Intake Priorities and Rehoming Support
Souris Valley Animal Shelter is proud to be a no-kill shelter. We will not euthanize an animal to make space in our shelter.
To maintain our no-kill status, we operate on managed intakes. We do not accept more animals into our shelter care than we have space and resources available.
Our Current Intake Priorities:
1. Non-contracted law enforcement emergency (neglect, abuse, hoarding)
2. Animals previously adopted from SVAS that need to be returned to rescue
3. Transfer in from an over capacity rescue/shelter in the state of ND
4. Emergency housing programs
5. Non-contracted strays (Law enforcement or Good Samaritan)
6. Owner surrenders for military members PCS’ing or deploying that cannot take their pets to their new post
7. Owner surrenders when owner has passed or is moving to long-term or residential care.
8. Owner surrenders due to health issues (i.e. allergies to pet)
9. Owner surrenders for all other reasons
Requests for intake always exceed the available space in our rescue. Our priority order is meant to assist animals and people in the most vulnerable situations first.
If you would like to submit a surrender request, please email intakes@svaspets.com with the following info: your name and contact info, animal name (if known), any medical or behavioral issues, animal gender, age, size, is it good with kids, cats, other dogs, reason for surrender and pictures of the animal.
IMPORTANT: Please know that submitting a surrender request does NOT guarantee intake into our rescue program. Requests are reviewed similarly to hospital emergency triage. More severe cases will be given priority for intake. If accepted onto our wait list, intake can take weeks or months depending on adoption rates out of our rescue and other needs on our wait list.
Additional resources for rehoming your pet are provided below.
*Lower priorities may be considered for intake if there are currently foster homes available.
Things to consider before you surrender or try to rehome your pet
If your decision is based on financial consideration, SVAS and other groups have pet food and supply pantries to support keeping your pet in your home.
If it based on time, there is no one who magically has more time than you. We are all given the same 24 hours per day. Your pet is going to be happy to spend whatever time you have with them.
Resources for rehoming your pet
Please know that North Dakota Century Code (NDCC) 36-21.2-04 states that intentionally abandoning an animal is a class A misdemeanor. This includes dumping an animal onto another’s property (including SVAS) without them knowingly and willingly accepting responsibility for the care of that animal. A class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to 360 days in jail and a $3000 fine.