How to Start an Animal Shelter

If you love animals and want to help them, you may be a perfect person to start an animal rescue. Rescues can save two, ten, or even hundreds of wonderful pets from suffering and help them find loving homes. Someone who wants to start a rescue needs more than just a love for animals, however. It requires a good sense of business, commitment, and a lot of hard (and often dirty and smelly) work.

Before deciding to start an animal rescue, you must ask yourself some pertinent questions.

Why do you want to start a rescue? If you want to do it because you want to help needy pets find loving homes, great! Sadly, some people start shelters because they enjoy hoarding animals or because they hope to make a profit. Someone who runs a shelter, however, needs to put the needs of the animals before their own desires. Be aware that often you will be working with sick and poorly behaved animals. Sometimes, you will need to put animals down for their own good- you must be able to deal with heartbreak.

How much time are you willing to spend on your rescue? Starting and maintaining a shelter takes years of hard work and dedication. It is not a job that you can quit if you become tired of it. In the same way, running a shelter will take nearly all of your time. It will mean the end of vacations, unplanned shopping trips, and time to yourself. Also consider that you will run low on sleep: many people who run a rescue say that they only get around five hours of sleep per night.

Do you work well with people? You may be starting a rescue to help animals, but consider that you will be spending much of your time with people. You may spend most of your time working with volunteers, helping potential adopters, calling potential donors, and appeasing complaining neighbors. You will also need a strong relationship with your family and friends. They will need to understand why you cannot be as available as you once were, and can also be an excellent support system when you need to vent or need some volunteers.

If you have answered these questions correctly, then you may have the ability to run a rescue well. But wait! There is much, much more you must do before starting your shelter.

Step 1: Decide what type of animal rescue you would like to operate. Do you want to rescue dogs or cats? Perhaps you'd prefer budgies or hamsters, or maybe pigs or horses. Perhaps you want to rescue several types of animals. This is something that you need to decide before starting your rescue. Choose an animal that you are familiar with and have cared for in the past. If you choose to rescue horses, for example, but have never owned one before, you will probably become quickly overwhelmed by the amount of care and money that they take to upkeep. There are rescues for just about every type of pet, including dogs, cats, rabbits, pigs and horses. Also consider whether you want to open your rescue to all breeds, or be breed-specific. Be aware of what your community needs; if there is a Miniature Schnauzer rescue group nearby, you should probably rescue a different breed of dog.

Step 2: Determine how many animals you will be able to keep. It costs quite a bit of money to run any sort of shelter, but a large one is by necessity going to take more money than a small one. You need to be able to pay for legal expenses, pet food, facilities, and veterinary care. Space is another issue; where will you be housing the animals? You may be keeping animals in your home, another facility, or in foster homes, but ensure that you will have enough space for the amount of animals that you wish to rescue. If you run a large rescue, you will need more manpower than just yourself to feed the animals, keep everything sanitary, and pick up new animals. Start small rather than large, and learn to say "no" to avoid becoming overwhelmed by the amount of animals in your rescue.

Step 3: There are two types of rescues: private or non-profit. It is cheap to set up private rescues, but they are practically never given donations. Usually only quite wealthy people can afford to run private organizations. Non-profit organizations, on the other hand, cost more to set up, but are donated to much more often. Also, you will not be required to file income tax if the annual donations to your shelter are less than $25000 (a href=http://www.ehow.com/how_2117271_start-nonprofit-animal-rescue.html>Animal Rescue). You will be able to acquire corporate sponsors, and collect tax-deductible donations. Most people prefer to donate to a non-profit shelter because of the tax-deductible donations and because they can see how their money is being spent.

Step 4: There are many legalities required to start an animal rescue. Paperwork needs to be completed and approved, and legal documents must be created. A corporate bank account needs to be opened if you are running a non-profit, and you will need to obtain a tax ID number. A variety of other laws must be followed according to your state. You may also want to hire an attorney to help you with this process.

Step 5: Decide where you will find your animals. You can go to shelters that practice euthanasia, rescue dogs from puppy mills, or pick up stray, abandoned, or abused animals. Depending on how large your shelter is going to be, you may need help to pick up all of the animals.

Step 6: Determine how you will set up adoptions. You will need to set up a screening process to determine who qualifies to adopt, as well as to help you match pets with potential adopters. Factors that need to be considered when making matches depend on things such as the characteristics of the animal, the presence of small children or other pets in the household, and the size of the living quarters. You will also need to determine adoption fees. These can fluctuate depending on the type of animal, their age, their medical condition, and the adopter's ability to pay. Write a legally binding contract outlining the provisions for adoption. These can include spay/neuter agreements, stipulations for caring for the adopted pet, and the ability to reclaim the pet if it is not cared for properly.

Step 7: Find ways to spread the word and make money. Most of the time, adoption fees are not enough to cover the expenses of caring for the animals you have rescued. There are many ways to fundraise: benefit dinners, concerts, walk-a-thons, and raffles are just a few. Also, contact local businesses and corporations to ask for donations; many are happy to help (or are at least polite). Create a website or at least a Facebook page to let people know about your rescue. Placing pictures of your animals on the Internet will make people interested in your rescue, encouraging them to donate to you or adopt one of your animals. Also list your animals up for adoption on adoption websites such as Petfinder.com, Adopt a Pet.com and Pets 911.

A few more words before you decide whether you should start a rescue or not: Though the process up above sounds long and difficult, it is truly a joy to help save animals' lives. If you have stamina, dedication, a selfless nature, and compassion for animals, you may make the perfect animal rescuer.

Animal Rescue: http://www.ehow.com/how_2117271_start-nonprofit-animal-rescue.html