If you are thinking about starting an animal rescue or shelter

by Linda R. Animal Rescuer/Thrift Store Owner

There is a big need for animal rescue be it domestic cats and dogs to tropical animals such as snakes, birds, lizards and fish to wild animals and farm animals. There is a lot of animals being abandoned and abused with today's economy people can't afford to keep their pets as well those who seem to take their angers and frustrations out on the critters instead of finding a better and healthier way to deal with the issues.

Well if you think about starting an animal rescue you have a lot to take into consideration, such as ordinances, requirements, experience, location, funding, licensing, registration if for non profit and more. This will give you an idea on how to get started in a more efficient and effective way especially if you don't even know what you are doing.

You will want to research your area shelters, rescue groups and visit them, taking a tour, asking questions, and maybe even checking into any complaints against them as well as their records for adoption, euthanasia rules and making sure you observe conditions of their facilities as well. You should even talk to local residents and citizens and tell them about your thoughts about an animal rescue or shelter for this too will give you an idea of how much support you will or could have with the people living in your area, but chances are you will have a lot of support. After you have checked out the shelters and rescue groups spend a day or two with a few of them to get an idea of what it is like on a daily basis, so you can get a feel of what you will be dealing with in all areas of this business for it can be real stressful at times and does require emotional strength, love for all animals and tons of patience. Research local and federal laws as to what you can and cannot do in your rescue or shelter. As you do all this research make sure you take lots of notes on your ideas and what you may need to get started like who to talk to when getting licensed and how to register with the IRS for non profit. You will need to decide if you will provide other services such as grooming, Obedience Training, education, and even Veterinarian care. You will have to have all animals tested for disease and vaccinated so you will need to find a Vet or more as well to help your group. You need to decide how many people and how you will employ them such as interns and volunteers work best for non profit with a few paid positions for more important jobs like record keeping and so on.

Once you get your notes together and have an idea what you are going to do you will need to write out a business plan or an organization plan where you will give details about the shelter or rescue, and how you will handle the shelter and how decisions will be made and funding, even information on what will happen to assets if the shelter or rescue goes under or stops for some reason. You will need to contact your Secretary of State and follow their registration requirements and pay the fees, as well as your local county, and then go to the IRS to start your paperwork for non profit for the non profit 501(c)3 will make is so much easier for donations and fundraising than if you are not, and pay required fees, start a bank account to start putting money into for the shelter or rescue. You can start working on a website page if you plan on having one, there are other resources as well when you get this far to help .Also contact shelters and rescues and partner up with those that are no kill and non profit as well and this will not only help each other out but also the animals will have better chances of getting real loving permanent homes.

You can now start working on gathering volunteers and board members and start getting the shelter organized or rescue and get the details in motion. Now you can start taking donations and doing fundraising as well as some activities related to the shelter if you have a property or land that is suitable and fits requirements needed for a proper and healthy shelter or rescue you can start taking in animals and adopting them out. You need to make sure you keep all and any receipts for donations, purchases, records of adoptions, and animals taken in, vet visits and so on, even how many hours spent doing what etc cause they check on all this to make sure that there is no scamming or fraud when you are doing a non profit shelter, also make sure you have dependable people that are going to help you with care of the animals and cleaning up after them and so on. You will be inspected by USDA, OSHA, Health department, Dept of Agriculture, DNR or whoever in your area oversees operations of shelters and animal rescue centers, as well as you will be audited yearly by IRS and possibly state.

Opening a rescue or shelter center is a lot of work and can be very stressful at times but for the animals and the community is also a great asset and in the end for most it is a happy ending to a very sad and frustrating start. This is a great way to help bring animals and people back together as well as helping by providing a great service to protect the defenseless and voiceless.

One more thing to mention a rescue or shelter can actually be a great way to help the disabled and elderly as well as those in prison as well by letting them work with the homeless animals as a volunteer as a sort of therapy as well as the animal gets rehabilitated as well, not to mention the rescue or shelter can even when the animal is ready and qualifies be donated towards an organization that helps train and place guide and working dogs. Maybe even if special cases where appropriate the animals may even be used to therapy for children that have been abused to come out of their fear of being able to love again.