Your passion partially influences the things you do. For instance, being a kindergarten teacher may require you to be passionate about kids. This will help you be patient and know how to deal with them. This is the same case in rescuing animals.
Rescuing animals is done by people who care for and love pets. If you’re passionate about animals, you may consider starting an animal rescue. Animal rescue shelters provide homes to stray pets, care for unhealthy animals, and protect them from abuse. If you’re in Australia, check out these veterinaries who sell their products wholesale.
However, if you want to have a strong start off, you need to be knowledgeable of the steps involved. This article acts as a guide on the steps to take when starting a rescue shelter for animals.
Steps To Follow When Starting An Animal Rescue Shelter
Here are some steps that may guide you when starting an animal rescue shelter:
1. Choose the Type of Animal Rescue Shelter You Want to Start
There are various types of animal rescue shelters. Some shelters specify the animals they deal with regarding the species or breed. While other rescue shelters accommodate all animals that need help.
Before you decide which animals you’ll be dealing with, you need to research their behavior, needs, diet, and other things. Additionally, you can consult other people that have animal rescue shelters. They’ll tell you what they wish they knew before starting the animal shelters, the mistakes made, and how to avoid them. This information will help you understand what you will require and what you can manage and can’t. After that, you can decide the type of shelter you can handle.
2. Prepare A Budget
Starting anything requires finances. To prepare financially, you need to draft a budget that entails all the costs you’ll incur. The costs entailed in a budget differ depending on what you’re starting. You should include the following expenses:
- Shelter Structure Expenses. These expenses include the rent you’ll pay and maintenance done on the shelters. Moreover, you also need to pay for water, electricity, and heating maintenance.
- Supplies Needed. After setting up the shelter, you need to add various supplies to make the shelter functional. For instance, you need animal foods, waste disposal, cleaning materials, and many more.
- Animal Transport Car. Apart from getting the vehicle, it’d be best if you insured it in case of anything.
- Animal Care Purchases. Apart from the mentioned supplies, you also need to purchase things such as animal toys. Furthermore, animals also need neutering services, microchips, and routine checks done by a vet.
After drafting a budget, you’ll know how much you need. This will help you decide on other matters, such as how to raise the required funds.
3. Figure Out How You’ll Raise The Needed Finances
After getting an idea of how much you need to start a shelter, you need to find ways to get the money needed. Sometimes, this amount may be more than what you had in mind or had set aside. You’ll need to look for donations and volunteers in such a case.
Luckily, some organizations offer grants for such courses. However, you’ll need to prepare a grant application to get these grants. If you don’t know how to prepare a grant application, you can seek help from someone who knows how to. This will help your application stand out from the several applications sent to these organizations. What’s more, you can also apply for government grants. Local governments offer funds to animal shelters to maintain animal welfare and control. Unfortunately, sending an application isn’t a guarantee you’ll receive the donations.
Also, you need people to work in the shelter. These people will help care for the animals, especially if you have many animals to attend to. Hiring people means increasing the costs you’ll incur. Therefore, to cut extra costs, you should look for volunteers willing to work in the shelter.
4. Find The Most Suitable Location
The location you choose depends on the animal types you’ll be keeping. For example, if you decide to keep small animals such as chinchillas, you may keep them in your home. Conversely, big animals such as horses and dogs need a suitable location.
Further, you need to consider some factors when looking for a location. This includes:
- Whether the pre-existing structures on a site can be converted to serve as an animals’ rescue shelter.
- Whether the facilities available can be divided into sections. It’s essential to have compartments that will accommodate different types of animals. For instance, you need to separate young animals from the old, small from big ones, as well as nursing animals and their offspring from the rest. Additionally, it’d help if you had a section for the new animals as quarantine to prevent the risk of transmitting any infectious diseases to other animals.
5. Apply For An Animal Rescue Shelter License
Every business, whether profitable or non-profitable, needs a license to operate. Starting an animal rescue shelter is no exception. You can apply for a permit from the department in charge in your state.
When applying for a license, you need to know that you’ll be charged a license fee depending on the number of animals you will keep at a time. For example, you may be charged $100 for a specific number of animals, say 25. However, before paying the license fee, a city inspector comes to the shelter to assess whether it’s safe to keep animals. If there’s an issue, you’ll be advised to make the necessary improvement. And if there’s nothing wrong, the inspector will collect the licensing fee and start working on your application.
6. Consider Gaining Experience From Local Shelters
After accomplishing the above steps, you should consider working in a local shelter. Through this, you’ll learn how to operate an animal shelter. This will help you manage your shelter better. Moreover, you’ll learn about animal health and how to offer animal first aid and CPR. This will also be a chance to form relationships with veterinarians.
Summing It Up!
Starting an animal rescue shelter requires you to be passionate about animals. Apart from passion, you must also learn the steps to start strong, and understanding the importance of each step will make your experience easy. This article has discussed these steps in detail. Therefore, if you’re unsure what to do, you can use this article as a guide. All the best!
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