The Best San Francisco, CA Dog Rescues & Shelters in 2026

Muttville

dogs in good health with wonderful personalities are euthanized. Why? Because they're older, and not considered adoptable. A dog is brought in because he can't jog with his guardian anymore. Or he needs a little time to get up the stairs. Or he's simply not a puppy. In some cases, dogs are moved from loving homes to concrete cages because their guardians have died or simply can't care for them anymore. We reach out to senior dogs at risk, give them the care they need, and find them loving forever homes. If we had our way, no dog would spend their last days in a shelter. There is so much love and joy in these dogs!

Rocket Dog Rescue

Rocket Dog Rescue saves dogs from abuse, neglect, and death at overcrowded shelters and places them in loving homes. We support pet owners in need in our community, and serve as first responders in emergency animal situations and natural disasters. Funded entirely by donations, we are a volunteer-run, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Learn about what we do or apply to adopt a dog in the San Francisco Bay Area

Contra Costa Humane Society

Contra Costa Humane Society was established in 1991 as the result of the merging of two former longstanding Contra Costa County animal welfare groups — Stop Pets’ Annual Yield (SPAY) and Animal Protection Bureau (APB). Since its formation, CCHS has been in a few locations around the East Bay and in Fall 2023, we expanded our office space to accommodate our growing programs. Kitty Corner, our free-roam space for cats and kittens in our program, doubled in size in 2023, enabling us to rescue more animals! Our space can house up to 25 adult cats in our “big room”, plus a dozen kittens between two smaller rooms. We have a quiet room to provide isolation if needed or use for acclimating a cat or kitten not quite ready to join the others in Kitty Corner. A special space is also available for hospice cats and kittens where we can provide the comfort of home and give special medical attention while in our care.

Golden Gate Labrador Retriever Rescue, Inc.

GGLRR is an all-volunteer, nonprofit tax-exempt organization in the greater San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. We've been placing unwanted Labs in loving homes since 1986! Our Lab Rescue team saves purebred Labrador Retrievers and Lab mixes from shelters, as well as assists people giving up their dogs for adoption. We provide foster homes, veterinary care, and rehabilitation when needed, and place them with loving, forever families. While GGLRR focuses on rescuing and rehoming Labrador Retrievers, some of our dogs are Lab mixes. Sometimes we know what they are mixed with; most times we do not. We may even have a dog up for adoption that has some physical resemblance of a Lab but turns out not to be a Lab at all (per a DNA analysis performed by the adopter). We endeavor to rescue/rehome Lab mixes that look mostly like a Lab and have the personality/temperament of a Lab. The younger a dog is, the more difficult it is to tell how Labby a dog will be when it is fully grown. We realize that people come to us to adopt a Lab. GGLRR cherishes the opportunity to provide new forever homes for all of the dogs that come into our program.

SEN Foundation Animal Rescue

SEN Foundation Animal Rescue is a volunteer-run foster-based rescue dedicated to saving the lives of injured, sick, abandoned, ownerless animals, as well as preventing animal cruelty and neglect. We passionately believe that people help animals and animals help people through trust, unconditional love, and respect. We believe that animals from shelters and animals with special needs also deserve a chance. Sharing this philosophy with others, we inspire and teach locally and internationally, the importance of the animal-human bond, responsible and humane treatment of animals, adoption of animals from shelters, and animals with special needs.

DogZone Rescue

DogZone Rescue is a registered 501(c)3 Non- Profit who saves unwanted, abused and abandoned dogs and places them in loving and responsible forever homes to live out their lives as cherished family members. We would love for you to join us by adopting a dog, volunteering as a foster parent or donating your time for other needed volunteer positions with the rescue.

