Moving

Please consider this: Your dog or cat is not an accessory. She is not furniture. She is not a recreational item. She is not a mere object to be tossed away when she no longer fits your lifestyle. She is a member of your family and should be treated accordingly. She is worth a little extra work to find a place that will take your whole family. Would you move to an apartment that didn’t take children if you were a parent? By the same token, you should not move to an apartment that does not take animals if you have a pet. People do what they need to do to find apartments that take children, and they should do the same with pets. When you take on the responsibility of a pet, it is just that–a responsibility. It is a commitment to care for that animal for the rest of his/her life. There are resources to help you find places that take pets. We will soon be expanding this page to list more resources, but in the meantime, please contact The Poppy Foundation for more information.

If you are not willing or able to do that, please, please, please don’t get a pet. And if you already have a pet and you are not willing and able to do that, please don’t just dump your pet at a kill shelter, on the street, etc., or offer her "free to good home." Please put in a little time and effort to find a TRULY GOOD home for the animal. That means checking out potential adopters thoroughly, charging a small adoption fee. The Poppy Foundation will help you do this, and there are other organizations that will do so as well. We can provide you with advice on how to find a good home and sample application forms you can have potential adopters fill out. This is important because there are people out there who will "adopt" animals and then do very bad things to them. Your animal is worth at the very least this much effort.

What can happen to your animal if you don’t check out potential adopters? At the mildest end of the spectrum is simple neglect. Your animals could go to a home that ties him up outside and them virtually forgets about him. He may not get enough food or not have water available. At the other end of the spectrum are "bunchers." These are people who will pose as a potential loving home, will say all the right things, may even have a child in tow, but will take your animals and turn around and sell him to a vivisection laboratory. Or your animal may be used for bait to train fighting dogs. Or simply go to a sick person who will torture him for no apparent reason.