What You Should Know About SSMR’s Adoption Process

STEPS IN THE ADOPTION PROCESS

1) Our Adoption Coordinator reviews your application the day it comes into Southern States Mastiff Rescue and then immediately forwards it to the Adoption Committee. 

2) The committee members review the applications and usually meet weekly by Zoom to discuss the applications and match them with available dogs. 

3) The committee carefully considers potential adopters’ requests as to age, gender, demeanor, etc.; for the desired dog; however, the committee reserves the right to make matches based on what they know of the breed and the individual dogs. Potential adopters are, of course, under no obligation to adopt the dog selected by the committee. If the potential adopters reject the match, they will be immediately placed back in the potential adopter file. 

4) If there are suitable matches, a member of the Adoption Committee then checks the personal and veterinarian references the applicant submitted on the application. Delays may occur in this part of the process if the listed references do not immediately answer or return phone calls. Please tell your references to accept our call or return our call as soon as possible.

5) If all references are positive, the Adoption Committee member calls the potential adopter to discuss the dog, answer questions, and send further photos and information if they are available. 

6) The adoption committee will contact local volunteers to complete a home visit. The potential adopter will be contacted for scheduling by the volunteer who will do the visit (This step may vary due to COVID status).

7) If there are no current matches, the adoption committee will send the potential adopter an email saying that there are no matches with currently available dogs.Potential adopters with no current matches are put in an active file so they are reconsidered at each subsequent meeting.

8) If there have been no good matches at the end of six months, the adoption committee will put the potential adopter’s file in the inactive file and email the potential adopter. If the potential adopters wish to be retained in the active file, they should reply to that email stating their desire to remain active and include any changes in their situation; such as moving, marriage, retirement, etc. There will be no additional fee for extending the time.

CURRENT ISSUES

National and local news sources have published many recent articles about the unprecedented number of animals currently being surrendered nationwide. 

People in animal welfare believe this huge influx of dogs is primarily caused by four factors: 

1. dogs adopted during the pandemic and now surrendered because their owners are going back to work;
2. dogs adopted during the pandemic, not socialized and now too difficult to handle;
3. many free and low cost spay/neuter facilities closed during the pandemic, and as a consequence there has been a surge in animal births; and 
4. the national financial situation which puts a huge strain on family income.

SSMR is one of the organizations struggling hard to meet the needs of the dogs who for no cause of their own are being surrendered. 

Our first responsibility is to protect the lives of mastiffs. Consequently, we are spending an inordinate amount of our time and money on retrieving dogs from high kill shelters and other dangerous situations. We are a small group of volunteers responding to a huge need, and our organization’s resources are close to being overwhelmed. Of course, transport, veterinary expenses, and housing of surrendered dogs drain our finances.  Additionally, our volunteers are spending many hours on reviewing the situations and arranging the intake, transport, and care of potential rescues.

We carefully review each dog’s adoptability. Some of the dogs offered for surrender have medical or behavioral issues. We screen carefully. When issues are treatable, we take in the dogs and treat them. Arranging for and paying for these treatments also requires funding and volunteer time.

Because of the current situation, our response to you may be slowed. We regret this, but we know that moving dogs out of danger is our most important task. Of course, to be successful, we must also move them into loving homes, so we are trying to streamline our processes. Please be patient with us. We want what you want: a gentle giant in your loving home.

Please Note: It has become necessary to collect a non-refundable application fee of $25 to help defray the increasing costs of veterinary care of the mastiffs coming into rescue. The fee must be paid when you submit your application. Your application will not be processed until we receive this fee.