TikiHut Akita Rescue Association (TARA)

TikiHut Akita Rescue Association (TARA) is a 501(c)(3), non-profit, animal welfare and education organization located in the Northern California/San Francisco Bay Area, dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of orphaned Akitas. Our group is comprised of a handful of volunteers and foster homes. The members in our organization have come together because of the passion we share for the Akita breed. Our breed is respected and treated as royalty in their native Japan, but here in this country, so many of them sit alone in the local shelters, waiting to die. Each of our members (and their spouses and families), work tirelessly to save the many Akitas that end up in these shelters. In addition to rehoming and rehabilitating these wonderful dogs, we also dedicate our efforts to educating the public about the breed, including but not limited to, the importance of spaying and neutering, proper nutrition, genetic issues plaguing our breed and behavior and training information. Our volunteers all have full-time jobs and still find time to support the needs of our organization. But please be patient as we do what we can after hours and on weekends, to return phone calls and emails. Each Akita we bring into our program undergoes a thorough health exam, is spayed or neutered, brought up to date medically, and is worked with for basic obedience and socialization. We crate train all our pups and put them through basic puppy classes. All our dogs are microchipped before they are adopted. The Akitas we take in come from all walks of life. Some have been abused and neglected and some have come from well known breeders. It is a huge misconception that all dogs that come from rescue are all problem dogs. We have seen some of the most wonderfully tempered Akitas come out of these shelters, and we hope we can give many more a second chance at the life they never had. In order to help us fund the work we do, we participate in various fundraisers throughout the year, and/or have merchandise on our website for sale to the public. We also are grateful for monetary contributions from the public. If you would like to help support our cause and are interested in making a donation, we would appreciate any amount you would like to send. We pay for all our foster dogs' expenses out of our own pockets, and until we raise enough funds to reimburse ourselves, we operate on a shoestring budget. The average cost to foster a dog for 4-5 months can be $500.00 or more. To spay or neuter an adult Akita can cost upwards of $150.00. The harsh reality is, that sometimes those costs are a determining factor in how many Akitas we can save. Luckily those we can save, will find loving homes with families that will treat them like royalty! You can see some of the happy faces that are now in their new homes by clicking on the "New Beginnings" button. If you are interested in volunteering or fostering, please email us at: [email protected]

Asians for Humans, Animals & Nature

We are changing our organization's name from Asians for Humans, Animals & Nature to Angel's Love. The abbreviation and the website will remain the same as www.ahan.org. AHAN Accomplishments and The Future of AHAN First, I would like to express my gratitude to all of the people whom adopted dogs and cats from us and all of the people, including the staff, volunteers, donors and friends of AHAN, whom were involved with our organization to find so many good homes for these animals. AHAN will be a program under Angel's Love and will continue to help animals, but decreasing the number of hands-on adoptions. We will still post a few new dogs but the majority of the requests will be forwarded to other reliable organizations to help with dog adoptions. Angel's Love will be more involved with setting up a foundation to help other rescuers and organizations once we verify all the information and the background of those organizations. A quick look at AHAN's 30+ years of accomplishments • - We were the first organization that came up with a strategy with an international organization's help to get Taiwan pass the Animal Protection Law. • - We have helped more than 60 international and local rescuers find homes for their rescued dogs • - We have adopted out more than ten thousand dogs and cats and even some goats. • - We were heavily involved in stopping the unnecessary killing of feral cats in the Bay Area. • - We came up with a successful strategy of how to help animals locally and internationally without owning a shelter by working together with rescuers from all over the world. We will continue helping to save dogs and cats by supporting other organizations!

Adopt a Doggie

Adopt a Doggie is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit dog rescue organization that has been committed to rescuing, fostering, and finding forever homes for dogs in need since its inception. Our EIN is 47-1384002. Our team, led by Mary Choi in Taiwan and Laura Shelley as Adoption Manager in the US, has dedicated countless hours to saving and improving the lives of thousands of dogs.

