Stray & Found

We only accept animals from our jurisdiction which is all of Porter County EXCLUDING  Portage. If you live in Portage, please contact Portage Animal Control at 219-763-1825. Our cat capacity is 81 and dogs is 50. If you have found a stray and need to bring an animal to the shelter you must have a Porter County Id or Drivers license.Lying about owning an animal could result in you being charged with animal abandonment. We have restrictions for owner surrender animals, and for good reason. Please see policy below.

Trapping and Feral Cats

We do not house feral cats. If you have a feral cat situation, we practice “Trap neuter and release.” The cats are taken to our vet, sterilized, and released after surgery and recovery to farms. At this time you can rent traps from local hardware stores. Contact us for more questions.

Owner Surrender

We help animals in the area whose people can no longer care for them. We do not intake owner surrender animals if they are over a certain age, have any medical conditions, are aggressive or injured. But we do make acceptions – each animal’s story is different, and we will listen and try to accomodate to help the animal in need. We are not a low cost clinic , although we hope to provide one in the near future. Your honesty is important for the health and safety of your animal, as well as public safety. If you need to surrender an animal, you must call to verify your animal can be admitted to the shelter and when they can arrive. We absolutely do our best to re home animals in need. Sadly, as animal owners, sometimes there are undesirable decisions that need to be made. Although we empathize, we do not offer euthanasia. Local vets will be able to kindly assist you.

We accept a $20 donation for intakes, but do not require it. We would much rather your pet be spayed/neutered, and current onvaccinations. This is the first step you should take when re homing your pet. This makes them highly adoptable. We offer a monthly low cost spay and neuter transport. We do accept small and furry’s and farm friends in need of help.

Before you decide to put your animal up for adoption in our shelter, please follow these steps first:

• Although we are a safe haven for animals, shelter environments are very stressful on animals. Although we thrive in taking the best care of our animals, shelters undeniably  are known to cause physical stress and mental anguish. We should be your last resort. Re homing your pet yourself should always be the first step.
• Spay and neuter your pet if you can! (See our Spay & Neuter Page for low cost options))
• Advertise through family, friends, neighbors, and vets offices. If that fails, use the newspaper and websites created to help you re home your pet, such as petfinder.com, dog911, dogster.com or catster.com. Always visit the prospective new home and take a copy of a drivers license. Use your instincts! Be very careful if resorting to this type of advertisment.
• If you own a pure breed, confide in a pure breed rescue group designed to rescue and re home your specific breed of dog. The Internet is a resourceful guide for such groups. Many of these groups you will find will be within 5 hrs. or less of your home.

Unfortunately cats are harder to find homes for because of the over population of the species. When we are at capacity and cannot shelter your cat, we will ask you to be placed on a waiting list and call you when we have an open cage. We must ask owners to take responsibility for their animals by re homing them or choosing humane euthanasia, if they can no longer care for their animals and we cannot assist them. There are vets and other low cost options for euthanasia in the area that may be able to kindly assist you. When we are at capacity, we simply and sadly have no where to house them. We hope to change this in the future with a bigger more modern facility. We go down the list as cat adoptions make room. We never  euthanize to make room. During the summer months, it is more difficult and we appreciate your patience.

Intake hours are 11am-4:30pm Mon-Fri or by appointment if owner relinquishment