Adoption info and fees

At the ARL, we consider ourselves to be great matchmakers! Your adoption process starts by gathering information about the type of pet you’re looking for to help you think through your desired personality traits of the pet you’re hoping to adopt. Adopters can also come with a pet in mind after browsing our available pets on our website. Then, our adoption counselors work one on one with you to introduce you to pets at the shelter who they think would be best suited to you and your family. After you have spent some time with your selected pets, your adoption counselor will go over everything we know about the pet’s medical, personality and behavior history (including any notes that his/her previous owner may have made). If your adoption counselor and your family think the pet is a great fit for you and your family, unless otherwise noted, you will be able to take the pet home that day.

*Starting on September 18, 2024, our adoption process is paperless. All the documents will be sent over email and signatures collected through your mobile device or a tablet available at the shelter.

Because adopting a pet is an important decision for your entire family to make, we suggest planning an hour or longer for your visit. We offer all of our adopters one-on-one attention when adopting a pet, so please plan to arrive early, especially during peak adoption times on weekends. At times, we may have a wait before we might be able to work with you, but we promise to make it worth your patience! You can join the virtual waitlist here. (Please read all the information in the link regarding the waitlist before joining)

Although this is not mandatory, we suggest bringing all family members who live in your home to meet the new pet. If you plan to adopt another dog, we also suggest bringing your dog from home to make sure they will get along well.

While we do not have people “apply” to adopt animals, we do like to gather some important information about you, your family, other pets at home, and your lifestyle so we can ensure we’re helping you select a pet who will be the best match for your family! To save some time during your appointment, you can complete your profile ahead of time, or, if you prefer, you can complete it when you arrive at the shelter!

Being able to meet potential adopters outside the kennel spaces has proven to be a much more positive experience for the dogs and adopters. That’s why after the Covid-19 protocols get lifted, ARL will continue having individual meet & greets with the animals. To see our adoptables and their profiles, please visit www.berksarl.org/pets

We’re pleased to offer a happiness guarantee! While we always do our best to make sure that our pets find great homes and our adopters find great pets, in rare instances, some pets and families find that they may not be the perfect match. If this happens, we offer adopters the opportunity to return their pet without the worry of judgment or criticism. We have a money-back guarantee policy within the first 2 weeks after adoption.

Although we do not provide training classes at the shelter, we are happy to offer the Bogey’s Academy program for dogs with behavioral challenges. Thanks to a generous donor, we can provide scholarships to four training sessions through GoodPup. Ask our adoption team about this opportunity. If you which to donate to support the scholarship, please contact development@berksarl.org.

Because we are constantly managing an ever-changing population at the shelter, we are unfortunately unable to provide an alert service. However, our website is continuously updated throughout the day as pets become available for adoption or as they find homes. While it’s not 100% accurate due to uploading time schedules, it’s your best place to check each day to see who’s available and ready to find a new home!

Adopters can join our daily waitlist here. At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ARL set appointments for potential adopters. After the transition to a virtual waitlist, the number of adoptions increased significantly. The waitlist also allows our guests to sit in their cars or enjoy walking our picturesque 10-acre campus. Throughout your wait, you can monitor your place in line, and you will be notified by both text and email when it’s your turn to be personally assisted by a member of our staff.

Appointments are only available for our Pet Help Center and the Medical Center.

So we have a fair and standardized procedure in place to give everyone an equal opportunity to adopt pets at the ARL, we do not offer a reservation service. Instead, we use a first-come, first-served virtual waitlist to handle adoption appointments. This virtual waitlist opens daily at 9 AM. Adopters must be present once we open at 10 AM Monday, Wednesday-Friday ( Tuesdays closed) and 9 AM Saturday and Sunday. If a turn is called and the person is not present, they will need to start the process again. (please note that the waitlist may open a little earlier during adoption events). When you arrive at the ARL, please click HERE to check in for your turn.

Your guess is as good as ours! So that we can focus on helping animals in our community, we do not place “orders” for pets, and we have an ever-changing population of pets in need who come through our doors each day. The best way to see who is available is to check our website which is continuously updated throughout the day as pets become available for adoption or as they find homes.

Yes! All pets–including kittens and puppies are spayed/neutered, given all current vaccines, microchipped, and medically cleared before they leave the shelter.

Yes, they are! Plus, all pets receive a microchip to help you reunite just in case they ever become lost.

If you are not sure if a pet is going to be a good fit or you’re not ready to make a commitment, you can do a trial adoption. As part of this program, you will be able to take the pet to your house for two weeks and see how it goes. You will be asked to sign a Trial Adoption agreement with our Pet Placement Department. Adoption fees will be collected when adoption is finalized.

If you don’t want to continue the process with that particular pet, you can bring it back to the shelter and try again with another.