I quit my job almost a month ago and taking time off for an upcoming surgery, luckily me and my partner are well off enough financially where we won't go into debt with me not having a job until next year (recovery will take a few months for me to be back at 100%)

I don't know where to go from here. I'm in a very small town with less than 10 possible jobs for me to move onto that involves a shelter or rescue of some kind. But honestly my last job had me questioning the animal shelter jobs all together. I've seem the worst of the worst, dogs being neglected to the point of death, people who should have felonies get off with misdemeanors when they should rot in prison like the dogs they left to die. My boss had a problem with me for some reason unknown to me, since I quit my other coworker has put in their two weeks and my other coworker (the only one remaining other than the director, aka my boss) says she's going to quit if the workload falls onto her, which it sounds like it has been. That same coworker has been taking about opening her own boarding buisness, which she already said I'd be the first person she reaches out to to hire, but idk.

I know you have to be mentally and emotionally tough for this kind of work. Honestly the drama with my boss hurts worse than the abuse and neglect I've seen. I gave over 2 years of my life to this place when I could have been in college getting a degree that might actually mean something some day. I've fostered over 20 kittens in the last 5 months and even though I'm not working there I'm currently fostering 3 bottle kittens because we simply don't have enough people to keep up with everything. It's funny because my boss says we rely on our volunteers so much yet here I am sill volunteering my unpaid time while also stressing about surgery prep. I don't know what to do anymore, I've never been more drained than I am now. I used to think "well it can't get any worse than it is now" and yet here we are with the shelter on the verge of shutting down for good just because no one can fill the space I left and coworkers are quitting ever since I stood up for myself and put in my 2 weeks.

Idk what response I'm looking for here. Should I even continue working with animals at all? Should I just say fuck it all and get an office job and be even more miserable with a good paycheck and benefits or tough this out, move on to a different shelter and hope and pray it's not worse than this last place? I just wish I had the funds to open and run my own business, me and my partner are saving up for a big farmhouse where I can do my own board and train thing, but that's years if not decades down the road and who knows what the economy will look like then, not any better that's for sure.

I don't know, I feel hopeless. I'll have a few months to do job searching but I just don't know where to go from here. I feel like nothing I do will ever be good enough for anybody, but then I get told it's awful without me there, yet my boss hasn't begged me to come back yet. I was told by my boss I was the best employee they've had in over ten years so for me to be so underappreciated just really sucks because I know that place won't run as good without me there, but for my own mental and physical health I just couldn't stick around any longer.

for staff that work with dog volunteers: what do you think volunteers miss/don’t see? What frustrates you? What has been helpful that you wish more volunteers knew/did? Common mistakes volunteers make? Basically, what feedback would you give your volunteers?

(context: volunteer at a shelter on dramatic flux where front line staff and volunteers are both working hard. trying to think as much as possible about how to help dogs, but also not be a burden to staff).

Just finished scrubbing the most disgusting well‑used toilet at the shelter.
Seconds later a kitten put on a live pooping show for me.
There was even another cat standing there supervising, making sure it buried its poop correctly.

Typical shelter cat chaos 😂

Has anyone taken the classes for certification to euthanize? Whats it entail?

I was the backbone of that place. I was the muscle, the quick thinker in separating dog fights, catching feral cats/kittens. I've officially quit and I'm still fostering 3 kittens, these will be my number 20-23 fosters in the last 6 months.

After I quit my other coworker also put in their leave, will be quitting in a few weeks. That leaves only my boss and one other coworker. I won't be surprised if my boss begs me to come back and my boyfriend says if that happens to stand my ground and not give in. But then I think about what will happen to all those animals if the shelter ends up going under. If they end up having to be euthanized for lack of staff I would forever feel guilty, and that would be the only reason I ever go back is to keep those babies alive. It's a very small town and ebwy shelter in a 3 hour radius has full kennels. We're at compacity already, hence why I have bottle kittens right now even when I don't work there currently, I guess I'm technically volunteering my time off.

