The Best Pennsylvania Dog Rescues & Shelters in 2025

Providence Animal Center

At Providence Animal Center we offer exceptional, affordable and life-affirming rescue, adoption, medical care and training of companion animals and serve as a community resource that inspires others to embrace the human-animal bond. Providence Animal Center is a 501(c)(3) private non-profit, charitable organization registered with the Pennsylvania Department of State. We are not affiliated with any local or state government or federal agency. Our work is supported entirely by private donations.

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Home at Last Dog Rescue

Home At Last Dog Rescue (HAL) was founded in North Wales PA, in 2008 as an all age, all breed, dog rescue. HAL is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We are a group of dog-loving volunteers whose goal is to save the lives of homeless dogs suffering in high-kill shelters and puppy mills, as well as dogs in other unfortunate circumstances. We are not a shelter; thus, we have no central location or physical facility to house the dogs we rescue. It is through volunteer foster homes, mostly located in the Greater Philadelphia, PA Region, that we can provide homes for the dogs in our care. Our dogs remain in foster homes until they are matched and adopted into their forever families. In doing this, we hope to provide an alternative to the purchase of breeder and pet store dogs as well as prevent unwanted dogs from entering the overwhelmed shelter system. Since 2008 we have rescued over 20,000 dogs.

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Carbon County Animal Shelter PA.

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Pennsylvania SPCA

What's in a name? Well, it turns out a lot! It is surprising to many that the Pennsylvania SPCA is not associated with the ASPCA or any other SPCAs throughout the state or country. The ASPCA does not serve as a governing body, and though we are all partnering at times to improve animal welfare, we are not formally attached to one another. We are all our own nonprofit with individual missions. The PSPCA's mission is to protect animals, prevent cruelty and to improve the health and quality of life throughout Pennsylvania. We do this through our four physical locations North Philadelphia, Danville, Lancaster and Main Line Animal Rescue, as well as through our Humane Law Enforcement Department which covers 18 counties throughout the state. So why does this matter? The PSPCA has boots on the ground 365 days a year throughout Pennsylvania. When you support the PSPCA, your donation directly goes toward helping animals suffering from cruelty and neglect in your own community. Thank you for valuing our work and for enabling us to continue our lifesaving mission.

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Mainline Animal Rescue

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Nirvana Animal Rescue

Nirvana Animal Rescue is a 501(c)(3) non-profit animal rescue organization committed to providing sanctuary to homeless, neglected, and abused animals. We rescue companion animals who are left behind, forgotten, neglected, thrown away, or abused and provide them with their own nirvana, free from suffering and pain. All our animals are behaviorally assessed and many receive professional training prior to being placed in their forever homes. Our emphasis is on the quality, not quantity, of animals placed to ensure successful, lifelong adoptions.

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Canine Rescue of Central PA, Inc.

Canine Rescue of Central PA, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We are an all-volunteer group dedicated to providing assistance to dogs in helpless situations. The organization was formed in 2002 and has made tremendous progress in establishing another valuable resource for our furry friends. It is our mission to get involved in as many situations as possible to provide shelter and new homes to as many dogs as we can. Canine Rescue also focuses on creating strategic partnerships with other rescues and similar organizations in an attempt to share resources as well as expand public awareness of the overwhelming problem of homeless animals.

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Speranza Animal Rescue LLC

Speranza Animal Rescue is a non-profit, 100% volunteer run rescue, rehabilitation center and sanctuary committed to saving the most abused and neglected animals with the goal of finding loving homes for as many of them as possible. Speranza is located on a 17.5 acre farm in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania which provides the perfect setting to offer time, patience and love to those animals needing a second chance. Speranza, which means hope in Italian, is an all-breed rescue focusing on pit bulls and other bully breeds as well as farm animals who may have ended up in kill pens or been destined for slaughter.

