
Last updated: 22 Jan, 2025
Published on: 14 Jan, 2025
The Impact of Your Kindness 2024

Rosie found love thanks to Humane Animal Rescue.
Thanks to your support, thousands of pets found love and rescue organisations and pet guardians across Australia were able to secure a better future for pets in their care. Here’s how you created happiness for thousands of Australian pets, just like Penny pictured above in 2024:
You helped find a home for every pet that needs one.
In 2024, 68,762 lucky pets found loving homes quickly through PetRescue's free adoption platform.
In even more joyful tail-wagging good news, last year, PetRescue’s adoption platform reached a massive milestone of 900,000 pets adopted since it launched in 2004!
A pet is not a pet without a home, and this would not be possible without the community of hundreds of thousands of pet lovers (including YOU!) whose generosity and kindness have helped bring pet adoption into the mainstream - creating happiness and saving lives!
Boop the button below to read some of the happy tails made possible thanks to the incredible PetRescue community.
Ruby & Rosie kept safe in their home while they waited for their new guardians thanks to Home2Home.
Keeping pets safe & recognising the bond between pets and their families.
Thanks to you, since PetRescue’s Home2Home program launched in 2020, it has become a lifeline for pet guardians and their beloved furry family members. It offers an alternative to surrendering pets into an uncertain future, keeping them out of unsafe systems where their fate could be unknown.
It’s because of your generosity that Home2Home continues to help people and pets in need. Despite a temporary pause in October, the program has kept 242 pets out of the rescue system.
That’s 99 dogs who stayed safe and stress-free in their homes, and out of shelters, for 6,483 days while waiting for their families. This equates to a saving of $311,184** in cost of care for the shelters that would have otherwise taken them into care.
And 143 cats were prevented from entering the system. These cats were safe and stress-free in their homes, and out of shelters, for 18,129 days while looking for their new families. (A saving of $565,296^ for the shelters that would have otherwise taken them into care).
“It has been a week since we said goodbye to our boy Chips and sent him on his way, it's been the hardest, most heartbreaking time for our family but with the huge silver lining of knowing he is doing well in his new home, seeing pictures of him looking relaxed and hearing about him settling in and feeling at home in a place he will be equally loved and cared for, with the capacity to give him everything he deserves.
Words cannot express the gratitude I have for the Home2Home service. When we first came to terms with the realisation that the only safe way forward for each member of our family (human and dog) meant re-homing, it felt overwhelming and impossible. We knew Chips wouldn't cope in a shelter (neither would we knowing he was there) and we wanted to do everything we could to make sure he found the right home with the right people but had no idea how. We touched base with a number of animal rescues, many of which were full/unavailable.
Home2home was the exact service we needed… the team has been so incredibly understanding, caring and compassionate the whole way through this journey.”
- Nat who found a new home for her beloved dog Chips via Home2Home.
“Home2Home met me with dedication and compassion. Showed me my options through expert advice and good communication. In my case, my pet got to stay in my care. At the end, it just takes one email to save a furry soul's stress of relocation. We are doing great. Lilly is on medication and gets training daily. She is more focused and less reactive. As this is a work in progress, not only Lilly gets training but I do as well”
- Ursula who was able to keep Lilly in her care thanks to the support and guidance of Home2Home.
Beau who featured in the 12 Pets of Christmas campaign in his new home and his adoption pack that was kindly gifted by Mars Pedigree.
Collaboration for impact
It’s thanks to your support that PetRescue can continue to collaborate with our incredible partners and sponsors so that they can use their influence and reach to make positive change for rescue pets.
By consciously encouraging partners and sponsors to feature and share pets like large dogs and black cats in their communications, advertising, campaigns and even on wine labels, together we can help share the love that these pets bring, increasing their chance of being seen and encouraging families to consider looking beyond breed or other biases.
Sawyer was in care with Mornington Peninsula Community Animal Shelter and was featured in the 12 Pets of Christmas. This lucky boy found love thanks to you!
You helped the rescue community care for and rehabilitate pets in need.
Because of your support, PetRescue’s adoption platform and adoption assistance programs remain free for all!
We’re thrilled to have welcomed 59 new, reputable rescue community organisations in 2024.
The PetRescue community now includes 849 active members including councils, shelters, vets and rescue organisations who have been successfully verified.
Thanks to you, PetRescue provides 'time-saving for life-saving' tools to assist member rescue organisations across Australia in managing the adoption process efficiently and finding new homes quickly, no matter where they are.
“We wouldn't be where we are today without PetRescue! We have rehomed thousands of animals into loving homes thanks to PetRescue.
The site is very user-friendly for both staff and adopters, we love using it and knowing that our animals profiles are going to be seen by so many keen adopters.”
- Mornington Peninsula Community Animal Shelter
Missy found love thanks to Bathurst Regional Council.
You helped increase safety for pets within the current system.
Your support saves lives by enabling the PetRescue team to do crucial behind-the-scenes work to build relationships with councils and introduce them to the benefits of PetRescue's adoption platform as a rehoming tool. In exciting news, eight councils became PetRescue members in 2024.
Getting more councils on board using PetRescue's adoption platform as a rehoming pathway is crucial in keeping pets safe. Without this opportunity, pets within council facilities are possibly invisible and might never get a second chance. Digital rehoming gives councils and shelters access to a much bigger community of adopters (including the possibility of interstate adoptions) while reducing the burden on rescue groups at capacity.
You helped people and pets in crisis.
Thanks to your support, the PetRescue helpdesk team responded to 1,053 calls for support from people and pets in crisis. Using the crisis care directory, folks experiencing crisis situations such as hospitalisations, homelessness, domestic violence and financial hardship are connected directly with local organisations that offer outreach, crisis support services and safe short-term accommodation for their pets, saving precious time and resources.
Thank you for joining us to create happiness and save lives.
The deepest gratitude to our major partners who are working closely with us to secure and create a future where every pet is safe, respected and loved.
And special thanks to our sponsors in 2024.
Pets Regardless Foundation | Elsie Cameron Foundation
Bunderra Foundation | Naylor Stewart Foundation
**Dogs adopted via Home2Home saved from being in the system 6,483 days at a value of $311,184 based on $48/per-day-care-cost.
^Cats adopted via Home2Home saved from being in the system 8,129days at a value of $565,296 based on $48/per-day-care-cost.
*Source: https://www.petrescue.com.au/library/articles/petrescue-stats-on-pets-killed-in-pounds