For 75 years, the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria has been a resource to our community.  From housing homeless animals to reuniting owners with lost pets, assisting wildlife in need, creating families and helping them stay together, the AWLA has been here for you.  Read more about our journey below from AWLA from AWLA Executive Director Stella Hanly.

Have you ever adopted a pet? Maybe in the 1980s, or ‘90s, the 2010s or even in the last year?  Were you asked a lot of questions, about the size of your house and yard, what kinds of pets you’d had before, your schedule, what vet you used, and maybe even your salary? How did the adoption process make you feel?

Depending on where and when you adopted a pet, your experience could have been very different from someone else’s. Over the past decade, the AWLA, along with many other animal shelters and welfare organizations, have updated their adoption process to be more in line with the national “Adopters Welcome” approach created and advocated by the Humane Society of the United States. Much like its name implies, these efforts were designed to make potential adopters feel invited and informed, and to help everyone make the best decision about their new furry (or finned or feathered) family member.

The “Adopters Welcome” approach turns previous adoption processes upside down. Rather than requiring that families “prove” they are good enough to adopt an animal, it focuses on helping each family make the right match for them. So many of the people who are interested in adopting a pet do so because they want to help an animal in need, to give that animal a home and find a new best friend in return. The welcoming approach invites more people to make the difference in the life of an animal, and in turn, helps new animals find wonderful and loving homes.

Think about it: What limits the amount of love you can give an animal? It is your bank account?  Whether you own or rent your home, and how big it is? Whether you’ve owned a pet before?  None of these should be a barrier to whether you can adopt a pet; these facts now just give us more opportunities to introduce you to the pet that is right for you.

Now, instead of asking, “Do you have a fenced yard for a dog to run around in?” we ask, “What kind of activities are you looking to do with your pup?” If you’re looking for a pet who’s going to go hiking with you every weekend, we might recommend a rough-and-tumble outdoorsy hound.  But if you know your own lifestyle is a bit more sedentary or your home is better situated to take short walks, perhaps a sweet senior terrier might be a better bet for you…or even a cat! It’s not to say that we know sometimes a certain pet won’t do well in, for example, an apartment, but we’ll share that with you too to help you find that perfect match for your life.

Similarly, we do not have an “application” that all adopters are required to fill out, because every adopter and every animal is different. Rather than having everyone give us the same information, we want to have a conversation to learn the most about you and what you are looking for in your new family member.

The “Adopters Welcome” approach not only breaks down barriers that were preventing people from adopting, it also allows us to connect a broader portion of our community with pets, people who may not have previously met the “criteria” of an adoption survey but who have all the love in the world to give to their new family member. Each different and unique family can provide an amazing home for our different and unique adoptable animals, if we only invite them to work with us to help an animal in need.

While COVID has changed the way we’ve invited our community to visit our facility, we hope it has been no less welcoming, offering a variety of ways to safely meet adoptable animals and support them once they are part of a family. We look forward to “welcoming” more of our community back into our facility — when they can do so safely — but in the meantime, no matter whether our doors are open, adopters are always welcome!

Read more about the work we’ve been doing for the past 75 years HERE.

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