Jelly's Place

Jelly's Place was founded in 2017 to be an advocate for the lives and dignity of urban animals who are homeless, abandoned, impounded, sick, or injured, by providing responsible care, placement, and community education with the commitment to the No-Kill philosophy. Its founder, Julie Bainbridge, has been rescuing and fostering animals since childhood. She has rescued, fostered, and /or raised all kinds of animals, including baby squirrels, racoons, pigeons, chickens, geese, ducks, opossums, skunks (yes- skunks), wild and tropical birds, pigmy goats, mice, snakes, rabbits, dogs, and cats. Animals are cared for by volunteers in their homes and at our shelter located in San Pablo. Jelly's Place is named in memory of her beloved English Bulldog who crossed over the Rainbow bridge in 2016. Jelly's Place depends on donations and grants, and volunteers to foster and care for animals. Your donations are tax-deductible.

Beyond Rescue

At Beyond Rescue, we’re committed to ensuring that you and your dog are family forever so we're here for you through the entire process. From adoption, to socialization and training, to providing the education and support, we want your household to be comfortable and happy. And if you find yourself facing challenges that might lead to having to give up your dog, we try and offer solutions that hopefully help you keep them. We promise any dog that comes into our care will never end up homeless during their lifetime. Beyond Rescue understands that adopting a dog is where the relationship starts, not where it ends. Our community of dog-loving people goes beyond rescuing dogs—we work to provide a safety net that helps to ensure that adoptive families have the ongoing support, education, and services they need to keep their dog happy and healthy and home. Forever.

Animal Care and control San Francisco

The San Francisco Department of Animal Care & Control (SFACC) is a taxpayer-funded, open-admission animal shelter. Since 1989, SFACC has provided housing, care, and medical treatment to wild, exotic and domestic stray, lost, abandoned, sick, injured, and surrendered animals. SFACC's doors are open to all animals in need regardless of species, medical, or behavioral condition. The shelter also enforces all state and local Animal Control and Welfare laws and is the first responder for animals in natural disasters and citizen emergencies. SFACC shelters homeless, neglected, orphaned, and abused animals and offers a variety of services to the community. SFACC is the local City agency that investigates animal cruelty, abuse and neglect, enforces animal welfare laws, rescues wildlife in distress, and aids domestic animals in need. SFACC aims to adopt, rehome, or reunite domestic animals with their guardians and release wildlife to their native habitat.

Contra Costa Animal Services

The Animal Services Department has a long history in Contra Costa County. In 1959 Animal Control (as it was called then), consisting of five employees, was re-assigned from the Sheriff's Office authority to the County Agriculture Department. Animal Services became its own County department in 1985. The original shelter was located one block from where we are now on the eastern edge of Martinez. In May 2005, a beautiful two-acre state-of-the-art shelter complex and six-stall barn with open corral area, totaling more than 38,000 square feet, was dedicated by the Board of Supervisors and local dignitaries. Our 75 employees and over 150 volunteers take great pride in serving our community, work very hard to care for the animals, and are eager to show you what we have to offer. We invite you to visit us soon. Who knows, you may find your new best friend at the Animal Services Shelter!

Friends of Berkeley Animal Care Services

Friends of Berkeley Animal Care Services (FoBACS) is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting Berkeley Animal Care Services (BACS), the municipal open-admission animal shelter that serves the communities of Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, and Piedmont, CA.

Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter

Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter (FAAS) shelters and cares for the lost and abandoned companion animals of Alameda, Calif., reuniting lost pets with their owners and finding new families for the homeless. FAAS is a 501(c)(3) organization. Our tax ID number is 27-0864431. Eight-time winner "Best Nonprofit Group" (Alameda Magazine, 2014-2021) Six-time winner Best Charitable Event (Alameda Magazine 2016-2021).

Bull Terrier Rescue, Inc.

Bull Terrier Rescue, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization managed wholly by volunteer board members and officers. We are active in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Our TIN/FEIN is 68-0272385.