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Pet Pantry of Lancaster County

The Pet Pantry of Lancaster County was founded on three core services to fix, feed, and rescue animals in need. Food insecurity is one of the leading reasons why a beloved family pet would be surrendered to a rescue. The team knew this issue could be addressed by providing services with dignity. The organization provides emergency and longer-term pet food assistance to those in need in order to ensure pets remain happy, healthy, and safe in their homes and with their loving families. Animal overpopulation was another issue the team recognized, and began to diligently address. In order to help keep pets healthy by reducing pet overpopulation concerns, the Pet Pantry expanded from a pet food bank into offering lower-cost spay/neuter and feral cat Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) programs. These services are provided with the intention of removing barriers to accessing exceptional veterinary care. Lastly, was ensuring that animals in need of loving forever homes were given the chance they deserved to find those families. Each year the Pet Pantry helps place over 450 animals in need of love and care into homes that share the organization's core philosophy that pets are family. Following ten years of dedication to animals in need, today, the Pet Pantry of Lancaster County celebrates a decade of saving stray, sick, and injured animals. All of this has been possible through the intention, care, and passion of the team's commitment to empowering animals to thrive by listening and responding to their unspoken needs.

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PA Caring for K9s

PA Caring for K-9's is a NON-PROFIT, all breed dog rescue, run solely on a volunteer foster home basis. We save dogs out of many high kill shelters. They are then fostered in each of our fosters homes. Giving personal care and one on one training to each dog.

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Peace Love and Poms Rescue

PLPR is a Pomeranian and small breed dog rescue based out of Lebanon, PA.  Our board is comprised of seasoned rescuers who all have the goal of saving dogs and providing them with the best care possible.   We save the abused, neglected, and abandoned from shelters, puppy mills, and owners who can no longer keep their pets. Our rescue is not a shelter and all our dogs are kept in foster homes where they are treated like family until their forever home is found.  PLPR provides all vet care our dogs need. This includes a vet exam, fecal, Accuplex, core vaccines (Rabies, Parvo/Distempter, and Bordatella), microchip, bloodwork and x-rays if needed, spay or neuter, and dental. We also ensure that our dogs receive the best care possible which sometimes includes specialist visits and costly diagnostics or surgeries. PLPR relies on the support of our community and followers to provide the care our dogs need to be healthy and live their best life.

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Coast to Coast Dachshund Rescue

Established in August 2000, Coast to Coast Dachshund Rescue was started by a small group of dedicated Dachshund lovers who grew the organization to be nationwide. Today, CCDR is comprised of a group of people who still have that passion and work endlessly to help re-home Dachshunds and Dachshund mixes to loving homes. The work is endless and members work hard to fundraise and educate the public to the importance of rescue and the responsibility of altering their pets. Vetting costs have become extremely high and adoption fees don't come close to covering them, but our members work hard to fundraise and educate the public to bring awareness of being a responsible pet owner and to encourage responsible ownership and the need to spay and neuter.

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LaMancha Animal Rescue

ABOUT US Welcome to LaMancha Animal Rescue. Since 2005, we have been a qualified public charity under IRS section 501(c)3. LaMancha maintains a forty-five acre facility for rescuing dogs, cats, pigs, goats, horses, and the occasional exotic animal that requires more space or specialized knowledge than most SPCAs can offer. We have two heated and air-conditioned kennels for dogs, each dog is housed in a run where they have indoor/outdoor access. There is a heated and air-conditioned building dedicated to cats, which is free range, no cages. LaMancha is staffed primarily with volunteers, we currently have an active list of approximately two hundred. These volunteers care for the animals, exercise the dogs, either on walking trails, or large exercise fields. We try and take in the harder-to-place dogs, that wouldn't have a good chance to be adopted in public shelters. We have gained a reputation for saving and rehoming Pyrenean Mountain Dogs, known in North America as the Great Pyrenees. These large dogs are known for their gentle temperament as well as their independent streak. When you visit LaMancha, the famous white dogs of LaMancha are usually amongst the first to greet you.

