Resources for shelters, animal management facilities and rescue organisations

Below, you’ll find helpful resources for owner support and surrender prevention programming, and streamlining pet pathways through your organisation to help you manage capacity in your facility and create positive outcomes for pets and people.

If there’s a topic you’d like to know more about or you feel there’s something missing, we’re all ears! Please reach out to us at members@petrescue.org.au.

 

 

 

Click on the category in the menu below to jump to the relevant resource.

 

 

Free and Very Low-Cost Desexing

Low/Reduced-Cost Veterinary Services or Other Financial Support For Pet Owners

Crisis Care Support Services for Pet Owners

General Help for Pet Owners

Assisted Rehoming

Reuniting Lost Pets

In-Shelter Animal Care

In-Shelter Behavioural Care

Transport Options and Rescue Partnerships

Adoptions and Marketing

Other PetRescue program

Other Helpful Resources

 

Free and Very Low-Cost Desexing

Free and low-cost desexing programs are vital for driving down intake into local government facilities and shelters. In Australia, micro-targeted Community Cat desexing programs have been the only successful approach to driving down free-living cat population numbers and reducing the huge influx of cats into the system every year. 

Access to free and low-cost desexing is also vital for pet owners on lower incomes to reduce barriers to them becoming the pet owners we need them to be! 

• Australian Pet Welfare Foundation: Starting a Community Cat Program - NOTE: Community Cat Programs target high intake areas for desexing and don’t universally require cat carers to take pet ownership of cats. This eliminates the barrier of working with people who care for cats but don’t want to be their owners, so you can harness their help.

• RSPCA NSW Keeping Cats Safe at Home working with 11 NSW councils to micro-target free cat desexing to their high-intake areas to reduce intake

• Information on developing your own cooperative desexing program from Getting2Zero 

• National Desexing Network Collaborations with Local Governments

• Investigate local options for Local Government collaborations with local Veterinarians or Not-for-profit organisations, such as Cat Protection Society NSW, to provide free or very low-cost desexing for community cats and owned cats. You can model your program off examples such as those listed below by contacting the groups involved directly for more information:

  • Westside Community Cat Desexing Council partnerships.

  • The Vets For Compassion partnership with Regional Community Vet Clinic in Mitchell Shire Victoria.

  • The collaboration between Hume City Council and Second Chance Animal Rescue in Victoria.

  • Friends of the Pound (Tweed) Inc. Desexing Vouchers.

  • Cats Assistance To Sterilise Inc. in South Australia.

• HASS Community Cat Programming Toolkit.

 

Low/Reduced-Cost Veterinary Services or Other Financial Support For Pet Owners

Financial hardship is often a reason for pet owners to surrender their much-loved pets. By providing pet owners with access to financial assistance, we can keep pets and people together and prevent surrenders. 

• Pet Medical Crisis Fund - A Victorian Program to assist pet pet pet owners experiencing veterinary crises with affording care for their pets. See the website for details of the program, requirements etc.  

• Safe Pets, Safe Families Vet Crisis Fund in South Australia.

• VetPay Structured payment plans for pet medical treatment. This usually has fairly good take-up through private vet clinics. But may not be useful for lower-income households, pending their eligibility for the program.

• Centrelink provides a structured repayment service through which small payments are taken directly from government support payments each fortnight and sent directly to the business. For information about setting up Centrepay for your organisation, see Centrepay for Businesses). To find out if any of your local vets provide this service, visit Centrepay business search.

• Pets In The Park provides basic veterinary and health care support to unhoused people and their pets in several states (NOTE: They may also have pet food available to clients).

• RSPCA Victoria Low-Cost Vaccination Clinics.

• Cherished Pets - Veterinary social work and owner support for elderly and disabled clients in the Bellarine area of Victoria.

 

Crisis Care Support Services for Pet Owners

Finding these services in your area can be a bit tricky, so it’s best to dedicate some time to finding out and collating them into one reference document. Sometimes, it also helps to dedicate staff to being the ‘go-to’ support person for people in crisis and having the maintenance of that document as part of their job. 

• PetRescue Crisis Care Support - PetRescue provides remote crisis care support to pet owners to help them locate services and resources in their area. Pet owners can access this by emailing info@petrescue.org.au or by clicking the green ‘Help’ button in the bottom right-hand corner of the website. 

• Ask Izzy is a mobile-friendly website to connect people in crisis with human support services.

