Adopt
When you adopt from San Antonio Pets Alive!, you save a life...
And open up a space for another dog or cat in need.
Our Adoption Goals
People
Find responsible individuals to adopt
Don’t Shop
Raise awareness on the importance of adopting and not shopping
Save Lives
Decrease euthanasia rates in shelters
Protect
Raise awareness about the importance of spay/neuter for pet population control
When you adopt a dog, you save a life.
Please have a look at all the amazing dogs we have for adoption in our centers and our foster program. If you would like more information on a pet, please fill out an adoption application (filling this out does not secure an adoption) and/or email our adoption team here. Be sure to include the pet’s name and ID# in the subject line. In the email please include your phone number and email address and someone will contact you as soon as possible. (Please allow 24 hours for return contact.)
When you adopt a cat, you save a life.
Please have a look at all the amazing cats and kittens we have for adoption in our centers and our foster program. If you would like more information on a pet, please fill out an adoption application (filling this out does not secure an adoption) and/or email our adoption team here. Be sure to include the pet’s name and ID# in the subject line. In the email please include your phone number and email address and someone will contact you as soon as possible. (Please allow 24 hours for return contact.)
Adoption
Application
What's included:
- 1 Spay / Neuter surgery
- 2 Up-to-date on vaccinations
- 3 Microchip
- 4 Up-to-date on heart-worm and flea preventatives
Adoption Application Disclaimer: Filling out the adoption application does NOT guarantee a hold or confirmation of adoption on the pet you applied for. All applications are reviewed and must be accepted by our trained counselors before a pet is adopted. Please allow 24-48 hours for our adoption team to contact you in regards to your application.
Adoption Requirements
- 1 Spend at least 30 minutes with the dog or cat you want to adopt
- 2 Fill out our application and meet with an adoption counselor
- 3 Be at least 18 years of age
As a friendly reminder, we do not animal/child test animals in our care. If you have a child or pet, please be mindful. You are welcome to bring your child or pet to your adoption appointment to ensure everyone gets along well.
Adoption Locations
Rescue Center
Medical Care & Adoption Center
Petco Love Adoption Center
FAQs
Adoption
Visit our adoption page to see the requirements prior to adopting and what is included with each adoption here.
In most cases, yes. We actually prefer for you to take your new pet home so that he/she can get started being a part of your family. If you know you are in the market for a pet, it is a good idea to have some things ready for your new pet such as bedding, food, bowls, and toys. That way, when you fall in love with the right one, you both will be ready.
Yes, your new pet will have had all of the vaccinations he/she needs up until the point of adoption. This means that you may have to get more vaccines as they become due but we will have taken care of what they need up until the date of adoption.
Yes, every pet in our program is spayed or neutered prior to adoption.
In some cases, your pet may not yet have been spayed or neutered due to age or medical circumstances. If so, we will perform a “pre-adopt” in which we place an adoption hold on the animal and allow you to pay the necessary adoption fees. In these circumstances, San Antonio Pets Alive! still has legal ownership of the pet until they have received surgery and will keep the pet in our care until after it has had the surgery.
In general, no. We want potential pet owners to be sure they are ready to adopt. We encourage you to think through the decision before you adopt, rather than after. We are willing to work through any issues that arise and depending on the situation, we may be able to offer an exchange (if the pup you chose doesn’t get along with an existing pet for example) or a partial refund (for extenuating circumstances).
San Antonio Pets Alive! mainly pulls dogs and cats at the city municipal shelter, focusing on the animals on the city shelter’s euthanasia list. However, we do intake animals from the public through our Public Intake Program. Please contact our foster team for more information.
Before taking to a shelter, please:
- Get the pet scanned for a microchip at your closest veterinarian office, pet store or animal shelter
- Take clear photos of the pet and post on the following online and social media outlets:
Please contact our foster team by filling out a form here
You can also call Animal Care Services at 311.
Should you need access to low-cost veterinary care or services, simply type in "low-cost veterinary care near me" in a search browser to view options close to your geographic location!
Or, visit the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services Website to view a list of low-cost resources available by ZIP code.
How We Save Lives
There is no clear-cut definition of No Kill. However, it’s important to know that “no kill” does not mean that shelters do not kill animals.
Some organizations define “no kill” as a 90 percent live release rate while others use less stringent standards. Generally, a “no kill” shelter does not euthanize pets who can be adopted or when the shelter is full, reserving euthanasia for animals who are terminally ill or a danger to people or other pets.
Most “No Kill” organizations limit their intake to only the healthiest animals. SAPA! serves the most vulnerable pets – the sick, injured, and abused – and manages the care of the pets while adhering to the best standards of care for them which are outlined by the veterinarians at Austin Pets Alive!
Every pet is different, and every situation is different. Once we intake an animal, our team develops a plan of care. The plan includes addressing medical needs and finding the best foster home possible so we can learn about their personality. Then we work with our fosters, as a team, to find the pet the best home possible so the animal can live its best life.
Sometimes SAPA! will euthanize dogs or cats for medical reasons. In the past 10 years, we’ve seen many distemper puppies and dogs and we do our best to treat this disease but there is no cure for distemper. Once the dog or puppy’s brain has been impacted by Distemper and the puppy can no longer stand or eat on his or her own, we may determine that the suffering is so great the most humane course of action is to help the puppy or dog cross the rainbow bridge.