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Rags to Riches Animal Rescue

After several years of volunteering and fostering for other rescues, Tish Mayo wanted to do more. One night while scrolling through Facebook, she found her inspiration - a small grey pitbull puppy being sold in an undesirable location. Worried the puppy would end up in the wrong hands, Tish and a few others made a plan and saved the puppy, whom Tish began fostering. The team provided medical care and found her a home. Bella was her name. The team was able to save two more puppies from the same litter and from that moment, the dream started! A Facebook volunteer page was created and the team became warriors for the defenseless animals of Delaware County and Philadelphia. It was never in Tish's mind to start a rescue, but she did and Rags 2 Riches Animal Rescue was born. Tish_Mayo After about a year of street rescuing, the team hired a lawyer and became incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit. Through several years of upholding a great reputation and sticking to high standards and morals, R2R grew into one of the strongest rescues in Delaware County. They expanded into saving animals from all across the globe. In 2018, the adoption center was opened. The first year was a lot of trial and error, but the team learned and grew from their mistakes. Now, with a successful adoption center called The Mission, the team plans to open many other boutique-style adoption centers. Tish truly believes that it is the hard work and support of the volunteers that keeps their mission alive and growing stronger each day.

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Lucky Dawg Animal Rescue

We are a no-kill, foster-based, volunteer-run animal rescue. Lucky Dawg is dedicated to rescuing homeless, abused, and unwanted animals in our local communities, as well as educating the public. We place animals in responsible, committed, and loving homes. Considerable care is taken to find good matches for both the animal and the adopter. Lucky Dawg will remain committed to the animal's welfare beyond the adoption process. Lucky Dawg Animal Rescue is a charitable 501c3 organization.

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All 4 Paws Rescue

All 4 Paws Rescue is a non-profit, foster-based, all-breed, no-kill animal rescue based in Malvern, PA that offers rescue, rehabilitation, and sanctuary to animals in need. Our goal is to offer each and every one of these animals a safe, permanent and loving home. All 4 Paws Rescue was founded in May, 2009. Since inception, All 4 Paws Rescue has saved over 15,000 needy animals and continues to grow and save lives daily. For most of the animals rescued by All 4 Paws, we are their last chance. Many reside in shelters that are not even open to the public but are instead holding facilities where the animals go to die. Many come from commercial breeding facilities that throw them away like trash when they are no longer useful for breeding purposes or not fit for sale. Puppies, purebreds, family pets - these are animals you would never expect to end up in these horrible situations but it is a sad reality. Through our extensive rescue network, All 4 Paws has developed relationships nationwide that allow us to save countless lives that would otherwise have been ended. As a foster based rescue, our animals live in homes with our families and our personal pets so we are able to learn a great deal about them and work on preparing them for their forever home. There is no greater feeling than releasing these wonderful animals into a safe yard and watching them run and play as they should. They sleep curled up in soft beds in our homes when hours before they laid on concrete floors. They feel grass beneath their feet when many have never experienced the outdoors. Having never known freedom or a full belly, they are so very thankful. This is why we at All 4 Paws Rescue do what we do - because they all deserve a home.

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Wet Nose Rescue

We are an all breed dog rescue, founded in 2008 in Southampton, Pennsylvania. Wet Nose Rescue is a 100% foster based rescue meaning that while we have an adoption center, we do not kennel dogs there. Instead our adoptable dogs and puppies are kept in local foster homes which allows them to become socialized with families and not kept in a kennel while waiting to be adopted. We aim to match adoptable dogs with loving and caring families, while making the adoption process simple and straight forward.

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Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)

PAWS comprehensive programs save and serve Philadelphia's most vulnerable pets: pulling at-risk animals out of the city's shelter and placing them in loving adoptive and foster homes, giving struggling pet owners the help they need to keep their pets as cherished family members rather than face abandonment, and preventing the birth of unwanted litters.

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ACCT Philly

ACCT Philly is the region's largest animal care and control service provider, serving the City of Philadelphia by contract. ACCT Philly manages the city's animal shelter facility in North Philadelphia handling nearly 18,000 animals, from dogs and cats, to small animals, reptiles, birds and wildlife, annually.

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KittenSnatchers

WE'RE A VOLUNTEER-LED NONPROFIT DEDICATED TO RESCUING PHILADELPHIA'S STRAY CATS AND KITTENS!

