MUNSTER - Humane Indiana's Home to Home program is serving the organization well in getting animals permanent homes while keeping them out of shelters, even with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Humane Indiana Shelter Director, Jessica Petalas-Hernandez, says the program started at Humane Indiana before the pandemic took hold, in the spring of 2019 and last year 61 animals were adopted as a result of the program.
"It's all kinds of reasons that people will use Home to Home," Petalas-Hernandez says. "But it's really beneficial because what we have seen is animals that have spent a considerable amount of time in a home setting with a family already, tend to do very poorly in a shelter. Because ultimately no matter how good of a shelter it is, it's still kind of like an animal jail and it's very stressful for them. It's a strange place, strange people, lots of smells, lots of sounds that they're not used to."
The Home to Home program allows for pet owners to safely rehome their pet through a database to find families wanting to adopt pets.
"You know Home to Home is a safe way for people to rehome, so that they don't have to turn to places like Craigslist or Facebook, where there is no oversight and there is no third party that has expertise in animal care that we can kinda work together as like a mediator between the groups," Petalas-Harnanzes says.
Anyone looking for an animal to adopt or to rehome a pet can go to the Indiana Humane website, click on "shelter," then click on "pet admissions" then click on "Learn more about the Home to Home program."
