The voice at the other end of the line sounded perplexed. "This is the National Apartment Association, not the National Animal Association." It was the first time that The Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal protection organization, had asked to be an exhibitor at the National Apartment Association's annual conference.

Since that first phone call six years ago, The HSUS has embarked on an aggressive outreach program to owners and managers of rental properties. Our goal: To open up more rental housing for pets and, as a result, stem the tide of cats and dogs relinquished to shelters when their owners move into rental housing that doesn't accept pets. The program is a major component of our Pets for Life™ campaign, designed to keep pets with their families, where they belong.

It was also six years ago that the American Veterinary Medical Association released a report stating that 50% of renters had pets. At the time, we assumed that the percentage would be even higher if there were more animal-friendly rental units available. The challenge for us then was one of approach: How do we convince rental housing owners and managers to accept pets?

We decided an economic appeal would go further than a purely humane one. In other words, we were determined to convince housing professionals that allowing pets made good financial sense. After all, we knew that responsible pets owners tended to remain longer in their rental units and tended to be model residents. And what rental housing owner wouldn't want to make his units available to this attractive market, particularly now, during these tough economic times?

It's difficult to quantify the progress we've made in the three years since we launched Renting With Pets (www.rentwithpets.org), our online resource for housing professionals and people with pets. Such hard statistics are just not available, but we do have plenty of anecdotal evidence. I talk to a lot of people in the rental-property business, and they are increasingly paying more attention to this HSUS resource.

Take, for instance, Joleen Brannigan, the vice president of Gracehill.com, a free Internet resource for rental housing professionals. Joleen and I have seen each other at many apartment association conferences. She and Gracehill.com were one of the first to promote our rentwithpets.org resources. Gracehill.com has displayed a banner for several years that links its 10,000 members to The HSUS's information on animal-friendly rental housing. "The industry's response to HSUS's services indicates a win-win relationship for all parties," notes Brannigan.

Brannigan recommends The HSUS's site to all of her business associates as a "fabulous information source for apartment professionals. Not only [do HSUS's] resources provide you with a step-by step guide to creating animal-friendly policies—and therefore generating ancillary income—they even share tips for marketing your animal-friendly communities."

Our campaign to open up more rental housing to pets has recently made even larger strides. The HSUS is in continuing discussions with AIMCO, the nation's largest owner/manager of apartment properties. AIMCO plans to promote animal-friendly policies in many of the apartment communities it has recently acquired. Victoria Blanton, vice president of marketing for AIMCO, says, "We realize that for many people pets are an important and therefore cherished part of their families. With that in mind, we are currently exploring the possibility of adopting a national pet policy. As a company, we constantly reevaluate our policies to ensure they are in step with the lifestyles and values of our residents."

In my many years of exhibiting at apartment association conferences, I've been delighted to hear other rental-property professionals express similar ideas: that they want to allow pets. But sometimes my delight turns to dismay when I discover that many do not have well-defined pet-keeping policies or effective guidelines for identifying responsible pet caregivers. Without requirements for proper pet care, a blanket pets-allowed policy can be as harmful as a no-pets policy.

So when I exhibit at conferences, or write articles for industry publications, I stress the importance of implementing responsible policies. It has been gratifying to receive feedback from property owners and managers who have used our information to successfully implement or tighten up animal-friendly policies.

Interested property owners and managers can check out The HSUS's
17-page booklet, Profiting from Pets, which helps housing professionals identify responsible pet caregivers and set up effective pet-keeping policies. Conversely, our companion booklet, 13 Steps to Finding Rental Housing That Accepts Pets, offers tips to renters on presenting themselves as responsible pet caregivers, finding pets-welcome rental housing, moving safely, and settling into a new apartment. You can order these booklets online (see the link below). All the information in these booklets can also be found at www.rentwithpets.org.

Whether you're a housing professional or a pet owner looking for housing, The HSUS's Renting With Pets can be a helpful resource. After all, we may have come a long way in six years, but we still have a long way to go.

Nancy Peterson is an issues specialist in the Companion Animals section at The HSUS.