Petfinder recently conducted a survey of their shelters and rescue groups and found that 95% of them currently have adoptable pets that are going un-adopted and who they are having an extremely hard time finding forever homes for. Also, 33% of their adoption groups have had pets who were posted for adoption on Petfinder who went one to two years without being adopted and 27% have had pets who have waited more than two years to be adopted and to have a forever home of their own.

In response to these sobering and quite heartbreaking statistics, Petfinder launched Adopt a Less-Adoptable Pet Week on September 19th that will continue up until September 25th. The goal of this initiative is to raise awareness about less-adoptable pets and to find forever homes for these animals, who are just as wonderful and rewarding as the younger pets who are often adopted over them.

According to the shelters and rescue groups who are trying to find homes for these less-adopted pets, they found that 30% of the pets not being adopted are because they are older pets, 15% are pets with medical problems, 13% are victims of breed prejudice, 10% are shy pets and 10% are those who need to be the only pet in the house.

There are currently 458 pets posted in Petfinder’s Adopt a Less-Adoptable Pet Week gallery and while the initiative will end this week, it is important to keep checking back and see if there is a pet out there who you could provide a forever home to.