The Best Indiana Dog Rescues & Shelters in 2026

Homeward Bound Animal Welfare Group Inc.

We are a 501c3 organization specializing in forever placements of our amazing dogs into great homes! Spay & neuter is also at the top of our priority list as our major contribution to fighting pet overpopulation.

Helping Paws, Inc.

Helping Paws is a foster-based rescue run 100% by volunteers. We do not have a facility, so all pets are fostered in loving homes until they find their forever families! We deal in all breeds and ages of pets, but we do have a soft spot for medical cases.

Medical Mutts Service Dogs

Our Mission: Training Shelter Dogs as Service Dogs As a leading authority in medical alert assistance dogs, Medical Mutts is dedicated to training rescued dogs to be service dogs and to promoting collaboration between dogs and people through science, education, and ethical training. Originally, Medical Mutts was a business, but became a non-profit in 2019. We rescue approximately 90 dogs per year and 30 of them graduate to become service dogs. The other 60 are adopted out to loving homes. Over the course of 11 years, we have graduated 131 service dogs and rescued over 460 shelter dogs.

The Humane Society of Hobart

The Humane Society of Hobart (HSH) is a nonprofit animal shelter on a mission to build and strengthen pet families and has been saving the lives of homeless pets since 1954. We are small , but mighty! In 2023 alone, HSH sheltered more than 2,500 homeless pets, provided services to more than 1,000 pet families in need of resources and supplies, and returned 253 lost pets to their owners. We work alongside law enforcement when there is an emergency or criminal situation and animals are present. After law enforcement has secured the scene, we proceed to rescue the animals. Sometimes we work with the Indiana State Veterinarian to methodically document all that is needed to care for the animals or prosecute if neglect and cruelty is suspected. The staff and volunteers are true warriors that lead with courage and compassion, daily meeting the challenge of many animals coming to our door in need of emergency medical care and shelter.

Northern Lights Sled Dog Rescue

Humane Society for Hamilton County

The Humane Society for Hamilton County is one of very few open-admission, truly no kill shelters in the country. We believe every animal deserves a chance to live, love and be loved regardless of age, breed, special medical needs, or disabilities.

Humane Fort Wayne

Everything we do—from adoption and retention programs to clinic services, community outreach and education—stems from our core value, love. We believe when pets have safe and loving homes, they thrive. And with their loving companionship, so do we. We’re for people. We’re for pets. We’re for Love, Unleashed.

Fort Wayne Pit Bull Coalition (FWPBC)

We are now functioning as a rescue and are excited to be able to offer wonderful pitbulls in need of forever homes. We are still a very small group and are in need of fosters and donors to continue helping pit bulls in need. Please keep in mind that we are unable to help every pit bull in need, but we do strive to help as many as we can.

Humane Society of Northwest

As an animal shelter it is our duty to improve the lives of companion animals in the Gary IN area by providing a shelter alternative, spay & neuter assistance and adoptive services

Indianapolis animal care services

Animal Care Services protects and promotes the health, safety, and welfare of pets and livestock in Marion County. The agency works with animal rescue organizations both locally and nationally. If you are thinking about surrendering your pet, please consider using our rehoming resources to help find a new home for your four-legged friend. Rehoming your pet on your own keeps it from entering the stressful shelter environment and keeps a kennel open for pets who need it the most. IACS works with Rehome by Adopt-a-pet.com to promote animals available for adoption that are not in the shelter. Visit this link to create a quick and easy profile and share your pet’s story with thousands of potential adopters.

Clancy's Dream

Clancy’s Dream brings help and hope to Border Collies in times of need. We provide rescue, medical, rehabilitation and adoption assistance for neglected, abused or abandoned Border Collies.

PawSwap of Greater Lafayette, IN

PawSwaP is not your typical animal rescue organization. Like most other animal welfare groups, we aim to help community animals by providing them with proper vet care before finding them loving, forever homes. Our approach, however, is unique. We look to keep the animals in their current homes whenever possible. If that is not possible, we attempt to utilize foster homes until forever homes can be found. We help owners rehome their animals safely and responsibly without them ever entering a shelter facility.

Porter County Animal Shelter

The No-Kill Porter County Animal Shelter is the only publicly owned and operated animal shelter in Porter County. We don't choose the animals that we serve and care for, they choose us! Every year, we take in over 1,000 homeless animals. They are the strays, the abandoned, the abused and the neglected from all parts of Porter County. We give them the love and the care that they need while they are with us, and work hard to find them loving forever homes.

Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control

The LOVE pet project

We are a registered 501c3 all-breed rescue. We got our start rescuing parvo positive puppies/dogs from local shelters. In our first year we successfully treated nearly 50 puppies/dogs with parvoviral enteritis and adopted them into new homes. We have increased our reach and now accept a wide variety of medical issues. Our dogs and cats come from both in-state and out-of-state shelters and we accept breeder surrenders. We are proud to have matched over 1700 families with their new pets in the last year!

Friends of Indianapolis Dogs Outside

FIDO is a non-profit, animal advocacy organization formed in 2005 that works with dog owners to improve the quality of life for their outside dogs—with a focus on dogs living isolated on the end of a chain. FIDO partners with Indianapolis residents to find alternatives to continuous chaining as a method of dog containment while promoting the Indianapolis Dog Care & Treatment ordinances. One of our goals is to make it easier and more convenient for owners to bring their dogs inside the home to be part of the family. Our areas of focus are the marginalized, under-served neighborhoods of Indianapolis. The citizens we meet often just need information and access to available resources to provide a more humane level of care. Many of the dogs we help have never been to a veterinarian and spend most of their lives outside. Outreach and sharing humane education is a large part of the work we do at FIDO. We offer supplies and services to residents who are interested in working with us to improve their dogs’ quality of life. FIDO partners with other organizations to provide spay/neuter assistance, which we require, for the dogs we serve. Our services are provided for free or at a nominal fee.

IndyHumane

Committed to helping central Indiana’s pets in need since 1905. Find your new best friend today.

Dubois County Humane Society

Welcome! The Dubois County Humane Society is a no-kill shelter, located in Jasper, Indiana. We are a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization founded in 1974 to care for homeless animals in our community. The Dubois County Humane Society receives no tax dollars or public funding - we rely solely on the support of the local community through contributions and our fund-raising events.

Michiana Humane Society

The Michiana Humane Society cares for 1,000 or so animals each year. Some are surrendered by their owners who can no longer provide care. Some are strays, abandoned, and unwanted animals brought to us by the people who find them, or by Michigan City Animal Control. Once here they are assured of our care until we find them homes, no matter how long it takes. We are proud to have a live release rate well beyond the 90% mark using Asilomar recordkeeping. We only euthanize animals so sick as to have little hope of surviving, or so aggressive that it is not safe for our staff to handle them

Animal Rescue Fund

Our mission at ARF is to promote our promise to love and to protect dogs and cats by providing shelter, nourishment, medical care and placement for them in order to make our community a better place to live for animals and humans alike

Sketchy Mutts and Underdogs Rescue

We moved into our new location in Haughville in December and currently have 12 dogs there The location has 3 outdoor play yards, an indoor play yard, and each dog has his/her own bedroom (or might share with a good friend). We have started incorporating volunteers into our daily schedule and are busy putting our Field Trip policies in place.

Rushville Animal Shelter

We are a small, rural, city-funded shelter located in Rush County, Indiana. We approach each potential adoption with an open mind and focus on informing and educating adopters. We may say no if we feel the shelter animal, another animal, or human being is at unreasonable risk of serious injury or death. Our goal is to provide animals with a quality life with freedom from hunger, thirst, discomfort, pain, injury, disease, or stress.

Roo's Relief

Non Profit Animal Rescue for the Mistreated and Misunderstood Founded in 2022, Roo's Relief is a pet rescue that has made tremendous impact thanks to the help of members and volunteers in the community. The rescue takes pride in helping animals that need a second chance. Roo's Relief also strives to help the community with providing education and tools to best care for their pet and others.

Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue

We take purebred Great Pyrenees dogs from Indiana, into our rescue program as space allows. We also accept owner surrenders when possible. We are not a shelter. All of our dogs live in foster homes. These generous families help raise, socialize and treat any medical conditions the Pyr may have had prior to rescue. This gives you, the adopter, an advantage. By having Pyrs in foster homes we are able to learn a lot about the dogs prior to adoption. This makes it easier to match potential adopters to the right Pyr for their family. Foster homes are urgently needed. Please visit our adopt/foster page or contact us if you are interested in giving a homeless Pyr a temporary home. Foster Homes are desperately needed!!!