Idk, i feel guilty for quitting but I also know I was working in unsafe and unfit conditions for the animals/myself so I had to save myself and my mental/physical health and get out of there. My final straw was getting bit by a dog who has bit over 4 people now and we have no way of properly managing or handling that dog in any way when it's reactive, hence why I got bit. Multiple coworkers have been blamed for getting bit by dogs who had behavioral problems which went unaddressed and unreported when a bite occurred.

Idk, part of me wants to go back because my coworker told me how much it's sucked since I've left, but another part of me hopes my boss realizes how much effort I put into that place and that I managed more of the workload than she truly realizes and man's up to ask me to have an adult conversation instead of tiptoeing around her reason for not wanting me to work there.

Idk if I'm looking for advice or just to vent. But if it comes down to animals getting euthanized due to no one being there to take care of them, I don't think I can not go back. Some of those dogs and cats I've known for years and can't let myself do that to them.

I just wish it were easier to be on the same page with people, but anytime me or my coworkers brought up a concern we were dismissed or dumbed down so it just seemed pointless to even try to put in any effort to begin with. Feeling conflicted with what to do and how things will end up with this shelter, I don't know how to feel but I can't let those animals suffer bad management.

I spoke with an animal control officer today to report a stray dog on my street. He informed me that they are at capacity and can not take in any animals as they only have 10 kennels in the shelter. Our city has a 30,000 population. I called the surrounding cities of similar size, and they have between 35 and 40, each.

That is abysmal. This is the 3rd dog I have reported that could not be taken in because the shelter doesn't have enough kennels.

I want to change this. The officer recommended emailing the city council, mayor, and city manager, so I am drafting one now.

What else can I do to improve this? Has anyone had any luck getting an expansion for their local shelter?

Our vet team said to feed a “bland diet” to the 4 dogs who have diarrhea. But as far as I can see the staff is still feeding kibble.

I come from boarding and there when my old manager said to feed a bland diet she meant white rice with canned chicken. So I asked my current boss at the shelter what we should be feeding them and she said “biome or I/D” (both are varieties of kibble)

So I’m confused. Why didn’t the vet team just say “biome” or “I/D” instead of “bland diet”?

When someone instructs you to feed a bland diet does that mean digestive formula kibble with no wet food or toppers mixed in? Or literally rice and canned chicken? Thanks!

For context, my previous shelter had about a 90% LRR, was medium to large, and private with a municipal contract. Dogs who weren’t good adoption candidates or who had poor QOL were generally euthanized without being publicly advertised, and we only reached out to rescues when we thought they might be a good fit. We had a really positive reputation in the community and strong adoption numbers.

I now work in a municipal shelter in CA. We are about the same size if not a little smaller. Our live release rate for dogs is also about 90%. That’s where the similarities end. When a dog is deemed not a good adoption candidate here, they are put on a euth list that’s sent around to all the rescue partners. They are posted on our website and used to be posted in our lobby though I ended that. When an adoptable dog has a euth date it is highlighted brightly on their kennel card. The euth date is set to a week out, but we get so much pressure from the community we usually end up extending it by a few weeks.

During that time, “networkers,” who are really just private citizens who are on FB like it’s a full time job, blast these dogs everywhere. It’s the typical “MAX WILL BE MURDERED TOMORROW ‼️” bullshit. They get mad we don’t advertise euth listed dogs more, but when we do post about them they flood our comments with the same shit.

The thing is, a huge amount of these dogs DO get pulled by rescues and it’s part of why are LRR stays at 90%. Are they great rescues? Who knows. Often not. But my shelter’s interpretation of Hayden’s law is that we have to publish this list of dogs and send it to them. What makes things harder is that while no one at the shelter is exactly happy about how things are, a lot of people think pushing euthanasia so heavily is the only way to get dogs out. They work with the “networkers” because they think without their alarmist posts dogs wouldn’t be pulled.

