Does Your Animal Shelter Have a Customized Plan to Improve Conditions?

“ShelterPlanners.com worked closely with me and my staff, developing a study that analyzed our situation and accurately predicted the size and scope of our new shelter.  The resulting layout includes everything we wanted to achieve.  The design has given us the exciting vision we needed to launch our capital campaign.” 

Gina West, Director

Lewis & Clark Humane Society

Helena, MT

It’s difficult to think about a plan when you’re busy trying to care for and save the animals at your animal shelter. However, we sincerely hope you have a specific plan and measurable goals to improve your current conditions.  How can you clearly communicate your mission and vision to potential donors and your community without a customized plan?

We know you are extremely busy and you likely don’t have the resources to create a blueprint for the future of your shelter.  That’s why we created a Needs Assessment Study.

The Needs Assessment Study provides the following: 

• Proposed shelter size  based on animal intake statistics
• Proposed shelter size for the future: 10-year and 20-year projections calculated
• A detailed description of sizing and space needed to house and support the animals you serve. Also provides description and size for every space needed for your staff and volunteers to properly care for the animals
• A cost range projection based on recently constructed animal shelters

This in-depth report is customized to your shelter’s specific mission and vision.  The report will allow the shelter director to easily communicate not only the mission/vision but also the capital requirements to the community and local government.  It’s one of the first steps to transforming your animal shelter.

Make time to create your plan with Shelterplanners.  We have all the tools necessary!  If you would like more information about the Needs Assessment Study, please contact us: contact@shelterplanners.com or 434-971-8848. Together we can: Save Time. Save Money. Save Animals!

How to Quickly Improve Your Animal Shelter on a Limited Budget

You Don't Have to Build a Mansion! 

The staff and volunteers at struggling animal shelters believe building a new animal shelter is a pipe dream. They have solid reasoning for this incorrect assumption: their city or county slashed the budget for animal welfare; they simply don’t have the resources and time to create and execute a solid long-term plan; and they continue to think the old-fashioned way: We MUST raise hundreds of thousands of dollars before we think about planning and building a shelter.

I’m here to tell you: the old-fashioned way of building an animal shelter is wrong.  The old- fashioned way requires shelters to fundraise a substantial amount of money upfront.  This is why many staff members at animal shelters with limited resources believe there’s no hope to improve shelter conditions.

The staff and volunteers continue to pour blood, sweat, and tears into helping save animals.  Each day is the same: a frantic call to action via social media channels to save animals that are on death row, while trying to simply complete the days many tasks at the shelter.  There’s a better way.  There’s hope.

You don’t have to build a mansion to improve your current conditions.  Shelterplanners will help you determine the size of the shelter that’s needed to allow staff to adequately care for the current animal intake.  This is based on statistical data that you provide.  After we determine the size of the shelter, we have partnered with a national builder, Morton Buildings, which can build a new shelter for a fraction of construction cost.  Shelterplanners also designs the shelter in a way that allows for easy expansion when it’s needed.  This saves animal shelters both time and money in the long run.

This type of design/build is an excellent way to quickly improve shelter appearance, staff morale, and provide a beautiful resource for a community.  A new animal shelter is possible; even for communities and shelters with limited resources.  

As always, Shelterplanners is here to help with any and all questions related to designing, building, and planning your animal shelter.  Please do not hesitate to contact us for ANY questions.  Our goal: Save Time. Save Money. Save Animals.

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The Most Overlooked Step When Designing and Planning an Animal Shelter

We see a recurring mistake among animal shelter directors: they believe financing is the first step when planning to build an animal shelter.  While financing seems a logical place to start the planning process- how can you build a shelter without the funds? – it’s incorrect.

The first step is to determine how much space you need for both the animals you care for and the shelter staff that cares for the animals.  Not only should the planning process incorporate the size of your shelter today but also should account for future growth.  By determining the size of the shelter you need today, a shelter can be designed to handle only your current needs, while also designed for future growth.  This serves two benefits:

1. You only need to finance and/or raise money for a shelter to care for your current animal intake; meaning you can get a new, more efficient shelter built sooner than if you had to raise or finance huge sums of money for an oversized shelter
2. If the animal shelter is designed for future growth, you will save money on future architectural and building expenses when it’s time for an addition

After you determine how much space is needed for your animal shelter, you can get an accurate estimate on the total construction and design cost of the shelter.  You are now armed with an estimate and plan for your shelter, which you can communicate to your board and community.  The financing portion is much easier with a well-conceived plan that includes factual, data-based projections.

Always consult with an architect and/or builder that have experience with designing and building animal shelters.  Unfortunately, a bigger building isn’t the answer to solving animal control problems.  Many new animal shelters quickly fill to capacity.  When this occurs, another round of capital and fundraising is needed for either an addition or a complete redesign of the shelter.

