Meet Your Match Pet Adoption Program
The ASPCA’s Meet Your Match is a research-based adoptions program designed to increase the likelihood that shelter dogs and cats will bond with their adopters. It is currently implemented at agencies all across the United States.
How It Began
The ASPCA began a five-year research program looking at how the Meet Your Match Feline-ality adoption program affected adoptions, return rates, length of stay and euthanasia rates.
Shelters use the Meet Your Match assessment, adopter survey, and color-coded cage cards and guest passes to provide a fun, informative framework by which adoption counselors and adopters work together to find the right matches. This program has been shown to increase adoptions and decrease returns.
The research found conversation and information received from the adoption counselor gave adopters the info they needed to modify their expectations and increase the likelihood of a successful match. Nearly all adopters surveyed said they would probably select a shelter that used the Meet Your Match Adoption program when adopting an animal in the future.
Shelter personnel from executive directors through kennel staff were enthusiastic about the Feline-ality program. Adoption counselors noted that the process improved communications with adopters, resulting in more successful cat adoptions.
Research Results
Shelters who use the Meet Your Match Canine-ality adoption program experienced significant improvements in the numbers of adoptions and returns:
- At Kansas Humane Society (for whom Meet Your Match was originally developed): returns drop by 50% within one month!
- Capital Area Humane Society (Hilliard, OH):
- Adoptions up by 14.7%
- Returns down by 35.7%
- Bay Area Humane Society and Animal Shelter (Green Bay, WI): Returns drop to 1 to 2%
- Marquette Humane Society (Negaunee, MI): Adoptions up by 37.5%
- Humane Society of Willamette Valley (Salem, OR): Adoptions up by 20%
- Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland (Westbrook, ME): Adoptions up by 14.2%
View the Meet Your Match materials and downloads.
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