Rescues Rock

Rescues Rock is a community based animal welfare, education and rescue organization servicing Hollywood, West Hollywood, The Hollywood and Beverly Hills neighborhoods, as well as, Studio City and neighborhoods of East San Fernando Valley. We adopt to homes throughout Southern California. Rescues Rock operates a dedicated, foster house located in Laurel Canyon. 100% Volunteer fueled Rescues Rock and BarkPark focus on at risk orphan kittens and puppies and dogs and cats requiring medical intervention. Adoptions and meet and greets are by appointment only. Thank you for making the loving and responsible decision to adopt and not shop for your new family member. Rescues Rock is here to help you every step of the way in your adoption process. If you don't see your future family member among our current adoptables, reach out and let us know who you are hoping to find and we will contact our extensive network to help you find your perfect match. Rescues Rock adoptable dogs, cats, puppies and kittens are always up to date on all vaccinations, spayed/neutered and cleared by a veterinarian at the time of adoption. We offer foster to adopt scenarios to approved fosters. Vaccination and S/N clinics are offered at BarkPark for the convenience of our fosters and adopters. Rescues Rock is here for the life of your pet. We are available to consult on training, nutrition, health and wellness at no charge to our adopters. Rescues Rock is a 501c3 non profit organization.

Transform A Street Dog

Transform a Street Dog has been on the ground in Ukraine supporting independent animal rescuers and rescuing homeless animals since 2018. After the war began, we switched gears, and started to organize mass evacuations of animals to enable them to escape the war and be adopted. Please help us to support pet owners, abandoned pets, neglected shelter dogs and suffering street dogs in Ukraine that have all been affected by the senseless Russian invasion of Ukraine and its people.

Stitch in Time Animal Rescue

Companion Animal Community Center

The Center was founded in 2021 by a group of animal advocates on the San Mateo Peninsula, with the goal of rescuing animals in need of loving homes by engaging community members in our lifesaving efforts. Our Team has over 50 years experience that includes foster and adoption programs, behavior and training, fundraising, medical and veterinary care.

Love Dogs Rescue and Foundation Inc.

Love Dogs Rescue and Foundation is a federal income tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization. Founded in 2019, we seek to end the killing of homeless dogs through two avenues: adoption and free or low cost spay/neuter.

Hella Dam Bitches n Queens Rescue Inc

We are dedicated to saving, protecting and caring for cats and dogs while helping end euthanasia due to overcrowding. As an independent nonprofit that receives no federal, state or local funding, nor funding from national organizations, we rely on donations from our supporters to provide our care and services.

NorCal Poodle Rescue

We are a group of volunteers who rescue, rehabilitate and find loving homes for more than 140 poodles and poodle mixes each year. Serving Northern California, we rescue and adopt standard, miniature and toy poodles, as well as poodle mixes. We respond to county shelters, humane societies, and individuals via our website and phone hotline. Each poodle is spayed or neutered, vaccinated, micro-chipped and groomed before adoption. In addition, we provide extensive medical care, fostering, boarding and training if needed before placement. We have a return policy in the event that a poodle adoption doesn't work out. We are always grateful for your donations; 97% of all donations are dedicated to our poodles. As we are an all-volunteer organization we incur only 3% administrative cost. The generous gift of time by our volunteers, support and services by pet care businesses, and your tax-deductible donations make this work possible. NorCal Poodle Rescue is an Adoption Guarantee Organization: We rehabilitate and re-home all healthy and treatable animals in our care and reserve euthanasia only for unhealthy and untreatable animals in extreme cases, such as those who bite or with unmanageable medical conditions. NCPR honors the definitions of healthy and treatable as described by the Asilomar Accords.

Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA

The Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA (PHS/SPCA) is a local, private, non-profit charitable organization dedicated to animal welfare. Among our major programs, PHS/SPCA adopts fully 100% of the healthy, adoptable dogs and cats in our care and also, through our charitably funded Hope Program, make well and find homes for thousands of animals who come to us sick, injured, or too young to survive without supportive care. PHS/SPCA is truly an open admission shelter, not only accepting many pet animals who might be refused at other shelters, but also taking care of injured and orphaned native wildlife. Our work means almost 5,000 lives saved each year. PHS/SPCA has received a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, and we’re a Platinum-level GuideStar Exchange participant

St. Francis Animal Protection Society

In 1971, our founder Helen Galantiere walked away from a successful corporate career to help animals. Inspired by her days screening potential foster families for kids, she hatched St. Francis Animal Protection Society. We received charitable nonprofit status in March of 1972. Helen built a rescue organization without a physical facility, instead placing at-risk cats and dogs in foster homes to receive treatment, training, and TLC. She made sure unfixed animals were spayed or neutered, and educated her community about proper care of companion animals through "Animal World," a weekly column in the Marin Independent Journal. While times have changed, our commitment to at-risk animals remains the same. We bring help, hope, and healing to animals and the people love them. A volunteer-run, foster-based animal rescue and advocacy group, we serve the Greater Bay Area. We approach rescue with an open heart, an open mind, and an innovative spirit. Together, we engage, educate, and empower our community in the fight for our most vulnerable cats and dogs.

FurEver Animal Rescue

Tailchaser Rescue

Tailchaser Rescue is a 501(c)3 non-profit, no-kill, animal rescue organization based out of the Bay Area, CA, dedicated to rescuing cats and dogs (and sometimes more) from shelters where they are in danger. We believe in removing barriers to adoption and educating pet owners and potential adopters about responsible pet ownership and the importance of spay / neuter. We are a foster-home-based organization and we do not have a shelter or physical location that adopters can visit. All of our rescued animals are cared for by volunteer foster families in their homes. This allows us to get to know the animals better, and helps us assess what type of home environment they will do best in. Tailchaser Rescue was founded in 2008.

A Better Chance Rescue

1. We are an international non-profit dog rescue organization. 2. We do not have a facility to hold all dogs. 3. We have some dogs that are being fostered in the Bay Area, California. 4. We review all applications. However, our organization is run by dedicated volunteers. Therefore, we may not be able to answer all emails or calls. If your application is approved, we will reach out to you for further information. Moving forward, we will schedule a meet and greet and home visit to ensure your home perfectly matches your potential puppy. 5. We can only adopt our dogs to BAY AREA families because our adoption process requires a home visit and follow-up after the dog is being adopted (sorry we are unable to do it virtually). 6. If there are kids in the household, they MUST BE OVER 10 years old. 7. If you have experienced difficulty in submitting an application online, kindly download the application form and email it directly to [email protected]. 8. We highly appreciate your interest and understanding. 9. Thank you for considering adopting from A Better Chance Rescue.

All Beings Cooperative Animal Rescue

We believe that in order to achieve peace of earth, we need all being to cooperate! Animals instinctively cooperate in nature! Our pets live to give us love, protection, healing and companionship. Therefore it is our duty to provide equivalent support to our animal brothers and sisters. We believe that when all being cooperate, we can achieve happiness for everyone, and are excited to do our part! After many years of collaborating with rescues all over the bay area, fostering, rescuing animals from individuals and off the streets, we have established ourselves as an official 501(c)3 nonprofit charity organization in Bay Area, CA - with the continued support of other rescues, veterinary hospitals and animal shelters in the area. Saving lives is everyone's duty! Our organization has been rescuing animals internationally for over 20 years! All types of animals in need are welcome at our sanctuary. From birds to livestock, reptiles or puppies & kittens - we welcome the opportunity to alleviate suffering and loneliness for our voiceless wards.

East Bay Animal Rescue & Refuge (EBARR)

EBARR was founded out of a recognized need in the East Bay Area for a high-quality rescue group that accepts cats and dogs (under certain conditions) from the community. Since our inception, we have successfully placed thousands of orphaned animals, many community surrenders or at risk of being euthanized at local animal shelters. Since we are a foster-based program, there must be available space with one of our foster homes to accept an animal into our program. Once part of the EBARR family, all animals receive a complete veterinary package, training, socialization, love, and affection.