Thinking about getting a pet for someone you care about this Christmas?

The Moose Jaw Humane Society is recommending that you don't, or at least not right away.

Executive Director with the Humane Society, Dana Haukaas.

"We here at the Moose Jaw Humane Society want the actual person who's adopting the pet to meet the pet, to make sure that they are a good fit and have a connection. If you do want to give a pet as a gift to someone, you could make a note in a Christmas card that you're giving it to them, and that after the Christmas season you'd be happy to bring them to the humane society and pay the adoption fee."

Maybe you don't want a pet though, but you still want to help out a shelter-pet. Well, there's an option for that as well.

"You can make a donation and sponsor somebody's adoption. What we do is we make a note on that animal's file that their adoption fee has been sponsored. Once the successful candidate has come in and they decide they want to adopt that pet, we surprise them with that adoption fee being sponsored."

For more information on that, you can visit MJHS.ca.

Haukaas also talked briefly about the difference between adopting from a breeder and adopting from the Humane Society, saying that Christmas can be pretty chaotic and that having a pet who's experienced around people may be better than a brand-new puppy who's more susceptible to feeling overwhelmed. Another positive with adopting from the Humane Society is that most animals there already have known characteristics - such as if they're good with children, or good with other pets such as another dog, or a cat.