• Pet food pantries (example from Victoria SCAR Pet Pantry) and Foodbank Australia NOTE: Some Foodbank locations also provide pet food, or you can ask if your organisation can partner with your local Foodbank site to make this happen, like the fantastic new initiative in Mt Gambier - Limestone Coast Pet Pantry!

• Lucy’s Project is a harm prevention charity that works with owners experiencing Family Violence to help them get to safety while keeping their pets.

• Rainbow Paws in the ACT provides a variety of pet support services for pet owners experiencing crisis and low-income households who are fighting to keep their pets.

• Safe Pets, Safe Families - South Australian charity supporting pet pet pet owners experiencing crisis.

• RSPCA branches across Australia, such as RSPCA Queensland Pets In Crisis and RSPCA NSW Outreach programs. NOTE: Check with your local Animal Welfare League or RSPCA branch to see if they provide outreach support services.

• Pets of the Homeless is a Victorian organisation providing pet meals through human food bank partners and emergency boarding for pet owners experiencing a crisis (NOTE: The client must have a case manager or support worker to access this program).

• AWLQ Emergency boarding program in Queensland - see website for details.

• HASS Pet Support Services Toolkit (a guide to developing these within your org).

 

General Help for Pet Owners

Where can they go when they don’t know what they don’t know or who to ask for help.

Pet owners being able to access qualified knowledge and effective help to guide them in the right direction is perhaps one of the most important surrender prevention services an organisation can provide. These are some options for pet owners if your organisation does not have this capacity. 

• Besto Pet platform - Available to all Australians, cheap, accessible remote behaviour consults for pet owners who need help from qualified professionals.

• RSPCA Victoria Free Dog Behaviour Helpline NOTE: This is a Victorian-only service.

• PetCircle Free Live Chat with Vets - helpline Available to all Australians. NOTE: This is an advice line, not a treatment line. Good to refer pet owners to your website, or if you are speaking with an owner who has questions or concerns about their pet, they should be asking a veterinary professional.

• KC Pet Project is Kansas City’s Municipal Animal Shelter. They have great support resources available for pet owners on their website, including some automated decision-making features. NOTE: This was given as an example of how councils can provide easily accessible, quality information to pet owners to keep pets out of the system.  

• HASS Guide to Developing Community-based Behaviour Support services to help you get started within your own organisation.

 

Assisted Rehoming

For owners of healthy, vet-worked pets, who have the capacity to hold onto their pets and be directly involved with rehoming, Owner-assisted rehoming is the perfect solution.  

• PetRescue Home2Home - is currently only open to NSW, ACT and Victoria, with plans to expand as capacity grows.

• Owner-assisted programs through existing rescue groups (e.g., Sweet Shepherd, Helping Hearts Animal Rescue, Perth Rescue Angels). These services are increasingly being offered by rescues, so please check with your local rescues. 

• HASS Supported Self Rehoming Toolkit - to help you get started on providing this service through your organisation.

 

Reuniting Lost Pets

For stray dogs in particular, and cats who appear owned or are well socialised, investing effort into reuniting pets with their pet owners is a great way to improve efficiency and address capacity issues in your facility. 

• Getting2Zero Lost pet resources to help pet owners in their search for their lost pets.

• Lost Pet Finders is an Australian service that specialises in reuniting pets with their people.

• HASS Lost Pet Resources:

  • Lost Pet Reunification Toolkit (has instructions on improving your services).

  • ACO/Field Services Return to Owner Checklist

  • Found Pet Checklist for facility staff. 

• Association for the Animal Welfare Advancement 39 Things Your Shelter Can Do Right Now to Reunite Lost Pets.

• Maddie’s Fund No Place Like Home Resources (Return to Owner/Return to Home resources for AM teams).

 

In-Shelter Animal Care

As we have learned more about keeping pets healthy and happy in shelter facilities, internal programming has become increasingly important in managing pet populations and ensuring positive outcomes. 

Pathway planning for every pet should start the moment you first learn they may need your help. This ensures speedy movement through your organisation and improves the pet’s chances of finding their new family. 

Ensuring best practices within your facility for infection control, behaviour management of pets in your care, and decision-making about pet pathways ensures efficient and effective care - and healthy pets! 

Intake and Pathway Planning

• HASS pathway planning and Intake to Placement resources:

  • Intake to Placement Toolkit

  • Finder to Foster Information.

  • Dog owner surrender conversation script 

  • Cat owner surrender conversation script

• ASPCAPro Intake Protocols Resources

• Koret Shelter Medicine:

  • Shelter Intake and Pathway Planning information sheet.