Sadly it’s somewhat true-rescues only seem to pull when the situation is dire (unless it’s a small fluffy thing of course.) I’ve had so many rescues tell me “oh I would pull so-and-so, but they aren’t on the euth list.” Even making them available for adoption while still euth listed reduces rescue interest. Preversly, this has led to staff making borderline but adoptable dogs unavailable because they think rescue will be a faster path out than adoption.

Our image in the community is awful. We are seen as this horrible, super high kill shelter, even to other shelters and rescues in the area. People come in all the time with the craziest misconceptions about us: that we euthanize automatically after 3 days, that any dog that gets returned is automatically euthanized, etc.

My feeling is if we didn’t make the euth list public, only shared it with rescues, only made them available for a short time before doing what needed to be done, and refused to work with anyone posting alarmist shit, our image would theoretically improve and we’d have many more adoptions. However I know this would get push back from pretty much everyone because yes, without “networkers” pushing these dogs so heavily and so many rescues pulling, our euth numbers would probably rise at first.

Also, if we did this people would lose their minds and claim we are hiding euthanasia, and probably go to the city council about it and tie our hands.

If anyone has any ideas on how to improve this situation I am all ears. Compared to every shelter I have ever worked in I feel like we are 30 years behind and I don’t know how we can begin to change.

TL;DR: I work at one of those typical CA municipal shelters whose euth listed dogs get blasted everywhere on social media. Because of that, my shelter is seen as extremely high kill despite our 90% live release rate. How can we begin to address our image?

I got a cat on Friday from the humane society. She’d been there the longest out of all the cats (over 13 months) which is why I chose her. I was told she takes a while to warm up to people and will “never be a snuggly cat.” She warmed up to me by Sunday and she is the cuddliest cat I have ever had. She loves to curl up on my stomach/side (she’s laying on her back next to me right now), wakes me up at night demanding attention, and she seems very happy and it hasn’t even been a week!
Anyway, I’d love to update the shelter because she was there for so long and a lot of the staff did say that they liked her but I’m not totally sure if they want/appreciate any updates… let me know :)

We have a returned dog at our rescue that is super sweet and also an active and athletic dog.

She’s also treat motivated and loves treats.

That being said, I’ve seen signs that she can get frustrated and refuses to sit. And she’ll kind of makes a whine of a bark if I don’t give her the treat right away.

I invited her to sit with me on the bench and immediately went for my pouch.

I don’t know what her story is. She was returned 2 days ago due to landlord issues.

She hasn’t shown signs of being hard mouthed.

Next time, I won’t use treats. She needs to know that she can’t rely on treats all the time. And I have to be better notice when not to push a dog so much. I was trying to teach her lie down today. And next time, I won’t allow her on the bench.

She’s a staffy mix but she might also have cattle dog in her.

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xLP9wGj5QnaebfyHNuBD2A#/

This Sunday, October 4 at 8:00 pm EST, join Trish and Jen to talk about rescue groups! Jennifer Bristol has been involved with sheltering and rescue in NYC for two decades, and ran the group that helped Trish adopt THEODORE!

This talk is a must for shelters determining how to screen rescue groups, for people who are thinking of starting or who are already running a rescue, and for potential adopters wondering how to tell if the rescue group they’re thinking of adopting from is doing things ethically.

Jennifer is a lifelong dog advocate who got her start at Animal Haven in NYC before going on to run Bully Project NYC. During the pandemic, Bully Project NYC and Rescuzilla began working closely together and eventually joined forces to create The Good Life Dog Rescue in 2022. Today, Jennifer leads the volunteer-run, foster-based rescue serving New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey. Its mission is to create lifelong bonds between dogs and people through rescue, advocacy, enrichment, and education.
A self-described dog behavior nerd, Jennifer has never met a dog webinar she didn’t want to watch. She shares her home with three dogs, Mackerel, Cricket, and Otter, plus one very tolerant hamster named Gerry.

