Animal sanctuaries are a godsend for animals from all walks of life. Whether your focus is on rescuing abused animals and giving them a lovely home, providing a second life to retired racing animals, or helping with local and wildlife conservation, there’s room for everyone to provide safety, dignity, and comfort to an animal in need.
Discover some of the best animal sanctuaries in the country, and just how you can follow in their footsteps to start your own, in this quick guide.
Meet Some Notable Animal Sanctuaries Around the Country
There are so many commendable animal sanctuaries in the United States:
· Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Utah
This massive, 3,700-acre sanctuary is the largest no-kill destination in the country. You’ll find horses, pigs, cats, dogs, and a range of other pets who are rescued from shelters across the country. Where possible, they’re rehabilitated and adopted out to eligible homes.
· Wild Horse Refuge, Colorado
This massive refuge is working to create a 30,000-acre safe haven for wild horses, who, if rounded up as part of a wider horse management strategy by the Bureau of Land Management, can find a second home in the “wild.”
· Howling Woods Wolfdog Rescue, New Jersey
This 10-acre pinewood forest rescue provides a shelter to abandoned or surrendered wolfdogs, a hybrid cross between a dog and a wolf.
How to Start Your Own Animal Sanctuary
If you want to join their ranks and start your own animal sanctuary, then you’ll need to follow a few general steps:
· Setting Out the Scope of Your Animal Sanctuary
First of all you need to set out the scope, size, scale, and purpose of your animal sanctuary. This is essential to one, help define what you plan to do, and two, help you achieve non-profit status (501(c)(3)). You’ll also need this plan to recruit other specialists, from legal personnel to vets. Other steps include ensuring your facility meets zoning laws, and that you have the right insurance.
· Building the Space
The most important element to any successful animal sanctuary is, of course, having both the space and the amenities needed. Even open-air refuges like Wild Horse Refuge need to install and maintain the boarder fences. For anything else, including working horses, you’ll need more. If you don’t have one already, consider investing in custom Amish pole barns that are designed with your animal sanctuary in mind.
For example, experts say that using bars or grills between stables or adding a “talk” hole can help horses socially when they are kept in the stable. Each stable should also be, at a minimum, 12 x 12ft in size, offer good ventilation, and even include enrichment activities.
· Building the Routine
You’ll need a combination of set policies (animal intake forms, adoption/placement protocols, etc.), as well as health routines for the animals in question. Horses, for example, need to be taken out once per day, while dogs need even more enrichment, care, and love.
· Getting Donations
Animal sanctuaries run on donations. You can acquire donations by partnering with local businesses and shelters, getting in touch with local news agencies, and setting up a partnership outreach branch (even if it’s just you) to contact notable organizations and individuals for donations. You’ll also want to start and grow a social media presence to help boost the number of smaller individual donations.