Since San Antonio Pets Alive! primarily saves the lives of dogs on the euthanasia list at the city municipal shelter, we often have very little time to evaluate a dog’s personality. Once a dog is in our custody, our team begins to learn about the dog’s behavior by spending time with it or placing it with a foster. Unfortunately, some dogs have been traumatized by former owners to the point that SAPA! can’t handle them safely and they are a danger to people and/or pets. In these rare instances, our team may make the decision to euthanize this animal if he or she can’t be safely adopted out to a person.
No! The Building One Rescue Center transition kennels give ACS animals that were at risk of euthanasia more time to find placement. The majority of the dogs that are in our transitional kennels are still ACS animals. However, we employ nine individuals to work at our Rescue Center and care for these animals, and SAPA! pays for their salaries and benefits.
SAPA! is the last chance rescue in San Antonio pulling dogs that are often overlooked by other organizations. Without SAPA!, the dogs in our transitional kennels would already be dead.
When SAPA! is not able to successfully find a safe place for the dog with a foster, rescue, or adopter, the difficult decision must be made whether to remove the dog from building one to allow another dog additional time. While these dogs are waiting for miracles in the transition kennels, they are not actually “owned” by San Antonio Pets Alive! and are not “safe” until they have a confirmed outcome and leave the ACS campus. We can only provide this temporary refuge with the help of the community (fosters, adopters, and rescue partners), who free up kennel space and allow more to be saved in their place.
About SAPA!
We at San Antonio Pets Alive! are a no-kill rescue that helps find placement for the animals at risk of euthanasia at the city shelter, Animal Care Services!
We have a special partnership with the shelter that we can process adoptions directly for urgent animals in their care as well as animals that we have already saved, and we also have our own foster system, and we partner with other rescues so they can pull urgent pets directly through us!
SAPA! is contracted with the city to save animals and we have a special partnership with the City Shelter, Animal Care Services (ACS) where we have building 1 onsite that we run at the shelter campus to hold released animals and give more time for placement.
SAPA! is not the only high-volume rescue partner, the city shelter has many rescue partners like SAPA! who have contracts to pull a certain amount of animals per year.
Over the last few years, we have exceeded our contracted numbers, pulled well over what the city expects us to pull. Multiple SAPA! teams work together and are committed- 7 days a week, and onsite 7 days a week to help place the most at risk animals at the shelter. We also work very hard to place cats, all neo-natal kittens and puppies, in addition to distemper pups and parvo pups that come into ACS, in addition to dogs on the euthanasia list.
All the urgent dogs are located at the Rescue Center in SAPA! Building 1 on the 151/ACS campus.
Email is the fastest way to contact us! Send an email with the dogs AID number to placement@sanantoniopetsalive.org
We are monitoring these emails all day during hours of operation and answer emails very quickly.
To adopt please come onsite for a meet and greet with the dog you are interested in please bring your dogs, and family members including children to make sure the new dog will fit in with your family! Bring an ID with your current address, lease, or a utility bill with your name for proof of address. Your pets must be up to date on vaccinations & a meet and greet with your dog may be required to approve your application.
You can pre-emptively complete the application online if you wish.
URGENT DOGS
$25 for heart worm negative dogs & puppies under 6 months, $85 for heart worm positive dogs. Urgent Animals can be found on our Facebook Page, in the album, Today's Urgent Dogs @ The 151/ACS Campus In San Antonio, TX!
SAPA! ANIMALS
Dogs & Cats that are already in SAPA! custody are on our website.
- Some will be available at the 151 Rescue Center (SAPA! Building 1), tran kennels.
- Others might be in Foster care, our Marbach Clinic or Petco Adoption Center.
Adoption Fee includes:
- the neuter/spay surgery,
- a microchip,
- being brought up to date on vaccinations and preventatives.
- For heart worm positive dogs, heart worm treatment is included in your fee. Treatment is done at our local SAPA Clinic only.
Current adoption fees are listed on the adoption page of this site.
**Some Animals have special adoption fees, i.e. Ambassador dogs & Special Breeds**
We are able to process adoptions out of state for animals already in SAPA!'s care on a case-by-case right now if the adopter lives in the cities/states we transport to. We need time to process the adoption, screen, and finalize the adoption. - The animal would need to meet the USDA criteria for transport and be healthy enough for transport so not all animals in care would be able to be transported at a given time.
With EBI animals, we do not have the luxury of time. We are a foster-based rescue so we don't have a shelter to hold while we process the adoption. - Animals on EBI we might not have any behavior info, we don't have full medical notes, we don't know if the adopter can pay for the transport fees, we don't have an application to review, and to review USDA guidelines for transport. - We don't have the adoption Fee at the time of tag, to ensure that the adopter doesn't back out.
For animals on the euthanasia list we require the out of state adopter to have a rescue org to pull for them and coordinate the pull and transport.
The rescue will need to email us at placement@sanantoniopetsalive.org, fill out our rescue partner application if not already a partner, and then coordinate the pull.
*We currently do not have any rescue partners that have offered to help with out-of-state adoptions*"
It is free to foster, but you must fill out an application and be in the local area. We have two types of fostering:
- Long-term fostering: until the dog is adopted, SAPA! provides medical care and marketing support and adoption events to help you find your foster pets homes.
- Short-term fostering: Temp fostering for SAPA! Approved Transport dogs, we do monthly transport and the temp foster period is 4 weeks at the most!
- Read more about Fostering w/ SAPA.
Foster Applications:
DOG: https://www.shelterluv.com/mat...
CAT: https://www.shelterluv.com/mat...
Email foster@sanantoniopetsalive.org If you are interested in meeting any of the urgent animals or animals at our 151/ACS location. Or for questions about fostering.