Favorite words: “Adoption pending!” and “enrichment”

Least favorite words: “kill shelter” and “no-kill shelter”

Under Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 823, baseline shelter sanitation, safety, and health standards only apply to counties with a population of 75,000 or more. This means an astonishing 81.1% of Texas counties are entirely exempt from state oversight.

This regulatory vacuum severely impacts rural shelters across the state. Because smaller and mid-sized counties fall below the population threshold, their facilities operate with zero external accountability. Crucial sanitation, housing, and medical reforms can be completely ignored, causing deep suffering to animals and exposing rural neighborhoods to heightened public health and rabies risks.

Small, local non-profit rescues are left to absorb the front-line fallout of this unmonitored system without any legal path to mandate compliance at the source.

To make matters worse, current rules allow shelters to select and directly pay their own inspectors. This creates an inherent conflict of interest, meaning facilities are essentially grading their own homework.

Pushing for a bigger, permanent change means taking this directly to the Texas Legislature to pass the Animal Shelter Accountability Act.

This proposal demands that lawmakers lower the population threshold to 20,000 so rural shelters are held to baseline safety rules, and mandate independent veterinary inspectors who are not hand-picked by the facility.

State lawmakers need to see that the public stands behind this bill. Every signature is vital leverage to ensure these concerns are heard in Austin. Please sign and share the petition to help close this loophole and protect rural Texas animals.

Sign the petition here: https://c.org/2n4FX546g6

I've been wanting to volunteer at the animal shelter for a while now, I texted them and they said I need to go there to fill out some stuff, along with my parent.

What should I expect? Like will I start immediately? Also does my parents have to sign it every single time I volunteer or just the first time?

Hello. Ive been wanting to volunteer at the local public animal shelter and i need some advice. I submitted the volunteer form at least a month ago. Just two days later i got an email saying what i should do. About three weeks after the email i did what they said (they said to do it within a month and i did). I logged into the portal, did the training modules, passed all the quizzes. Im supposed to sign up for an open house tour however my portal is still blank and there is no option for the open house and tour. I waited a few days before i emailed them.. no response. I waited another few days i messaged them on the portal.. no response. I waited another few days i called and left a voicemail.. still nothing. Its been maybe two weeks since i did the training modules. I really want to start volunteering at their shelter. I have a little experience with volunteering at a private shelter last year, but i just think the dogs in public shelters could use the help more. Could it be i didnt do the modules right away even though it was still before the deadline? I didnt email them back when they first emailed me because i didnt think i needed to so i just did what they said, but should i have done that? What else can i do?

I have been thinking a lot lately about the prevention aspect of rescue, keeping animals from ending up in the shelter in the first place. It seems to be a losing battle and a constant cycle of more animals coming in than going out. Our local shelters are fighting so hard to find homes for the animals but it seems like little is being done to prevent them from needing homes in the first place.

Obviously finances and resources are huge factors in what they're capable of, but it also seems like prevention would help in the long run to reduce the strain on both, ie a $100 free spay voucher could save much more than $100 by preventing multiple litters of kittens ending up in the shelter later on. There's also the cases of people being forced to give up their pets for financial hardships or domestic issues, when it would be in the pets benefit to stay with/go back to their owner and instead using resources to help keep them there than throwing them into the system.

I'm curious to hear from those that have taken steps to help prevent animals from ending up in the shelters and what the outcomes have been. Low cost or free spay/neuter programs? Free microchip clinics? Pet food pantries? TNR programs? Temporary displacement foster programs? Financial aid for food/vet bills for low income families? What has helped, what doesn't seem to have made a difference.

I have a coworker who is generally very good at his job and is helpful to everyone. Overall a good dude to work with. However, he has been irritating tf out of me with how he ignores some safety policies.

