Fund's historic victories have saved thousands of animals from cruelty and suffering."

The Humane Society of the United States - "The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has worked since 1954 to promote the protection of all animals. With nearly ten million members and constituents, The HSUS is the nation's largest and most powerful animal protection organization, working in the United States and abroad to defend the interests of animals, celebrate the human-animal bond, and fight animal cruelty and abuse in all of its forms. "