Are you adequately planning for your animal shelter or pound?

Pets play an important role in our homes and our community by providing companionship, opportunities for socialisation and exercise, and creating community connections. It is well known that pets help to uphold physical and mental wellbeing whilst being seen as sources of happiness, with many treated as life companions, best friends and family members.

The 2022 Centre for International Economics Report advised that pet ownership significantly increased during the pandemic years. During that time the numbers of animals entering animal shelters declined however more recently intake numbers have increased with some returning to pre covid intake levels.

The resizing of the backyard, a shift to townhouse and apartment living, and more compact urban environments are expected to impact many areas and influence the rate of pet ownership and the type of pets’ people choose.  Increasing housing density will increase noise nuisance complaints, trigger a greater need to provide appropriate open spaces for people and their pets and elevate the importance about educating animal owners on proper pet selection, training, and responsible animal ownership.

Climate change will also affect our animals, as it brings higher temperatures. Animals are known to suffer various negative effects, including weight loss, discomfort, frustration, fear, and distress with more extreme temperatures.

With  forecast population growth across many local government areas and the high proportion of pet owners, planning for the well-being and care of those animals is fundamental to protecting and enhancing the lifestyle of current and future residents.

If you’re thinking about planning for your animal shelter here’s what we would recommend

Our three part process.

1.       outlining the strategic context of the local government in relation to companion animals including drawing on best practice, benchmarking etc

2.       understanding the facility, its needs and the operations both now and in the future

3.       developing a business plan that draws on 1 and 2 above

Strategic context

• Benefits and trends of pet ownership

• Description of the area the pound/shelter services

• Regional context and regional planning influences

• Relationship between demographics & demand on shelter services

  • Demographic Profile & Pet Ownership

  • Pet ownership and rental accommodation

  • Socio-economic disadvantage

  • Housing density and companion animals

• Relevant planning, legislation & policies

• Climate Change and your animal shelter

• Trends In animals entering shelters

  • Trends in your shelter, other states, pounds, RSPCA and internationally

  • Ratio of animal intake to population

• Pathways to animals entering shelters

  • Stray and wandering animals

  • Animal compliance

  • Animal surrenders

• Desexing and animal shelter intake

  • Microchipped animals , shelter intake and rehoming

  • Opportunities and challenges

• Animal registration

  • Compliance with registration requirements

  • Differential registration fees

• Supporting owners to keep their animals

  • Barking or escape issues

  • Companion animal controls

  • Supporting indigenous communities with their animals

• Forecasting shelter intake numbers

  • Methodology

  • Forecasting the specific capacity requirements (dogs, cats, other animals)

  • Length of stay, capacity and impounding

  • Behavioural assessment areas

  • Adoption areas

  • Single and group housing

  • Animals exiting the shelter

  • Reuniting pets with owners

  • Animal health and behaviour assessments

  • Capacity of shelters

  • Euthanasia and shelter capacity

• Shelter and pound operating models

  • Inhouse versus outsourced

  • Strategic relationships

  Operations and Facility Review

• Adoption and rehoming

• Animal Behaviour assessment

• Setting appropriate adoption/ rehoming fees

• Increasing adoption success

• Behaviour modification

• Reducing likelihood of animals being returned post adoption

• Staffing

• Staff training

• Programs

• Volunteers

• Partnerships

• IT systems and software

• Marketing promotion and communications

  • Communications plan

  • Promotion of shelter activities

  • Search engine optimisation

• Risk assessment and management

• Workplace health and safety

• Disaster management

• Planning for  new/ redeveloped facility

  • Site description

  • Zoning

  • Flooding

  • Environmental matters

  • Site contours

  • Layout

  • Current facilities

• Asset renewal and replacement costs

• Minimum functions of a new/ redeveloped facility

• Bets practice functions of a new/ redeveloped facility

• Planning and design considerations

  • Sustainability

  • Deliveries

  • Car parking and access

  • Animal enrichment

  • Safety and security

  • Electricity

  • Signage

  • Drainage

  • Refuse

  • Storage and handling

• Guidelines for standards of care in animal shelters

• Coordinated and integrated planning

• Comparisons with other new shelters

• Capital and operational budgets

  • Capital cost comparison in cost per person future population various LGAs

  • Capital cost applied to animal intake  cost per animal per day

  • Operational costs per animal per day

  • Comparison of capital to operational costs

  • Value for money assessment veterinary services

• 10 year financial plan

• Non asset solutions

• References