  • Shelter Operations and Capacity for Care Resources.

• HSUS Expo slide deck ‘Calculating Your Humane Capacity’ presentation.

 

Animal Health and Infection Control 

• Association of Shelter Veterinarians Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters are an evidence-based set of guidelines detailing humane, short-term care of cats and dogs in animal shelters. These are the ‘go-to’ guides for all facilities that hold dogs and cats. 

• Maddie’s Fund Sanitation and cleaning resources.

• Koret Shelter Medicine YouTube channel and website.

 

Daily Care and Shelter Rounds 

• Best Friends Network Partners Daily Rounds Playbook.

• UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program Daily Shelter Rounds Information.

• ASPCAPro Population Wellness Rounds.

• The University of Florida ‘How to get and stay on top of animal care in your shelter with daily rounds’.

• HSUS presentation slide deck “Maximizing Movement through Your Shelter: Daily Rounds Round-Up”.

 

In-Shelter Behavioural Care

Assessments

• G2Z webinar ‘Building Better Behaviour Assessments’

• Upping your BA game: Behaviour Assessments for poundies!

• Justice Clearing House webinars by Trish McMillan and Dr. Diana Rayment (Only available to AIAM members through their accounts) 

  • Assessing dog behaviour in shelter settings  

  • Canine Communication in the Field and Shelter

• ASPCA Position Statement on Behaviour Assessments in Shelters

• ASPCAPro Feline Spectrum Assessment 

 

Adaptability Guidelines and Euthanasia Decision-Making Resources

• Socially Conscious Sheltering - The Socially Conscious Community model provides resources to work collaboratively and transparently with your community to develop adoptability principles and provide owner support and shelter programming.

• IAABC article Euthanasia in Shelters: Data and Decisionmaking

• IAABC article Grey Zone Dogs

• Example SOP and Pet Evaluation Matrix for rehoming 

• The Humane Society of the United States Euthanasia Reference Manual 

 

Enrichment and Behavioural Health

Cats

• The Jackson Galaxy Project's Facebook Page and website

• Best Friends Enrichment for Shelter Cats

• University of Florida Shelter Medicine Program Enrichment list for cats 

• ASPCAPro Feline Enrichment resources

• ASPCAPro Feline Communication series

• Maddie’s Fund webinar Enrichment for Shelter Cats 

• Cat Housing set-ups https://www.sheltermedicine.com/library/cat-housing-for-animal-shelters/ 

• Raised Cat Beds 

  • DIY Instructions from Koret Shelter Medicine program

  • Commercially available beds from Therian

Dogs

• ASPCAPro dog enrichment 

• Best Friends Enrichment for Dog Shelters

• Dog playgroups: Dogs Playing For Life 

• Dog playgroups: https://www.shelterdogplay.org/ 

• Centre For Shelter Dogs canine enrichment 

• ASPCAPro Canine Communication Series (there are three webinars - free) 

• Trish McMillan’s Shelter Behaviour Hub 

• Dog Handling in Shelter Maddie’s University

 

Both species

• The Fear Free Shelters program

• Uni of Wisconsin-Madison Shelter Medicine Enrichment recommendations for shelters

• Lili Chin animal behaviour infographics 

 

Transport Options and Rescue Partnerships

Did you know that recent research shows that shelters with transport partners save significantly more pets than those with no transport options? Working together with your community really does save lives! 

• PetRescue Rescue Directory - This is searchable by map and by list, with filters for state, species, and organisation type.

• Dogmovers Rescue Pet Transport

• There are numerous Facebook groups across Australia that have been set up to support rescue pets needing transport. Some examples are below. It is also a great idea to chat to your local rescues about options in your area.

  • https://www.facebook.com/poundspledgepage/

  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/Aust.animal.transport/?paipv=0&eav=AfZsDQtZPTmbp7IdxI0MFPxwxLeEf0xcsICCfA9QJOT11jVqijwY-G9aJbFpDLFVkyI&_rdr

  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/1043357509048606/

  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/1590622717726877/

 

Adoptions and Marketing

Improvements in marketing of adoptable pets are perhaps the most important tool you have available to you to help pets out of your facility and into homes. 

Ensuring that adopters feel supported and the experience of finding and adopting their new furry family member is a positive one is also a great way to build support for your organisation within your community. The ‘conversation-based adoptions’ model shifts our approach to matching pets and families from screening of adopters to facilitating the start of a new relationship while still providing fantastic success and low return rates. 

