Safe Haven Dog Transfer Code of Ethics

While we do strive to have most of the animals under our care adopted locally (so that we may more directly monitor their care and wellbeing); in order to save the greatest number of Delaware’s animals and to make animals available for adoption in regions and states where there are few animals (so that people do not have to resort to buying animals, in turn supporting puppy mills and backyard breeders), Safe Haven transfers our animals only to reputable, No-Kill, shelters.

1. Safe Haven only transfers animals to established No-Kill shelters that do not put down animals for space or treatable health reasons.

2. Safe Haven gives preference to shelters with animal “control”/protection contracts in their county and surrounding counties in order to have more of a safety net for our animals.

3. Safe Haven mainly transfers animals to established organizations with physical shelter space, not to “foster-only” groups

4. Safe Haven may at times transfer dogs to shelters that occasionally put down dogs for behavioral reasons, but only with a signed agreement that the organization will return the dog to Safe Haven, and not put it down, if it exhibits behaviors they deem unacceptable, even after an adoption.

5. Safe Haven may occasionally transfer a dog to a Breed-specific rescue organization, provided that each organization; is individually evaluated, proves a national affiliation, shows it has existed for at least 3 years, adheres to a No-Kill policy (including for behavioral issues), accepts mix-breeds, and the dog is altered before transfer

6. Safe Haven, as all ethical shelters that have a transport program, engages in a system of sending (and in the future, receiving) a “fair-sampling” animals.  This means that the sending shelter sends not only harder to place animals, but also easy to place dogs (like puppies, small dogs, and pure breeds).  The receiving shelter accepts both easy to place dogs, but also harder to place animals (such as Heartworm-positive dogs, Pit Bulls, and older dogs).  This is considered a fair balanced exchange, allowing the shipping shelter to focus limited resources on dogs that are easier to adopt, while not completely exempting them from the responsibility of caring for all types of animals.  The receiving shelter in turn uses their greater resources to help special-needs animals, while still receiving some easy to adopt animals that will bring more adopter traffic into their shelter, hence adopting out more and being able to take in more animals in the future.