Building Animal Shelters

Animal shelters play a crucial role in helping lost or neglected pets get a new lease on life. They assist in rescuing and rehabilitating animals such as cats and dogs, and finding them a suitable new home where they will be cared for and loved. The RSPCA has a range of animal shelters throughout Australia, which take in over 100,000 animals every year. This is a massive amount and not only includes cats and dogs but also horses, farm animals and numerous types of native animals. They are all thoroughly checked and looked after so can make a perfect pet to a new family. Animal shelters are often quite flooded with animals and struggle to house all the pets until they find new places to live. So it's great when communities can build new shelters to give more opportunities for lost animals to be temporarily cared for. Groups looking to set up a new animal shelter should first plan carefully what is needed. Register a non-profit organisation and take care of the necessary permits and liceneses. Before moving forward you should also look at expenses and work out a business plan and funding requirements. Getting help from the community via fundraising efforts is a great way to raise money to help pay for the animal shelter. There are numerous fundraiser ideas, and keeping it with an animal theme can be fun an effective. A dog show is one such idea, as well as a sausage sizzle, movie night (maybe show Turned and Hooch or Garfield) and a trivia night, with an animal theme. You can also look to cut costs by getting volunteer carpenters to help build the animal shelter. Some tradesmen in the local community might be only too happy to provide their labour for free, just leaving you with the costs of building materials. Or they might give their carpentry skills at a price lower than normal. Once the shelter has been built you also need to find volunteers to help care for the animals. Veterinarians will also be needed to assist with any medical problems and ensure the animals are in good health to go to a new family. Food and storage facilities need to be purchased (or donated) to feed the animals in the shelter. For animal shelters that are going to house larger animals than just cats and dogs, you will also need to have a larger outdoor area. Safe and secure fences will need to be put up to make sure animals don't escape or injure themselves. Hiring fencing contractors is the smartest move, providing information on the most suitable types of fencings for the animals you will be housing and implementing these fences to the highest standard. It is a big process so don't go in without a lot of planning. Starting small can be a good idea, and you can always look to expand if the need is there, and the manpower and cashflow is there to maintain a bigger shelter. Pug Rescue Home | Animal Welfare Resources | Pet Insurance | Building Animal Shelters