In an effort to help you, our prospective adopters, to better understand our practice of accepting multiple applications for adoption of our animals, we would ask that you read the process as described below.

As you may have noticed when reading the records of our animals, many of them have special needs which require us to select a home that we believe will best meet their particular needs. Sometimes an animal’s needs are fairly complex, placing many restrictions on the home that is chosen. Others’ needs may be quite straightforward and relatively easy to meet, for example, a requirement that there be no young children or other companion animals in a home.

Some ‘special needs’ may involve health or behavioural considerations, and still others may concern particular training needs. Puppies and kittens, as well as several dog breeds, require particular attention as do older animals, those who came to us from neglected or abused homes, and those whose background is unknown to us.

Because of the large array of special needs, and in order to best meet those needs, the London Humane Society permits more than one interested individual or family to apply to adopt our animals. Once we have had an opportunity to review all of the applications, we select the home that we feel will best meet the needs of each animal.

If you are interested in applying to adopt one of our animals, you are more than welcome to complete the appropriate adoption application. Because there are several steps in processing applications, it will take several days to select an animal's new home. Once the decision is made, however, shelter staff will notify the selected applicant only. Unfortunately, because a large number of people apply to adopt many of our animals, and because we operate at minimal staffing levels, we are unable to contact those applicants who were not selected.

We want you to know, however, that if you were not selected to adopt a particular animal, this means only that another home was found to be more closely suited to the needs of that animal. Because we recognize that most people wanting to adopt our animals will provide good, loving homes, we encourage you to return to the shelter at your convenience if you would like to apply to adopt again.