Adopt a Dog or Cat in Mumbai
8 organisations in Mumbai, read from their own sites. Ring before you visit, because adoption hours and intake rules vary more than anything else here.
Last checked 2026-08-09
Where to adopt in Mumbai
- Welfare of Stray DogsshelterAdoptionRescueSterilisation
Their site says WSD has worked with Mumbai's street dogs since 1985, running an OPD clinic and kennels for animals that need hospitalising. It lists rescued and abandoned pets for adoption alongside a sterilisation programme run with the city's civic body.
their site - Bombay SPCA, Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for AnimalsshelterAdoptionRescueSterilisation
The trust's site describes a hospital in Parel with wards for dogs, cats, horses, cattle and birds, treating thousands of animals a year. It also runs an adoption programme and an animal birth control service.
their site - World For All Animal Care and AdoptionsrescueAdoptionRescueSterilisation
Their site says World For All rehomes rescued animals through a network of vetted foster homes rather than one central shelter, with home visits before and after adoption. Worth knowing if you want to meet a dog in a home setting.
their site - Mumbai Animal AssociationrescueAdoptionRescueSterilisation
Their site describes rescue and medical care for street animals in Kandivali, Borivali and Dahisar, with vaccination and sterilisation drives. It says animals go into foster care or adoptive homes where possible.
their site - Utkarsh Animal HospitalshelterRescueSterilisation
The hospital's own site describes a facility of roughly 10,000 square feet with capacity for more than 400 kennels, a 24x7 OPD and rescue response across Mumbai.
their site - Human Welfare Charitable TrustrescueAdoptionRescueSterilisation
Their site says HWCT runs a rescue team and rehabilitation facility from Malad West, and extended its mass sterilisation and vaccination work into Mumbai Suburban in 2016.
their site - In Defense of Animals IndiashelterAdoptionRescueSterilisation
Their site lists a Deonar centre in Mumbai alongside centres at Turbhe and Panvel, and describes sterilisation, clinical surgery, rescue and adoption across those locations.
their site - Animal Rescue and CarerescueAdoptionRescue
Their site describes rescuing strays around Vikhroli West and Kurla, and finding shelter or adoptive homes for blind, paralysed and elderly dogs. A good one to ask about a dog other places have passed over.
their site
What the list shows for Mumbai
7 of 8 state that they rehome animals. 8 also do rescue work, which means they are the number to ring about an animal on the street rather than only about adopting one. 7 run sterilisation alongside it. They are a mix of shelter, rescue, and those are genuinely different operations rather than different words for the same thing.
Your first fortnight in Mumbai
Three things are worth booking in the first fortnight, and none of them is the one people usually rush to buy. Mumbai makes all three straightforward.
- A vet in the first week, before anything is wrong. We list 8 after hours options in Mumbai, of which 6 state round the clock cover. The point of going early is that you meet the staff and they meet the animal, which is what you want established before a bad night.
- Sterilisation, if it has not already been done. We list 6 low cost or subsidised providers in Mumbai, and several run free programmes for street animals that will also take an owned pet.
- An enzymatic cleaner rather than phenyl. The ammonia in most household cleaners is close enough to urine that a dog treats a mopped patch as a reason to return to it. It matters more with a rescue than with a puppy, because a dog that has lived outdoors has no reason to think your floor is different from any other ground.
An Indie who has come off the street is usually already toilet trained, to dust and mud rather than to tile. The first fortnight is about showing them where that surface now lives indoors, not about training a dog from nothing.
What adopting actually involves, the questions worth asking, and every city we cover.
Closed, moved, or missing from Mumbai? Tell us and we will check it.
More for Mumbai