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National Brittany Rescue and Adoption Network

National Brittany Rescue & Adoption Network (NBRAN) is an alliance of dedicated Brittany rescue volunteers who share a deep love for the breed and who will work to rescue, rehabilitate and re-home Brittanys in need, whether abandoned, lost, stray or surrendered to rescue for placement. As volunteers united in a common cause, we are committed to the care of these dogs in foster homes, and providing for their physical and emotional needs. We are committed in our endeavor to help them with all the resources we have available. We pledge to maintain a community of volunteers who treat each other, and the dogs they rescue, with respect, courtesy, kindness and love. We will seek always to lend encouragement and to support one another, and to facilitate friendly collaboration and cooperation between our volunteers. We believe that by building a supportive, dog-centered organization founded on respect, honesty and integrity, we will always remain focused on the welfare of the Brittanys entrusted to our care and hold their interests uppermost in our hearts and minds. Our mission is to place these dogs in safe, loving and permanent homes with approved applicants, and to provide a supportive network for our volunteers, who after all, make our goals possible.

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Bridge To Home Animal Rescue

Bridge To Home Animal Rescue is a non-profit 501c3 dedicated to helping homeless, unwanted, and abandoned dogs. We are dedicated to helping dogs find their forever homes. We have no facility. Our dogs are kept in our homes until the perfect forever home is found.

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FurKid Rescue

Furkid is a foster network rescue meaning all of our rescues are temporary members of our families. Our fosters can give you insight into the personality and needs of our FurKids because they are in our homes, versus you meeting them in a stressful environment where they haven't had a chance to let their fur down and their true personalities shine through. We officially started in 2008 rescuing Pit Bulls because they needed to be rescued the most. However over the years with the increase in puppy mills and backyard breeders, we have become an all-breed rescue because we want to save all dogs. We don't discriminate. We take dogs that other rescues won't. We have rescued and rehabilitated pups starved from the brink of death, pups with parvo who were given almost no chance, dogs who have been shot, dogs with disabilities or mange that are deemed undesirable, or not worth saving. We rescue elderly dogs left on chains for the majority of their years, puppies with minutes to spare before being euthanized for no reason other than no one is paying attention. We love and rescue them all. Please understand that we do not have a physical location. We try to give our animals the best foster experience possible, not only for their comfort, but to implement positive reinforcement training methods and to make sure they are getting the best care imaginable. We work on a volunteer basis and this rescue work takes time away from our families, friends, and pets. Our strength to continue rescuing animals comes from finding one of our adoptable dogs a forever home where they will be loved, cherished and treated as a member of the family. It is those moments that make our hearts full and give us the drive to continue.

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Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh

Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh (HARP) is one of Pennsylvania's largest non-profit organizations dedicated to the welfare of animals, pet owners and the community. HARP operates two low-cost, high quality veterinary medical centers. In an average year, over 6,500 animals are treated and more than 7,000 spay and neuter surgeries are performed in these facilities. In addition to caring for domestic animals, the organization remains committed to indigenous species. The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is a fully licensed wildlife facility that specializes in caring for sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. Annually more than 4,000 injured wildlife of over 100 unique species are admitted and treated by the Center. Among them are more than 2,300 mammals, 1,700 birds and over 50 reptiles.

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Butler County Humane Society

A non-profit animal shelter, the Butler County Humane Society (BCHS) has been serving the Butler community for more than 120 years, converting to a no-kill shelter in 2000. Contrary to popular belief, our shelter is not supported by taxpayer dollars, and for the bulk of our funding we instead are dependent on the support of generous community members.

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CHAR WILLS GERMAN GERMAN SHEPHERD RESCUE

We are a breed-specific rescue nestled in the picturesque mountains of Schuylkill County, PA. Our adoptable German Shepherds come from shelters, have been abandoned or are owner-surrenders. Meet & Greets with our dogs are By Appointment Only.

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Noah's Ark Rescue Project and Sanctuary

Noah's Ark Rescue Project and Sanctuary (or NARPS for short) was founded in September 2015. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit animal rescue and welfare organization dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming animals in need, whether from shelters, auctions or owner surrenders.

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Adopt a Boxer Rescue

Adopt A Boxer Rescue is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) charitable organization formed to rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home unwanted and abandoned boxer dogs. We work within Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, northern Virginia, Washington DC and Rhode Island.

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Rescue Pets Serving Vets

We are a nonprofit organization focused on rescuing shelter pets, abandoned pets, and special needs pets. We work on providing necessary medical care, training and love in our foster homes. Our ultimate goal is to home these pets with the right owner in either the general public or with veterans that need a special companion as a service or emotional support animal

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