If, like me, you are in the research phase of starting an animal sanctuary you may find the following resources helpful. It is also a good idea to spend some time volunteering at your local shelter, as this will give you an idea of whether the lifestyle of owning an animal sanctuary is right for you. As I am sure you know, it is far more than a job, it is something that will take over your life (but I like to think in a good way).

For me volunteering was hard work, but was so rewarding. Sure, there were upsetting times and you can see the huge cost of money and time that goes into maintaining the sanctuary, but the thing I liked most was just knowing I was finally doing something. Whilst I was there tending to the animals (no matter how mundane the task – think washing up food dishes) horrific things were still happening to animals in my country and the rest of the World, but I finally felt a kind of peace that I was doing something worthwhile and something to make a change. That is the only time in my life I felt that peace and I know what I need to do with my life.

Once you have decided starting an animal sanctuary is for you, you may want to take a look at the following:

1. Farm Sanctuary – Establishing a Sanctuary

This is my favorite resource, mainly because it is so relevant for the type of sanctuary I want to run – a farm animal sanctuary. This site is run by Farm Sanctuary in the US, which is a huge sanctuary over 2 sites (one in California and one in New York). The site provides loads of excellent information on how to properly establish your sanctuary and how to run it.

Not all of the information is relevant to me, as I live in Australia, but for people in the US you can find out about zoning issues and how to register and incorporate a charity.

Farm Sanctuary also runs courses on how to establish a farm sanctuary, which you can find out about at their main site: FarmSanctuary.org

There you can also find fact sheets to help you learn about basic care of farm animals.

2. Best Friends – How to Start a Sanctuary PDF

Best Friends provide a useful guide to starting an animal sanctuary. The information can be applied to various shelters, but Best Friends mainly looks after and re-homes cats and dogs.

Best Friends also has a forum called the Best Friends Network, which could be useful to get your questions answered and make contacts. You can find out about various animals who need good, loving homes. Here is a link to the forum where you can click on Shelter Operation and Animal Care for the info you are looking for.The website also has information on classes you can attend in the USA to  help you start an animal sanctuary.

3. Shelter Planners of America

This site deals with the actual design and building of your animal shelter. They could be great people to call if you are at a further stage with your planning than me and are ready to build housing for the rescued animals. This would be extra relevant if you are planning to start a shelter for pets, such as dogs and cats, as this company seems to have a lot of experience in this field. They also provide information about fund-raising that may be useful to you.

4. Australian Cavy Rescue – Becoming a Rescue PDF

The Australian Cavy Rescue provides some excellent info for people who want to start a small animal sanctuary in Australia. This is a very useful resource, especially if you are concentrating on guinea pigs, rabbits or rodents.

5. How to Start and Run a Rescue

This book by Jennifer Williams is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to start a sanctuary. Here is what one reviewer on Amazon wrote:

This book is a REFERENCE BIBLE for anyone involved in rescuing animals. It covers everything you would think of, and most importantly, everything you would NOT think of, particularly for horse rescues. If I had owned this book years ago, I would have saved many more animals and much more money, but it is never too late to start now, buy this book, and improve the quality of any animal rescue facility for the sake of the animals. The detail is unbelievable in an easy, interesting to read format with plenty of colour photographs and real life examples. An EXCELLENT publication. Simply a MUST-HAVE for people thinking of or currently running an animal rescue.

Hopefully theses resources have got your research off to a good start. I will be providing further resources in the near future. Feel free to add any more useful resources in the comments below.