How To Adopt

Before You Submit an Adoption Form

• Find an animal that’s a good fit for you on our Available Animal page.
• Make sure to read their adoption description fully to learn more about them.
• All the information we have about an animal will be included on their animal profile. We do our best to provide information in the animals description. Keep in mind, we will have more information for animals who came to us from a previous home in comparison to animals who were strays, or came from another shelter, their history may be limited (how they are with kids, other animals, house training, etc).
• Once you’ve found an animal you are interested, click the link to inquire and submit an adoption form.
• If you saw an animal on the website, in a news article, or on social media and it is no longer listed, the animal has either been adopted or we received multiple inquiries and we are processing those inquiries.

After You Submit an Adoption From

• Submitting an adoption form is not a hold, reservation, or guarantee on an animal adoption.

• NEAS hosts ‘open hours’ seven days a week from 11:30am-5pm. During these hours, you can head to the shelter to meet with an Animal Welfare Specialist who would be happy to work with you to make an adoption match. Appointments are not required. Please note, in an effort to keep the stress levels reduced for the animals in our care, our kennel areas will not be open to walk through.

• For animals without special adoption needs, we tend to receive a lot of inquiries. Adoptions are processed on a first come first served basis and in most cases the first good match will adopt the animal.

• Adopting animals in high demand can be a frustrating process. We do our best to maintain as fair of a process as possible. While we receive many inquiries on available animals, the animal can only be adopted to one home, which means all other interested households will unfortunately be disappointed. We thank you for your patience.

Don’t See the Type of Animal You Are Interested In?

• Keep checking! Our available animals change quickly.
• We do not have an adoption wait list and are unable to notify you when a particular type of animal becomes available.
• Purebred Animals: We rarely receive purebred cats, and almost never receive purebred kittens or puppies. We very rarely receive hypoallergenic dogs. Most of our dogs are mixed breed.

Estimated Adoption Fees (and what’s included)

All Adoptions include adoption counseling and take home care information in addition to the below. Please note that adoption fees for individual animals may vary depending on the needs of the animals.

In order to help set puppies up for success, we offer group training classes to help them learn the basics which is included as part of their adoption fee! These classes are offered in Boston, Waltham, and Methuen, with flexible start dates depending on your needs. For more information, please speak to a staff member or visit neas.org/puppyclass. Please note, this form is view only and you will not be able to sign up on your own – but a staff member would be happy to assist you in signing up at the time of adoption!