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Gifting a pet to an animal charity: how rehoming legacies work

Published 17 September 2026 · 4 min read

Not everyone has a friend or family member able to take on a pet when they die. That is a genuine, common situation, and several UK animal charities have built free schemes specifically to solve it. Rather than leaving your pet’s future to chance, you can register in advance and know they will be looked after.

How these schemes generally work

Charities including Dogs Trust, Cats Protection, Blue Cross and the RSPCA all run versions of the same idea. You register your pet with them while you are alive, usually for free and often in a matter of minutes. When the charity is notified of your death, they collect your pet and either rehome them or, where that is not possible, care for them for the rest of their life. Most of these schemes commit publicly to never putting a healthy animal to sleep simply because it has not yet found a new home. Some organisations, such as the Cinnamon Trust, focus specifically on older or terminally ill owners and offer broader support around planning ahead for a pet’s care.

Registering is the important step, not just naming the charity in your Will

This is the detail that catches people out. These schemes generally rely on you registering with the charity directly, not simply writing their name into your Will. A mention in your Will is a helpful backup and a clear statement of your wishes, but the practical arrangement, the card or registration that tells the charity to step in, needs to be set up separately and in advance.

Telling the right people it exists

A registration scheme only works if someone knows to contact the charity when the time comes. Make sure your Executor, and ideally close family or friends, know that you have registered your pet, which charity it is with, and where any registration card or documents are kept. This matters more for pets than almost anything else in your Will, since an animal cannot wait for probate to be sorted out before it needs feeding and care.

Leaving a legacy alongside registration

Registering with a rehoming scheme is generally free, but many people choose to leave the charity a gift in their Will as well, as a thank you for the service and to support the wider work of caring for other animals in the same situation. This is entirely optional and separate from the registration itself, and can be structured as a specific cash gift or a share of your residuary estate, in the same way as any other charitable gift.

Choosing between a named guardian and a charity scheme

These two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Some people name a preferred person first, with a charity scheme as the fallback if that person is unable to take on the pet when the time comes. This gives your pet the best of both options: a chance at staying with someone you know, and a reliable safety net if that does not work out. We cover naming a personal guardian in more detail in our guide to including a pet in your Will.

Common questions about charity pet legacies

Setting this up with Willow

When you write your Will with Willow, you can include a legacy gift to an animal charity alongside your other wishes, whether as a thank you for a rehoming scheme you have registered with, or simply as a cause you want to support.

This guide sets out general information about UK animal charity rehoming schemes. It is not legal advice, and you should check the current terms directly with any charity before registering.