Shelterplanners is always here to help you with ANY questions you have about your shelter.  Shelterplanners has the resources to help design, build, and finance your animal shelter.  Please feel free to contact us if you have ANY questions. Together we can: Save Time. Save Money. Save Animals.

3 Common Myths of Improving Animal Shelter Conditions

3 Myths of Improving Animal Shelter Conditions

1. “We need to raise 100% of the money we will need before we start planning our new shelter.”
2. “We don’t need an experienced architect; we can get the same results planning our shelter ourselves with local help.”
3. “If we build a new shelter big enough we will overcome our high euthanasia rates.”

Let’s take a look at each one of these “myths”:

1. The fact is you need to plan your shelter prior to raising money – why? Because the folks who will want to pledge their donations generally won’t do so until they see there is a clear plan for the new shelter.  This means you will need to spend SOME upfront money to determine how much shelter you will need; how much it will cost and what it will look like as both a floor plan and a building image.  Shelterplanners’ easy step by step approach provides you with the tools you need to communicate your vision – all at an affordable cost.
2. We visit dozens of shelters each year, some quite new.  We can always tell when the animal shelter designer was a novice at planning these very specialized buildings.  Because of their nature, shelters must be designed to function correctly so that staff can attend to the animals efficiently.  The right spaces must be included and placed in correct adjacencies in order to prevent the spread of disease and to support and house animals so they are comfortable and as calm as possible.  Finally, the building’s HVAC system and finishes are critical to preventing the spread of disease – and in the case of finishes they must be of sufficient quality that they can hold up under the harsh, wet environment.  Once the shelter is designed and built, mistakes that didn’t anticipate the real needs become all too obvious and you have to live with them for a long time.
3. While the shelter is an all-important support system for the animals and can enhance the potential for their adoption, the real means of achieving better live release rates can only be accomplished by implementing proven programs aimed at reducing intake and increasing adoptions - with the long term result – saving animals lives!  As architects we would love to say that it is our buildings that make all the difference.  Not true – implementing the right programs in any shelter, old or new, will bring the desired results if they are applied with consistency.  If they are not already doing so, we assist each of our shelter clientele with essential information to aid in their beginning the right combination of programs.  After all, the whole object is to find homes for every animal!

The best animal shelters design solutions combine thoughtful design and proven shelter programs.  For more information on how to receive affordable animal shelter design solutions, contact Shelterplanners at www.shelterplanners.com or 434-971-8848

Take Steps to Reduce Overcrowding in Animal Shelters

We’ve visited dozens of animal shelters, many of which are 30 or more years old.  Their physical condition is invariably poor with failing floors, bad drainage, and poor heating/air conditioning systems – all of which lead to a constant battle with the spread of disease.  Overcrowding, however, may be the single most important situation to address!

Overcrowding in animal shelters is not only a common occurrence; it is problematic in most, older shelters - and many new ones as well.  While some states have addressed the problem through legislating minimum areas for each dog or cat and limiting the maximum number of animals permitted in a single enclosure, many do not.  Overcrowding leads to disease spread, animal discomfort, physically & emotionally and is dangerous for both the animals and their caretakers.

Too many shelters respond, for instance, to the influx of cats in the spring & early summer by placing 15 or more in a room – or cat colony.  Shelters should be careful to minimize the number of cats housed together and to be sure there is sufficient room for each.  The Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV) recommends a minimum of 15 square feet per cat when housed in the colony model.

This holds true for dogs as well.  Groups of dogs who “get along” can certainly be housed together.  Care must be taken; however, to provide sufficient space that each can sleep, stand, turn around, and move about freely and naturally.  The Association of Shelter Veterinarians doesn’t provide explicit area calculations because there is such a range of size in dogs, but they do provide insight into how to go about housing dogs properly to keep them safe and sane.

Finally, each animal requires attention – not only for basic food, water & cleaning, but also to make consistent contact with their human companions.  This is especially true as the length of their stay in the shelter increases.  With overcrowding the shelter staff and volunteers simply cannot meet the needs of each animal with the result; they suffer from lack of attention.  The ASV points to shelter overcrowding as one of the most important factors required for proper shelter operation.

When designing an animal shelter, careful analysis will provide the answers required to size the shelter properly and will thus avoid overcrowding.  This, of course, assumes the right programs are in place aimed at continually reducing intake and increasing adoptions.  A natural “flow” should be present in the shelter operation in order to avoid overcrowding.

 Shelterplanners’ Needs Assessment Study not only identifies how many animal rooms are required to adequately house your animals but also recommends custom programs to improve your animal shelter’s condition. For more information, please visit www.shelterplanners.com or call 434-971-8848.