New Research into the Impact of Rescue Work on Mental and Physical Health
Read more
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
Transport Options and Rescue Partnerships
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!
-
RSPCA NSW Keeping Cats Safe at Home is working with 30 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
-
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.
-
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:
-
The Regional Community Vet Clinic in Mitchell Shire, Victoria facilitate pop-up vet clinics in partnership with rural councils.
-
The Vet Project mobile, low-cost desexing service in Victoria that partners with councils across the state
-
Snip & Chip in Bendigo, who partner with Bendigo Animal Relief Centre on their desexing programs
-
RSPCA Victoria assisted desexing program (Burwood) and low-cost desexing program (Peninsula)
-
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.
We recommend doing a quick Google search to find community vet clinics in your region.
-
Pet Medical Crisis Fund - A Victorian Program to assist pet guardians 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 a fairly good take-up through private vet clinics. But may not be useful for lower-income households, pending their eligibility for the program.
-
Good Shepherd Microfinance - No interest loans available in Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia.
-
Project Hope (Sydney, NSW) - offers vaccination and medical care, food and preventive health products, pop-up clinics, crisis accommodation, and a compassionate fund to support pets in need.
-
Perth Street Vets operates a monthly veterinary clinic for the animals of people experiencing, or who are at risk of, homelessness.
-
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.
-
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 guardians to help them locate services and resources in their area.
-
Ask Izzy is a mobile-friendly website to connect people in crisis with human support services.
-
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 guardians 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 guardians if your organisation does not have this capacity.
-
RSPCA Victoria Free Dog Behaviour Helpline Note: This is a Victorian-only service.
-
HASS Guide to Developing Community-based Behaviour Support Services to help you get started within your own organisation.
-
Pet food pantries provide food relief for pet guardians experiencing financial hardship. Availability varies by location, so please check locally or explore the options below:
-
SCAR Pet Pantry (Victoria)
-
Foodbank Australia Note: Some Foodbank locations also provide pet food
-
Humane Animal Rescue – Pet Pantry (Metropolitan areas)
-
Project Underdog – Community Pet Pantry (Northern suburbs, Melbourne)
-
Safe Pets Safe Families – Fill Their Bowl Project (South Australia)
-
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 - the program is currently open to pets other than dogs, Australia-wide. Please use the link above to refer pet owners to Home2Home.
-
Owner-assisted programs through existing rescue groups (find details of these groups in our article Options For Urgent Support in Rehoming Your Pet). 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 guardians 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).
-
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:
-
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.
Daily Care and Shelter Rounds
-
UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program Daily Shelter Rounds Information.
-
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’
-
Justice Clearing House webinars by Trish McMillan and Dr. Diana Rayment (Only available to AIAM members through their accounts)
-
ASPCA Position Statement on Behaviour Assessments in Shelters
Adoptability Guidelines and Euthanasia Decision-Making Resources
-
PACT Tenets - 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
-
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
Dogs
-
ASPCAPro dog enrichment
-
Best Friends Enrichment for Dog Shelters
-
Dog playgroups: Dogs Playing For Life
-
Dog playgroups: https://www.shelterdogplay.org/
-
ASPCAPro Canine Communication Series (there are three webinars - free)
-
Trish McMillan’s Shelter Behaviour Hub
Both species
-
University 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.
-
Numerous Facebook groups across Australia 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.
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”
-
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
-
It’s free advertising for our adoptable pets to a wide audience
-
Can upload photos and videos to pet profiles
-
The On-hold feature keeps pets visible but stops applications
-
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!
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
-
Socially Conscious Animal Community resources
-
California For All Animals resources
-
Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and their Best Practice Guidelines
-
Resources for learning more about sheltering statistics
Great books for your organisation to have:
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
-
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
-
Jackson Galaxy: Teaching a cat to sleep overnight - useful tips for troubleshooting hard-to-contain cats
-
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)
-
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
