Downtown Adoption Center: 100 N. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106 Ph: 215-238-9901
adoptions@phillypaws.org
From 2005 through 2008, PAWS raised the “save rate” at the city shelter — which took in approximately 30,000 animals each year — from 11% to 60%. PAWS remains dedicated to saving the city’s most vulnerable animals. Through its adoption locations, special events, and foster care network, PAWS finds loving homes for thousands of animals each year.
Support for PAWS funds lifesaving initiatives including adoption and foster care programs, spay/neuter surgeries, low-cost vaccinations, and other efforts, all of which help reduce and will ultimately eliminate the unnecessary killing of Philadelphia's animals.
When you adopt your new best friend from PAWS, you are truly saving a life that may not have had a chance without your kindness.
Because of the high volume of animals that come into Philadelphia's shelters each day, there are always new PAWS animals looking for loving homes. So, if you don't make a match on Petfinder today, stop by our adoption center to meet the dozens of animals who are available for adoption every day.
ADOPTING A NEW BEST FRIEND
Dogs:
Adoption fee for adult dogs (older than 1 year): $150
Adoption fee for puppies (1 year of age or younger): $200.
All dogs and puppies are spayed or neutered prior to going home, vaccinated for: distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parainfluenza, parvovirus (DHLPP - for puppies, the first in a series of three vaccinations that should be completed by the adoptive family either at the family veterinarian's office or by returning to PAWS for a $15 fee), bordetella and rabies (for dogs three months and older), dewormed (often the first in a series of treatments that should be completed by the adoptive family) and treated for fleas (treatment must continue after adoption to keep your pet flea free). Never lose your best friend! Your new pet can be implanted with a 24 Petwatch microchip that should be registered in your name after adoption.
Cats:
Adoption fee for adult cats (6 months of age and older): $50
Adoption fee for kittens (under 6 months of age): $75
All cats and kittens are spayed or neutered prior to going home, vaccinated for: panleukopenia, rhinotracheitis, calici, chlamydea (for kittens, the first in a series of vaccinations that should be completed by the adoptive family) and rabies (for cats three months and older), dewormed (often the first in a series of treatments that should be completed by the adoptive family) and treated for fleas (treatment must continue after adoption to keep your pet flea free). Never lose your best friend! Your new pet can be implanted with a 24 Petwatch microchip that you will register in your name after adoption.
Other Pets:
There are often a variety of other pets available for adoption at the PAWS Adoption Center including rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils and others. Stop by and visit our small animals to see who is available today!
Adoption Application:
Get a head start! Click here to download our adoption application and bring the completed form with you when you come to the shelter or to an adoption event. (Applications can also be obtained and completed at the time/place of adoption.)
Click here for our full calendar of adoption events.
There are often a variety of other pets available for adoption at PAWS including rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, ferrets, iguanas, gerbils and others. Stop by and visit our small animals to see who is looking for a home today!
VOLUNTEERING
Our Volunteer Adoption Team assists in finding homes for our homeless animals every day at our downtown adoption center, at various off-site adoption events each weekend, and at the Oregon Avenue PETsMART in South Philadelphia, the Cottman Avenue PETsMART, and the Grant Avenue PETCO seven days a week. To become a PAWS volunteer or to learn more, email volunteers@phillypaws.org
FOSTER PARENTING
PAWS is a rescue organization which pulls the most vulnerable animals out of the City's animal control shelter and finds them homes. Those animals are placed either at PAWS adoption locations (2nd & Arch, PETCO, PetSmart, etc.) or in foster homes while they wait for adoption. The number of animals we can rescue depends on the number of spaces available in our adoption locations and the number of foster homes who are ready to take in animals.
The animals at our adoption locations who need to go into foster care make up only a small portion of Philadelphia's homeless animal population that PAWS is working to save. There are hundreds of animals in the City's animal control shelter on any given day whose lives depend on a rescue coming for them. PAWS is one of those rescues, and one of the only ones that takes pit bulls and cats of all ages.
Please consider helping us save as many lives as possible by opening your home to a foster pet. When you foster, you save two lives: the one that finds safety in your home and the one that gets the space they vacated at the shelter. Fostering is one of the most rewarding experiences imaginable, and there is a wide variety of animals who desperately need you: cats and dogs, large and small, young and old, healthy and sick. Those in greatest danger are medium/large dogs and sick cats (which have the equivalent of a common cold and just need a few weeks of quiet and medication, provided by PAWS, to be ready for adoption).
When you foster a cat or dog, PAWS provides:
- clinical care and spay/neuter surgery by appointment
- assistance marketing your foster animal to potential adopters via events, online, and through the media
- tremendous support and information from staff, volunteers, and professionals in the community on bottle feeding, raising kittens, training dogs, etc.
To get started, please e-mail fosterhotline@phillypaws.org. A PAWS staff person will pair you with an animal whose life depends on you, and who will fit in to your household and suit your capabilities. To learn more about fostering, please click here.
If you cannot foster, you can still help animals get out of the shelter by recruiting friends, family, colleagues, etc. to open their homes to an animal in need. Click here for a flyer that you can post or distribute anywhere: your local library, your workplace, veterinarian's office, etc.
HOURS
PAWS Adoption Center is open for adoptions seven days a week: Monday through Friday, 12pm-7pm; Saturday, 11am-7pm; Sunday, 11am-6pm. It is located on the corner of 2nd & Arch Streets in Philadelphia. Click here for a map and directions.
HELP PROMOTE PAWS PETS FOR ADOPTION
You can help promote PAWS' pets for adoption by placing Petfinder's Pet Scroller on your website. For more information on adding the Pet Scroller to your website contact PAWS at rescue@phillypaws.org.