Emergency Boarding or Rehoming Your Animal

If you are in a situation where you are unable to keep your pet for a temporary period of time, such as sudden homelessness, hospitalisation or fleeing domestic violence, you may want to look at emergency boarding options. If you are linked in with a case worker they may know of services available to help look after your pet in a time of crisis.

Rainbow Paws assists with subsidised emergency boarding at kennels and catteries - more information can be found on their website.

Rehoming is a difficult decision and should be considered a last resort. There are avenues of assistance for behavioural cases, such as working with behaviouralists and speaking with your vet (certain behavioural issues may be due to underlying medical problems, or can be treated with medications).

Due to high demand, some organisations may have a waiting list for rehoming a pet. If it is an urgent situation let the organisation know. If you are thinking about rehoming but are unsure, or if you need to rehome a pet but not for a while, please get in contact to secure a spot on the waitlist - you can always have your name removed if circumstance changes.

RSPCA ACT operates as a small, independent shelter, and doesn’t euthanise animals for space. As a result, surrenders may be subject to a waitlist. If your need to surrender is urgent, please call them on (02) 6287 8100 to discuss your circumstances.

Domestic Animal Services can accept dog surrenders. As per their website, a surrender fee for each dog is applicable. This fee may be reduced or waived where the owner would otherwise suffer hardship.

Canberra Pet Rescue facilitates both surrenders and direct rehoming, although due to limited resources they may not be able to accept all applications. They do not charge a surrender fee, however donations are appreciated if possible.

ACT Rescue & Foster primarily fosters dogs who would otherwise face euthanasia in pounds, however you can contact them to discuss your circumstances.

Please contact the Queanbeyan Animal Management Facility for more information on their surrender processes.

Facilitating rehoming of ex-racing and other greyhounds, Greyhound Connections has a surrender form available on their website.

Specialising in rescue and re-homing for deaf and special need dogs, Hear No Evil - Australian Deaf Dog Rescue has an online form that can be filled out if you need to surrender a deaf or disabled dog.