Prospective pet sleepovers lead to uptick in adoptions
Apr 14, 2015, 5:47 PM | Updated: 5:47 pm
PHOENIX — If you’re looking to adopt a pet, a pet slumber party may help your choose the right one.
“People kind of have this expectation that the animal’s going to run right over to them, wag their tail, jump in their lap and start licking their faces and that doesn’t always happen,” Judith Gardner with the Arizona Animal Welfare League said.
Some pets don’t show well in a shelter environment.
“We came up with the idea to allow people that were interested in adopting a pet to take it home with them for a few days to see how it’s going to work out,” she said.
Since 2013 more than 1,000 cats and dogs have been sent home with potential adopters and it seems to be working.
“We’ve had a 73 percent success rate, in other words 73 percent of the people who take a pet — a dog or a cat — home on a slumber party, end up adopting them,” Gardner said.
Should the family not choose to adopt that animal, Gardner said the sleepovers help her agency hone in on what they may be looking for.
“Even if the dog or cat isn’t adopted by that particular family, we’ll know a lot more about it, and that’ll help us match them up with the right family in the future,” she said.