• Getting2Zero presentation “Conversation-based adoptions”

• HeartsSpeak marketing resources 

• HumanePro Adopters Welcome manual

• ASPCAPro Conversation-based Adoptions info sheet

• Best Friends Network Open Adoptions Playbook

• ‘How to write better pet adoption ads’ in The Conversation 

 

 

PetRescue Platform Features to Help with Adoption Placements

• AI-assisted Pet Profile writing feature 

• It’s free advertising for our adoptable pets to a wide audience

• Integrations with our shelter management software

• AI-assisted profile writing

• Can upload photos and videos to pet profiles

• Secure, on-platform conversations with adopters

• Auto-replies feature for enquiries 

• Bulk Messenger tool

• The On-hold feature to keep pets visible but stop applications 

• Mobile-friendly animal profile creation

• Ability to have multiple team members on one account with different access levels

• Adopter profiles to help us get to know applicants

 

Other PetRescue program

PetRescue provides a variety of programs and services to our community to help pet owners be the best pet owners they can be and to help to do what you do! 

• Article library Rescue Resource hub 

• Food donation program 

• Goods donation program 

• Home2Home

• Community Cat Program

• PetRescue TV

• Online Helpdesk

• Grow Your Family Campaign

• Vet recruitment program

 

Other Helpful Resources

Below are some local and international resources for both you and the owners you are helping. Don’t forget to get in touch with PetRescue if you have a question or a topic you want to know more about but are not sure where to start - we’re here to help! 

General 

Australian

• Vets For Compassion, large animal capture services in suburban areas of Victoria (e.g. darting and humane capture of large domestic animals, including dogs who are evading capture)

• Australian Institute of Animal Management website and YouTube channel 

• Getting2Zero website and YouTube channel

• RSPCA Australia Knowledgebase (owner-directed resources)

International

• HASS Resource Centre

• Socially Conscious Animal Community resources

• Centre For Shelter Dogs Resource Library 

• Kitten Lady

• ASPCAPro

• Maddie’s University and Maddie’s Fund

• HumanePro

• Best Friends Network Partners

• California For All Animals resources

• Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and their Best Practice Guidelines

• Resources for learning more about sheltering statistics

  • Shelter Animals Count

  • Shelter Pet Data Alliance

 

Great books for your organisation to have:

• The Best Practice Playbook 

• Animal Behavior for Shelter Veterinarians and Staff

• Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters 

• Every Nose Counts: Using metrics in animal shelters

• Strategies for Successful Animal Shelters

 

Supporting Cats in the Community

• International Cat Care Resource Library for cat pet pet owners 

• Animal Welfare League South Australia Paper collar template for residents to use to locate pet pet owners of visiting cats.

• Humane cat trapping guidelines

  • Best Friends Humane Cat Trapping Instructions 

  • Agriculture Victoria Humane Cage Trapping of Cats  

  • Feral Cat Focus Humane Trapping - Trapping Basics

• Training cats to adapt to timed feeding (feed in the late afternoon to teach them to come home) 

• Safe cat confinement information from the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation 

• Oscillot cat fence rollers 

• Jackson Galaxy: Teaching a cat to sleep overnight - useful tips for troubleshooting hard-to-contain cats 

• Bunnings Cat Hacks

• Katenna Jones from Jones Animal Behaviour Litter Box Issues troubleshooting 

 

Supporting Dogs in the Community

• Australian Pet Welfare Foundation ‘Confining your dog’ resources 

• Gentle Dog Trainers ‘How to dog proof a fence’ 

• Homeskooling 4 Dogs Escaping & Roaming information 

• How to install fence/Coyote Rollers (from a kit supplied by Coyote Roller or a DIY option using PVC pipe) 

• https://www.facebook.com/groups/2755392024477561/

• RSPCA South Australia “Excessive barking: why your dog does it, and how to get them to stop (and why barking collars are a big no-no)”

• Katenna Jones Resources Page – also includes cat stuff (she is an excellent resource for cats!!) https://www.jonesanimalbehavior.com/articlesandrecordings

 

Images:

Cleo-Urban Cat Alliance
Zeus-Animal Welfare League Kemps Creek
Bill & Ben-Seccond Chance Animal Rescue Inc
Tyson-Best Friends Rescue QLD
Adelie-Cat People of Melbourne
Ziggy-CKs Paws (Paws Are Worth Saving) Inc
Bao-RSPCA Burwood East
Paris-RSPCA Mackay
Guy-SAFE Karratha
Pumpkin-Adoptable Pet Rescue
Tyler & Wyatt-A Safe Place For Meow