What is Animal Assisted Therapy?
Animal Assisted Therapy teams facilitate communication, healing, and motivation by sharing the love of companion animals with those facing mental, physical, or educational challenges. AAT volunteers share their time, compassion and their special pets including Dogs, Cats, Rabbits and Pigs to visit locations throughout San Francisco and share the human-companion animal bond with over 100,000 people annually.
If you’re interested in getting involved with AAT, please see one of our info pages.
What is Animal Assisted Therapy?
We currently have nearly 300 volunteer Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) teams making visits to locations throughout San Francisco. Working with their own friendly dogs, cats, pigs, and rabbits, our busy volunteers share the human-companion animal bond with over 100,000 people annually.
The AAT department operates a General Program and the Puppy Dog Tales Reading Program (PDT). Both programs facilitate communication, healing, and motivation by sharing the love of companion animals with those facing mental, physical, or educational challenges.
The General Program sends volunteer teams to hospitals, nursing homes, senior centers, psychiatric facilities, developmentally disabled centers, convalescent homes, and youth facilities. Our teams provide animal assisted activities and sustained work toward therapeutic goals in conjunction with a health care professional.
Our Puppy Dog Tales program brings the benefits of the human-companion animal bond to young readers. We work in San Francisco public libraries, San Francisco unified schools and local bookstores to improve literacy and engender a love of reading in children whose first language is not English, those with learning disabilities and remedial readers.
If you’re interested in getting involved with AAT, please see one of our info pages.
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San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization. EIN: 94-0836580
To expedite the adoption process, please complete the cat or dog adoption form and bring a printed copy with you to the SF SPCA Adoption Center (Hours & Location). This helps us better understand what sort of pet you’re looking for so we can guide you every step of the way! Please bring a valid photo ID and verification that you are allowed to have a pet where you currently live.
First, we’ll meet with you to find out more about you and your pet preferences and answer your questions. Our goal is to help you find the pet that best fits your lifestyle and living situation so we want to make sure you have a realistic understanding of the time and resources necessary to provide training, medical treatment, and proper care for your new pet. This can take time so please allow at least one hour for the adoption process.
Once we have a good understanding of your living situation and the type of pet you’re interested in, we’ll make introductions and let you spend some quality time getting to know each other to see if there’s a love connection. It’s important that all household members take part in this important decision so please make sure everyone is present (including any resident dogs if you’re considering adding a new pooch to your pack).
Once love happens, we’ll complete the paperwork, review all the SF SPCA adoption benefits, provide information on any known medical or behavioral issues, and share tips to make the transition a success for both you and your new pet.
We consider you and your new furry friend a part of the SF SPCA family so please reach out with questions ― and be sure to share your adoption stories and pet photos at sfspca.org/stories
Don’t forget to schedule your first free health exam at the SF SPCA Veterinary Hospital within three days of adopting.