Need to Rehome Your Pet? A Complete Guide to Rehoming Responsibly

Rehoming responsibly means the current owner personally finds a new home for the pet, screens suitable adopters, signs a written adoption contract, and updates the owner details on the pet registration. Under Article 5(3) of Taiwan's Animal Protection Act, owners may not abandon animals; if you can no longer keep your pet, you must find it a new owner through proper means.

Before rehoming: make sure it really is the only option

Some problems have other solutions worth trying first:

Behaviour problems (peeing in the wrong places, noise, destructiveness): talk to a vet or an animal behaviour professional first — sometimes the cause is a health issue
Allergies in the family: talk to a doctor and see whether cleaning, air purifiers or separate living areas could work
Short-term financial difficulty: some cities, counties and private groups offer medical or spay/neuter subsidies

If you still need to rehome after thinking it through, give yourself plenty of time. Don't wait until the last minute and rush the decision.

Step 1: Gather your pet's complete information

What adopters most want to know:

Basics: species, breed (or mixed breed), sex, age, size
Health: spayed/neutered or not, vaccination and parasite prevention records, any chronic conditions or allergies
Personality: how friendly it is with people, whether it gets on with other cats or dogs, whether it's afraid of children
Daily habits: what it eats, which litter it uses, its usual routine
Reason for rehoming: being honest helps you find the right family

Be truthful about health and personality. Hiding illnesses or behaviour problems often leads to the pet being rehomed again, which is even harder on the animal.

Step 2: Take photos and write your rehoming listing

Photos: natural light, a clear view of the face and full body, plus a few everyday shots
Text: beyond the basics, describe its personality and a few stories — this moves people far more than just "friendly and cute"
Be clear about your requirements for adopters (for example, window guards, agreeing to spay/neuter, accepting follow-up)

On Ashera Pet, you can create a profile for your pet with its health information, photos and personality all in one place, then list it for rehoming in one tap.

Step 3: Screen adopters

Use a questionnaire or conversation to learn about:

Their home (does their rental allow pets? Are there window guards?)
Whether everyone in the household agrees
Previous experience with pets
Work schedule and how long the pet would be alone each day
How they would handle illness, moving house or having a baby

Red flags: being in a hurry, not caring about the pet's health, refusing to sign a contract or to stay in touch afterwards, wanting several animals at once, or strongly opposing spay/neuter. Be careful in these cases.

Step 4: Meet, trial period and contract

For the first meeting, choose your home, a vet clinic or a public place, and bring your pet so both sides can interact
You can agree on a trial period if appropriate
Always sign a written adoption contract that clearly sets out both sides' rights and responsibilities — for example, spay/neuter, no transferring the pet to others, and sending updates. You can use our adoption contract template, or read What to Include in an Adoption Contract

Step 5: Handover and updating the pet registration

Give the new owner the food, toys and bedding your pet is used to, to reduce stress
Hand over health records, vaccination cards and other documents
Update the owner details on the pet registration: Under Article 19 of the Animal Protection Act, the registration must be updated when a pet is transferred. See the Pet Registration Management Information Network (in Chinese) for how to do this

Step 6: Follow-up after rehoming

As agreed in the contract, ask the new owner to share updates. If the new home truly can't keep the pet, ask them to contact you first rather than passing it on themselves.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I just take my pet to a shelter?

Shelters have limited space and resources and don't accept animals unconditionally. The draft amendment to the Animal Protection Act approved by the Executive Yuan in January 2026 would also require animals surrendered to shelters to meet certain conditions, or the surrender would be treated as abandonment (the draft is still under review by the Legislative Yuan). We recommend rehoming your pet responsibly yourself whenever possible.

Can I charge a fee when rehoming?

We recommend not charging adopters a rehoming fee. If your pet has already been spayed/neutered, vaccinated or microchipped, you can ask the adopter to share the actual medical costs, and make sure that:

The amount is limited to what you actually paid, with receipts or proof from the vet clinic
The cost items and amounts are written into the adoption contract
You don't charge anything above medical costs under names like "rehoming fee" or "adoption fee"

This protects both the rehomer and the adopter, and avoids any impression of selling animals. Under the Animal Protection Act, anyone buying or selling pets for profit must obtain a licence for a specified pet business from the authorities.

Is abandoning a pet punishable?

Yes. Under Article 5(3) of the Animal Protection Act, owners may not abandon animals. The current penalty is a fine of NT$30,000–150,000. A draft amendment approved by the Executive Yuan in January 2026 would raise this to NT$100,000–1,000,000; the law as passed by the Legislative Yuan and promulgated prevails.

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