You can see our currently adoptable animals here, and we also suggest following us on Instagram and joining our foster needs email list to get a look at new dogs on the way before they arrive.  

PLEASE NOTE: All of our dogs are in foster homes, NOT at our office.

Complete an adoption application — once approved, we can move to the meetings phase. This is to respect our foster parents’ time. If you’re sure you want to adopt but don’t know which dog yet, we recommend completing an adoption application now, which speeds up the process once you see an animal you’re interested in.  

Pretty straightforward. Here’s the step-by-step:

1. You fill out an adoption application. (A home check may be required.) You could wait until you fall for an animal you see on Instagram or our website, but we recommend getting a jump on the process. We have many pre-approved adopters watching as the new guys come in, and if their applications are a match, they usually end up getting first dibs on meetings.
   

2. Once your application is approved, we set you up with a time to meet the object of your desire as long as your application is a match and the animal is still available. First meeting is virtual (FaceTime), and if that goes well, we move on to in person.
   
   Important: You should be ready to do your FaceTime meeting within 48 hours of being approved/matched with a pup, and you should be prepared to meet in person/adopt the pup within 48 hours of the FaceTime meeting. Because we’re a very small group, we have limited availability for in-person meetings, and we do not have Sunday hours. We are stretched very thin and ask that you please prioritize your adoption meetings the same way you would a doctor appointment.

3. If you decide to adopt, you finalize the adoption. That entails paying the fee, signing the adoption contract, receiving the medical records and dog license (if applicable), and our favorite part — the adoption photo. :)

It’s much healthier for an animal to be in a home than in a cage while it waits to be adopted. Also, we can learn much more about the dog or cat’s personality, needs, training level, etc. this way, which allows us to make as accurate a match as possible when it comes time to find a forever family. (Learn more about becoming a foster parent here.)  

First, please read through our website before you contact us as most of the inquiries we receive are answered on pages like this.  If you have questions about the status of your adoption application, please email apps@socialteesnyc.org. If you are fostering an animal and need assistance, please email your foster coordinator or foster@socialteesnyc.org. For media or donation questions, email samantha@socialteesnyc.org. All other issues, please email contact@socialteesnyc.org.  

Most come from shelters where they are at risk of euthanasia primarily in New York, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, and Tennessee. Most of the animals we take in were left at a municipal shelter or found stray. “Stray” means that someone owned the animal and left it somewhere (like on the side of the road) when they no longer wanted or could care for the animal. This kind of abandonment happens for a variety of reasons, the most common of which include: the animal was a bigger responsibility than they realized, financial hardship, new baby, moving to a place that doesn’t allow pets, no longer has time for the animal, allergies, lost their job.

The euthanasia rates in the non-New York areas from which we rescue animals are much higher than the euthanasia rate here. Our out-of-state rescue does not displace rescue we are doing in New York, it is in addition to the New York dogs that we take in. We want to save as many lives as we can, so we move animals from areas where the euthanasia rate is very high to areas where the demand for those animals is much greater.

The adoption fee includes spay/neuter surgery; up to date on core vaccines at the time of adoption; microchip; treated with defleaing, deworming, and demiting medication as necessary, and often more. The adoption fee sometimes also covers exceptional veterinary treatment that was required upon intake for senior and special needs animals, such as an eye removal or a limb amputation. If the animal adopted is too small at the time of adoption to have been altered or has been temporarily waived from surgery due to a medical condition at the time of adoption, we ensure all adopted animals are altered within six months of adoption. (This is included in the adoption fee.)

The standard adoption fee for dogs is $600. The fee for seniors (ages 8 and up) and special needs animals is $550. That’s not because they’re less valuable but because we’d like to offer a small thank the very wonderful people who choose to invest their emotions and financial resources in these animals. (Same goes for cats.) The standard adoption fee for cats is $275. For seniors (ages 8 and up) and special needs, the fee is $200.

Just to put things in perspective, our adoption fee covers spay/neuter surgery, up to date on core vaccines, microchip, defleaing and deworming medication as necessary, and usually more. A spay/neuter surgery alone in New York City averages $1200 these days. One puppy vaccine booster is $75, a microchip costs around $100.

Great question! No, it’s not a good idea to adopt a puppy when there are very young children in the house. We must be extremely careful when placing each animal in a forever home both for the animal's wellbeing and for the safety of the adopting family members, and a variety of highly regarded professional dog trainers with whom we’ve consulted all strongly advise against placing puppies or young rambunctious dogs in homes with children age 6 or under.

