Adoptions

Animal Adoptions

Adopting a wonderful animal from the Dinwiddie County Animal Shelter has never been easier! You can take a look on the Petfinders website that features some of our available animals or check our Facebook page and see if we have someone there that catches your eye. Then click on our adoption application (PDF), print it, and fill it out. You can either bring it in person, or fax it to us. You can also make a visit to see us and meet all the animals we care for here at the shelter in person. The Dinwiddie County Animal Shelter is open for adoptions from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Bring your photo identification and a check, cash or credit card (3% transaction fee added) with you when you come.

You must be at least 18 years of age to adopt. If you currently rent your home, you will need verification from your landlord that you are allowed to have an animal on their property. We will adopt animals to residents from any jurisdiction, but if you are not a resident of Dinwiddie County or, one of our immediate surrounding jurisdictions, the animal you choose must be sterilized before it can go home with you. We can help make those arrangements for you as well.

Virginia law says that all dogs and cats adopted from the County Shelter must be spayed or neutered, and get a rabies shot. In order to ensure compliance with that law, we charge an adoption fee for each animal. For dogs of all ages the fee is $75. For cats of all ages the fee is $45. The Petersburg / Colonial Heights SPCA helps us offset the cost of this service by covering a great deal of the fee to sterilize companion animals. They, along with the veterinarians in our area make spay / neuter easy and cost-effective for our adopters.

Adoption Fee

The adoption fee breaks down like this:

  • $75 for dogs
    • $55 for spay / neuter
    • $8 rabies vaccination
  • $45 for cats
    • $35 for spay / neuter
    • $8 rabies vaccination
  • $10 Warden Fee
    • Worming and a five-way vaccination may be included

After you have selected the pet of your choice, we will fill out the remainder of the paperwork which includes:

  • A voucher to the veterinarian you choose from our SPCA listing for their rabies shot, and spay / neuter fees
  • A free medical certificate
  • A copy of the Animal Welfare law for companion animals in Virginia

All you need to do is take that paperwork with you to the veterinarian when you go and they will do the rest. Easy! Then all that is left is to smile pretty for the camera with your new addition to the family while our staff takes a picture of you to add to our collection of adopters.

Guarantee

We make every effort to make sure each and every animal in our shelter is healthy. However, we cannot guarantee any animal adopted from our facility. A certificate is issued upon adoption for use at a local veterinarian for the purpose of making sure the animal is healthy. If the animal is not healthy, you may return it to the shelter for a refund within seven days of adoption. As with any animal adopted from a shelter, there is always a possibility of an undetected disease.

We also cannot guarantee that the animal will not chase cars, eat your shoes or make a mess on your clean floor.

We can guarantee that we will take the animal back if the adoption does not go well.