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Our Mission

History: The Animal Shelter Inc. of Sterling, MA (also referred to as the Sterling Shelter) EIN # 04-3236868 is a non-profit organization (formed in 1988 - incorporated in 1996) and no-kill animal shelter with no time or age restrictions. The shelter exists to provide humane sheltering and high quality medical care for stray, unwanted, abused and neglected animals and to find loving, lifelong homes for orphaned pets. Our staff is dedicated to finding good homes for adoptable pets and we continue to promote responsible pet ownership and to improve the quality of life for the animals and people in our community. The Shelter is supported entirely by donations from private individuals and through surrender and adoption fees. The Animal Shelter, Inc. does not receive support from the United Way or from federal, state or local governments. Our on-site veterinary clinic cares for almost 2,000 animals that come through our shelter yearly and provides a low/no cost spay/neuter, general wellness program assisting local animal control officers, shelters and breed rescues.

Position Statement – A leader in our field, The Animal Shelter Inc. of Sterling is a happy, clean, well run, family friendly animal shelter with progressive programs that improves lives by raising the bar for animal care in our shelter and community. We are an established organization committed to placing animals in caring homes through innovative programs and placement services.
At the Animal Shelter Inc. of Sterling we share a core belief that we will only help animals by working proactively and compassionately with people. Reflected in all of our programs and services is our belief that people and animals are inherently good. We strive to create a judgment-free and caring environment for all community members seeking our services, whether they are surrendering a pet, adopting or utilizing our low-cost services. This philosophy is shared with all employees and volunteers. We have a streamlined adoption process and have a more positive way of connecting people and animals. There are no lengthy applications and screening processes. Instead, we want to engage in conversation with prospective adopters. If we start from a perspective that people are coming to us with the best intentions, we will have a much better success rate of finding life-long matches.

Adoption Policy

Pets for Adoption  https://www.sterlingshelter.org/pet-finder

How to Adopt a Pet from our Shelter https://www.sterlingshelter.org/pet-finder/pet-adoption

Why Adopt from Our Shelter https://www.sterlingshelter.org/pet-finder/adopting-a-pet-why-us

What Does Your Adoption Fee Cover https://www.sterlingshelter.org/pet-finder/animal-rescue-fee

What do I need to Adopt? The entire family! It’s hard to pick a family pet when the whole family isn’t there. Some pets react differently to children, to men, to women, to older people than they do anyone else. Some animals (even puppies/kittens) gravitate to children or men or women…others may shy away! What would happen if you brought a pet home and the pet hid under the kitchen table and growled at your kids and hissed at your husband? Its not fair to bring that pet back…but if you had your whole family here…we could see that WHEN YOU WERE HERE and realize that’s not the appropriate home for the pet.

Please understand this is a big decision and the whole family should be allowed to make this decision together. (This is the reason our shelter doesn’t allow gift adoptions) Families with children MUST have ALL children present for a meet and greet . This is for YOUR safety as well as the safety of OUR PETS!

Have another dog/s? Great! We strongly recommend and advise you bring him/her too! Let your resident dog pick his/her new best friend. That way you are guaranteed a success! We have a large, enclosed meet and greet area where your canine can frolick with a potential new friend.

Recommended Pets

Recommended Pets