Animal Protection Center of Southeastern Massachusetts: Other Animals Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The Petfinder Foundation’s 2025 Other Animals Grant allowed the Animal Protection Center of Southeastern Massachusetts (APCSM) to waive adoption fees for small animals. This funding has helped guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, and parakeets find loving homes by removing financial barriers that sometimes discourage potential adopters.

In addition to waiving fees, the grant gave us the opportunity to raise awareness about these often-overlooked pets. We promoted the fee-waived adoptions on our social media accounts and added special signage in our shelter to draw attention to our small animals. This visibility led to increased interest, more foot traffic, and quicker adoptions.

By helping us highlight and support our smaller shelter residents, this grant directly improved adoption outcomes and gave each animal a better chance at a happy future. We’re so grateful for this support!

How many pets did this grant help?

25

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Chosen, a guinea pig (first and second photos), was one of the animals who benefitted directly from this grant. He was surrendered to our shelter in March when his owners moved and could not bring him with them. They had only had him for seven months after purchasing him from a pet store and described him as a cautious guinea pig who didn’t enjoy being handled.

One day, a potential adopter reached out via email expressing interest in adopting a guinea pig. She shared that she couldn’t bear to visit the shelter in person and choose one while leaving the others behind, so she sent a friend on her behalf. That friend met Chosen and recommended him.

When the adopter came in to meet Chosen herself, it was an instant connection and she adopted him that same day! She sent us this update a couple weeks after he went home:

“I wanted to update you on my adoption of Chosen, whom I adopted on April 18. We renamed him Monty! He is doing well and beginning to come out of his shell a bit more. I absolutely love him! I also wanted to let you know that I had a wonderful experience adopting from the APCSM. The girl who introduced me to Chosen and helped with the adoption was wonderful! Thank you so much for all you do for the animals!”

Chosen, now Monty, found his loving forever home thanks to the support of the Petfinder Foundation’s 2025 Other Animals Grant.