In their opinion, placing these types of pups in homes with very young kids is generally a recipe for failure and heartbreak because both puppies and young children have limited motor skills, impulse control, and understanding of how to interact with each other, so children in these situations usually end up getting bitten, scratched, or otherwise accidentally hurt. Puppies go through months of wanting to nip and use their mouths during play time, which can be very frightening and painful for kids — and even for adults. All puppies regardless of the breed will require an immense amount of training, exercise, time, and attention, and while some families manage to make it work, most in our experience have either returned or rehomed their puppies within a few months of adoption. 

Our trainers recommend either waiting until your children are over 6 to adopt or considering a mellow adult alongside trainer guidance on setting boundaries for the dog and for children as well as how to safely monitor interactions between children and dogs.

Sad fact: Our return rate is very low, but the number one reason people who have adopted dogs from us return them to us is because they eventually have children and cannot manage babies/toddlers and dogs at once.

It can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Hang in there! Hearing back from references like landlords is the most common holdup. If you have questions about the status of your application, you can politely email apps@socialteesnyc.org. :) Please have patience when you’re waiting for a response! If you want to help us speed up this process, we’d love to have you join our application processing team. Submit a volunteer app here.

Nope, one is fine unless it's been over a year since the last time you submitted an application. If you are already approved to adopt but the dog you were originally interested in was adopted, just email the Social Tees rep who originally approved you when you see another dog that you might want to meet.

Try updating your browser and submitting the application again, or try using a different web browser. 

You’re welcome to apply, but we rarely adopt out animals farther than New York and the surrounding states. We don’t ship animals to adopters, so if you apply to adopt an animal and you live out of our standard adoption zone, please be prepared to come to NYC to meet/adopt the animal right away if your application is approved. We do not keep animals on hold for travel arrangements. We require all adopters meet the animal before finalizing the adoption. You’ll also need to be ready to transport the pup home with you.

We can't predict which animal might be able to serve an applicant requiring an ESA because each individual human's needs are different, and the dynamic between each human and animal can vary widely both short term and over time, so we ask that our ESA applicants foster before adopting to try to determine whether the match is a fit. If you are interested in joining our foster-to-adopt program, please read the info on this program here and submit an adoption application here. If your landlord doesn't otherwise allow pets, please plan to upload written confirmation from your landlord that they have approved your ESA request along with your application (or email it to apps@socialteesnyc.org). We’ll need that before we can finish up your application. For applicants whose landlords do not otherwise allow pets: Please note that while the Fair Housing Act requires landlords to allow tenants with ESA letters from licensed professionals to own a pet, landlords are also permitted to reject an ESA request or rescind acceptance if an animal is not well behaved, which is part of why it's so important to make sure we've found the right match. We wouldn't want the animal to lose its home or you to lose crucial support the animal provides. It's important to understand that an animal's behavior can change significantly over time, so we suggest having a training plan in place to help your evolving relationship with your pet stay on the right track.

Please make sure all household members are ready and able to attend the meeting. If you have a significant other, children, roommates, or dogs, all must be there to meet your prospective new pack member. If you are meeting at our office or an adoption event and might be finalizing the adoption and taking your pet home that day, please also bring a valid ID, the adoption fee, and a pet carrier and/or a leash and collar or harness if appropriate. (Detailed instructions will be provided during the meeting coordination.)

It’s safe to let your new puppy on the ground and with other dogs as long as your puppy has had its final round of puppy vaccines, which usually happens between 12 and 16 weeks. If you’re adopting a puppy younger than this, you’ll definitely need to wait until your vet says you're good to go. If you’re adopting a puppy in this age bracket, whether the puppy has had its final round of vaccines will depend on how old the puppy was at the time of the first round of vaccines, which can very depending on how old the puppy was at the time of rescue. We will clarify for you exactly where the puppy stands with vaccines before or at the time of adoption. For puppies that have not yet had their final round of vaccines, you'll want to avoid letting them walk around on the ground in areas that are highly trafficked by other dogs, such as parks, dog runs, and pet stores. Puppy play dates are okay as long as the other dog is up to date on vaccines and not carrying anything contagious. 

You must be at least 25 years old in order to adopt from us. We do not doubt that you could provide a loving environment, but in our experieince, the number of animals that are given up or rehomed within the first few years after adoption is much higher among adopters who are under age 25 than among adopters who are over 25. Generally, this seems to be because there are more major life changes ahead the younger the applicant — new jobs, roommates, living situations, etc. Our number one priority is each animal's health and wellbeing, so we must be as careful as we can when trying to place animals in homes that will be stable longterm. We are very sorry to disappoint those of you who are younger than 25, but we do encourage you to foster for us in order to get your dog fix while helping save lives (as long as you are 21 or older).

No. We used to, but we no longer have a reptile rescue program.  

According to the adoption contract you sign, you are legally obligated to inform us if you are no longer able to keep the pet you adopted for any reason at any point after adoption so that we can take them back into our system or assist in other ways to ensure the best outcome for the animal.