If you're thinking about adopting a pet from the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society, the organization is adopting new visitation policies that are part of a national trend to protect the animals and you.
Samantha Rote is a pet lover.
"I have two cats of my own and two dogs," Rote said.
Rotes loves to come to the Humane Society to look and pet the animals.
But, beginning April 15, no one will be allowed to walk freely through the kennels over the weekends, unless they've been pre-approved to adopt.
Director Kori Baade says the shelter isn't a petting zoo and wants to protect the animals from diseases like parvo, which is a contagious virus that mainly affects dogs, but cats can get it too.
"People can actually bring that in on their clothes and that's a deadly disease that they can transfer to our animals," Baade said.
The new policy is not only to protect the animals, but it's also to protect you from bites.
Last year, there were 213 bites at the shelter. Thirty percent of them occurred on weekends.
"They're coming to a very different environment, they're not used to being in a cage, they don't know who we are and they get scared," Baade said.
The shelter's new policy is just for the weekends, which are busy.
"There's constant foot traffic, people touching, opening kennels, closing kennels, dogs coming in and out, it's a lot of stress," adoption counselor CJ Burd said.
Burd thinks the new policy will cut down on emotional adoptions that ultimately result in the animal being brought back to the shelter.
"One thing being an adoption counselor, what I see a lot is people walk up and say 'oh I'm just here to look' and 10 minutes later they fall in love," Burd said.
But with the new policy, that's less likely to happen, which they say is good for both the shelter and the pets.
The new policy doesn't apply to the volunteers at the shelter. Baade urges anyone thinking of adopting to go to the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society's web site to get pre-approved.