As a rescue organization we’re often asked if we adopt out our animals and the short answer is no, we don’t. As a Sanctuary, our focus is to provide a forever home to the animals we rescue and to promote a kinder world through ongoing education and advocacy efforts.
The long answer is there are actually many reasons that we choose not to adopt out our animals to the public, most of which have to do with considerations for their safety and well-being. However to better help explain our reasoning, the following are the 5 most important reasons why.
The first and foremost reason that we don’t adopt out to the public is because the animals we rescue are farm animals which are at far greater risk of being exploited or ending up a meal on someone’s plate than a more traditionally accepted companion animal and that is just a risk that we’re not willing to take.
The second most prevalent reason that we don’t adopt out is because our animals form strong bonds with one another, often complex inter-species bonds and/or bonds with several other animals and out of respect for those friendships we choose not to separate them.
The third most important reason is because it takes a lot of animals many months and sometimes even years to be fully rehabilitated and to feel comfortable in their new home and around their new family members. In addition to that often lengthy and sometimes complicated adjustment period, many of our animals have bounced around from home to home (this is especially common with potbelly pigs!) before finally arriving at RASTA, so rather that uprooting them again, we choose to embrace them as forever family members.
The fourth reason that we don’t adopt out is because not all farm animals can be safely spayed or neutered and it would be extremely irresponsible to adopt them out intact where they could end up being used for breeding and further adding to the already overwhelming pet overpopulation crisis. Such animals as seniors, ones with heath problems, larger female farmed animals like horses, male farm birds, etc are not good candidates for sterilization surgery and in most cases, best left intact.
The fifth reason that we don’t adopt out to the public is because true forever homes, especially for farmed animals are very few and far between. While many well-intentioned people like the idea of adopting some pet goats or pigs, the reality is that many of those animals won’t stay in their homes for life. Situations change, relationships end, people move and more often than not, the animals are sold or given away. After the initial novelty of adopting a pet farm animal has worn off it would be very easy for adopters to sell or give away their pets having them end up in the same situation, or worse than from where they were initially rescued. Some shady adopters may even turn around and sell their animals to a slaughterhouse or eat them themselves and in such instances the rescue organizations most likely wouldn’t ever know, especially if they’re adopting out several animals, as well as those with little to no identification. And if the rescue organizations were to find out, there’s little to anything that they could do after the fact since animals are viewed as property under our current laws and at the end of the day, adoption contracts do little if anything to protect adopted animals.
While we understand that some farm animal rescue organizations choose to adopt out their animals, this approach is not for us. We understand that if we adopted out animals it would free up space for us to rescue more but we prefer to focus on the quality of our efforts, rather than quantity.