Animal Adoption

To adopt a pet from White River Humane Society, you must fill out an application, receive an approved status from management and complete an adoption contract. There is also an adoption fee associated with each animal. In some cases, animals may need to be scheduled for spay/neuter surgery and our managers will walk you through the process on how that works with our shelter pets.

We strive to respond within two business days of application submission. We can experience delays due to reasons such as being short staffed, waiting on verification from a landlord / veterinary office, etc.  It is not our intention to take too long to get back with anyone. The animal shelter has many daily responsibilities and animals to tend to (usually 100+ animals). Please feel free to follow up via email at wrhsmgt@gmail.com on your application status or leave a voicemail message at 812-279-2457.

We highly encourage you to apply to adopt online first. Applications require a review process, and it takes time to go through the process. Once you have an approved status, (meaning management has contacted you to tell you your application is approved) things can go more quickly for you when you visit the shelter where you have the potential to take the pet home the same day. If you visit the shelter first and apply on site, we will ask you to give us two business days to complete the application review process. You are welcome to follow up on your application status by emailing wrhsmgt@gmail.com or by leaving a voicemail message at 812-279-2457.

Our duty is to place the shelter animal in the best environment possible. We approve significantly more adoption applications than we deny (over 600 adoptions in 2024), however there are many variables that could contribute to an application not being approved. Sometimes it has to do with the known behaviors of the shelter pet (i.e. Does not get along with other dogs, has a history of escaping and running at large, etc.) and in our experience when the environment isn't set up for success the shelter pet ends up getting returned back to the shelter. This is very stressful on a pet. Other times it could simply be because there were several applications on the same pet and we can only pick one home for the pet to go to. While we reserve the right to deny adoption applications, our goal is to find permanent, loving homes for each pet.