Underhound Railroad
Our Mission
Underhound Railroad was formed in 2009 by a group of friends, with the goal of rescuing innocent dogs from death row in Connecticut shelters. Underhound Railroad has now grown to include rescue communities in Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah.
With our focus on rural areas where shelters are overflowing with abandoned dogs waiting to find rescue, our network of Underhound volunteers work hard to prevent undeserved deaths, see that medical, emotional and behavioral needs are tended to, and transportation as well as a loving foster family are provided to the pups on their journey to finding their forever homes!
Adoption Policy
Our adoption application is on our website:
https://underhoundrailroad.org/adoption-application/
If you have not yet submitted an application to us and are interested in adopting one of our dogs, we recommend you complete an application as soon as possible. You may submit an application for a specific animal that is posted in our Petfinder or you may submit a general application if you intend to adopt in the very near future.
When an application is received, one of our volunteers will review your application and contact your vet, landlord, and personal references. Before submitting an application, please make your references (landlord, personal, and veterinary) aware that you are looking to adopt a pet and that we may be calling for a reference.
If your application passes through the references process, a home visit will be set up by a volunteer. You will be contacted via email, text, or phone call. Please check your spam folder. We conduct in-home or virtual visits.
If the home visit is approved, a meet and greet with the dog of your choice can be set up. Depending on the current location of your dog in, this may be a person visit or a virtual one.
Our organization is foster based and does not have a location where the dogs can be visited.
Once you have been approved, a volunteer will contact you about scheduling a time for you to meet the dog(s) you are interested in. This meeting may occur at the foster’s residence, your home, virtually, or a location determined by the foster
If you have decided upon a dog that you would like to adopt and the approval process has been completed, you are required to sign an adoption contract and to provide payment of the adoption fee. At that time, you become the owner of the dog.
Underhound Railroad is committed to the life, health, and well-being of every dog we place for the remainder of that dog’s life. Should the adoption not work out or you need to rehome the dog, we require, by contract, that the dog be returned to us. Please notify us ASAP. We are here to help!
Submitting an application does not guarantee the ability to adopt, nor does it place a particular pet you are interested in on hold. If your application email includes interest in a specific pet, we will update you on that pet’s status when your application has been approved.
Requirements to Adopt:
Applicants must have the ability to own a pet at their home. If your residence is not an owned property, we must verify the pet policy with your landlord or the property management company. This includes parents if an applicant still lives at home.
All adults in a shared home must consent to a new pet in the home. This means both partners and spouses must agree that a new pet is welcome, as well as all roommates who reside in a shared rental property. Please be sure to include spouse, partner, roommate names, and contact information in your application.
All resident pets of all applicants or roommates, parents, etc. must have had regular and routine veterinary care, be spayed or neutered, and be up to date on core vaccines per the recommendations of your veterinarian and up to date on annual exams. We do verify these records, please be sure you have contacted your veterinarian to give them permission to speak with us. It will help expedite the processing of your application.
Adoption Donation:
Adoption donations are payable via PayPal or our website and will be discussed once your application has been approved and you are ready to take your new pet home.
Our dogs are spayed or neutered before any adoption is considered final. All pets available will be current on age appropriate core vaccines. If a dog has not been spayed or neutered because of age or medical reasons, you will sign a spay/neuter contract at the time of adoption and a representative of Underhound Railroad will follow up with you and your pet to assure this procedure has been completed.
Adopters will be provided with a copy of all available medical records for their new pet. We require heartworm preventative and flea/tick treatment for all dogs.
Underhound Railroad has the right to approve or decline applications without explanation. If we feel a specific dog is not a good match, we may decline to adopt that particular dog to you. A great deal of time and effort goes into placing our dogs and we want both the adopter and the dog to be happy.
Please be patient when waiting for a response from Underhound Railroad. We are all volunteers.
Most of all thank you for being here and thanks for helping us save lives!