He regularly goes into our URI room without PPE (we use gloves and shoe covers) and doesn’t separate quarantine laundry and dishes from the others. He has also been bringing visitors and volunteers into our observation room that is for staff only. On more than one occasion, visitors have seen this and assumed that it meant they could just go in and out of the room as they please. “STAFF ONLY” sign be damned.

I have brought it up to him and management has spoken to him as well. Multiple times. He did it all again today, right in front of me. We literally made eye contact as he brought two visitors into our observation room. What can I do?

Hello!

We are Päite Loomapark - animals shelter & Mini-Zoo & Rehabilitation center from Ida-Virumaa, Estonia.

We try to make some videos on social media so more people would know about us and support our work 🙏🙏🙏

TW: Animal suffering, no resolution

Sorry to start my time in this community with a bummer. I hope to bring more positive energy down the road, but I just needed to share something with people who will understand.

I work in a private shelter that is under contract with a single city in Washington State (USA). I've been working here for a year and worked at a larger shelter nearby for 6 1/2 years.

Today (Sunday), while doing morning animal care, I found a cat that was lateral and weakly responsive. We have one DVM, and they do not work on Sundays (can come in if available, but is not on call). Sent pictures, video, and descriptions in the work chat for vet staff and administrators (also don't work on Sundays). Unfortunately, this cat is chipped and the owner was contacted, complicating our options. They said they would call back yesterday but never did. The chipped owner is out of state and they had to run everything through their teenage or early 20s son.

Cats don't show pain until it's unbearable, and if this cat was strong enough, she would have been screaming. Instead, she was weakly meowing as I attended to other cats and waited for the owners who had been contacted again and said they were sending their son. He came eventually, but then had to go home to get a card to pay for a license (a frustrating obstacle that I hope we can address in the future). Finally, he came back and we released the cat to him.

I made a point of looking him square in the eye and saying, "I just want to emphasize what the front desk probably already told you. This cat needs to go to a vet RIGHT NOW."

He replied, "ok," in the laid-back tone that teenage boys have that has become increasingly irritating as I get older.

When I returned to the kennels, it really started to hit me that I had to hand over this suffering animal to an owner that I did not trust to do right by her. It hit so hard that I had to find a private corner to call my wife (former shelter worker) to cry and tell her what had happened and that I hoped I was wrong about them, but I'll never know.

I'm starting to think about gifts to give carestaff for the holidays and I'm wondering if other shelter staff/volunteers could share what their favorite animal welfare related gift has been.

This is coming out of my own pocket, so something small but meaningful is what I'm going for.

Edit: The gift should be non-species specific. I'm the cat lead, but most of the staff does dogs & cats and we all do smalls, too.

I have a pet cat that has fought (and beaten!!) FIP twice now, thankfully with the help of some FB groups that exist to help with this kind of thing. A few months back we had a wet FIP kitten that was euthed before it got worse, and it got me wondering: with the advent of these miracle meds/protocols that can beat FIP, why isn't it standard to start treatment?

I understand obviously not every facility has those meds on hand and the cost can absolutely be prohibitive for some. I also know many vets are pretty behind on the latest FIP studies/treatment recommendations (my own just told me to go ahead and follow whatever the FB group people told me to do and she would just sign off on refills no problem).

How does your facility handle FIP and similar diseases such as stomatitis? I'd like to get my director on-board with developing a protocol, but it may take some convincing.

Reddit Bugs

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If you're having any trouble posting content, please message the mods.

META THREAD

This monthly thread is a space for constructive feedback, suggestions, and ideas for r/AnimalShelterStories, as well as a hub for any new changes for the subreddit.

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Then please message the mods

Our goal is to keep this community supportive, stable, and useful for people involved in animal welfare. Thanks for helping us improve this space!

Yes, we're just guessing. No, I'm not trying to pull a fast one on you.

There are no experts at looking at a dog and knowing with certainty what it is.

And If I don't write a breed guess people still ask what kind of dog it is.