The design of an animal sheltering facility and management of animal care is critical to the operational success of the sheltering agency. Effective shelter design aims to minimize the risk of disease transmission and reduce stress on both animals and staff.
In addition, shelter animals must be housed in a way that addresses their special needs, affords protection from the elements, and provides adequate ventilation. Animals that are stressed or recuperating from injuries or illness must have a quiet place to rest during their recovery period. If kept awake, stressed, or forced to be on guard because of close proximity to barking dogs, their recovery period may be lengthened or otherwise compromised.
As explained below, the separation concept of managing animal housing provides staff with the space flexibility they need, protects the public from potential harm, ensures a healthier environment for the animals, and protects the agency from liability. It allows the agency to present healthy and behaviorally sound animals to the public and provides a roadmap for making decisions about animals in your care. Even the smallest shelters can implement the separation process if the shelter is designed correctly.
Separation: Meeting the Needs of All Animals
The appropriate separation of animals according to their physical and behavioral characteristics is fundamental to the safety of your shelter's animals and staff. The animals in your care should always be separated in the following manner:
- Dogs from cats from small animals
- Infectious from healthy animals
- Recently recovered or mildly ill animals from seriously ill, infectious animals
- Animals with respiratory illnesses from those with injuries, parasitic illnesses or other non-respiratory conditions
- Aggressive animals from all others
- Nursing mothers and their young from all others
- Newly arrived from adoptable animals
The recommended separation process entails five distinct, physical areas in the shelter, which should be incorporated into any new shelter design:
For a visual conception of how the separation process works, please download the Isolation and Separation Flow Charts.
Intake Examination Area
There must be a place where all incoming animals are triaged in private, away from the noise and activity in the shelter. Every animal’s health and temperament should be evaluated on the day the animal comes into the shelter. There should be written procedures and policies available to staff in order to determine where an incoming animal should be housed, and to guide staff to making disposition decisions for incoming animals. After the staff examines and vaccinates an animal, the animal should be housed in healthy hold, quarantine, or isolation. There need not be a great deal of holding space in the intake evaluation area as staff should be available to perform exams promptly and move the animal to longer-term housing as soon as possible.
The intake process can have a profound effect on the flow of animals through the shelter and sets the tone for each animal’s stay. All efforts should be made to ensure that animals enter and exit the facility in as efficient a manner as possible, by implementing written protocols that reduce stress, prevent illness, and guide the decision-making process for each animal.
Healthy Hold
Only healthy dogs and cats (other than those who have been involved in a bite incident) arriving at the shelter should be placed in the healthy hold areas. A shelter should contain approximately twice the number of kennels/cages for healthy hold than for adoptions.
Animals who are surrendered by their owners and are healthy, behaviorally sound, and preferably altered may immediately be moved to adoptions. This typically applies to cats because they do not generally need the full temperament evaluation that dogs require.
While stray animals must remain at the shelter for the entire stray hold period, healthy, behaviorally sound strays from healthy hold may be placed into the adoptions area. As with any animal in your custody, it is important to maintain proper recordkeeping to ensure that stray animals are not released prior to end of stray hold period.
Adoptions
The adoption areas should be the only areas the public can access without staff escort, and should not be so large or crowded that It overwhelms potential adopters.
Animals who are surrendered by their owners and are healthy, behaviorally sound, and preferably altered may immediately be moved to adoptions. This typically applies to cats because they do not generally need the full temperament evaluation that dogs require.
While stray animals must remain at the shelter for the entire stray hold period, healthy, behaviorally sound strays from healthy hold may be placed into the adoptions area. As with any animal in your custody, it is important to maintain proper recordkeeping to ensure that stray animals are not released prior to end of stray hold period.
Quarantine
The quarantine area is for healthy animals involved in a bite case, aggressive or unpredictable animals required to be held, or any animal who needs to be housed away from the general population. Sick bite case or sick aggressive animals should be housed in isolation.
The quarantine area should contain cages that minimize the required amount of animal handling. Dog kennels in this area should be equipped with guillotine doors and cats should be housed in special cages where staff can move the cats to one side in order to clean the other side. Agencies can also utilize specially designed "feral cat boxes" placed in regular cat cages very effectively as well.
Kennels/cages for bite case animals should be locked at all times and the animals should remain in the same kennel or cage for the duration of their stay. These kennels/cages should be clearly marked "QUARANTINE" or "CAUTION", and the public should not be allowed in these areas unescorted. The number of quarantine kennels/cages designated should be based on the typical number of animals needing quarantine.
Isolation
Only animals who arrive sick/infectious or become sick while at the shelter should be housed in the isolation area. The public should not be allowed in this area unescorted. Each agency must determine if it has the resources and ability to treat ongoing illness. No animal should ever go without treatment for illness or injury, including animals who may be euthanized at the end of their stray period.
Conclusion
Every shelter should know its set capacity for the number of animals it can responsibly manage, in order to avoid crowding and disease. Maintaining separate housing areas as discussed above is a helpful way for an agency to gauge their services, and it is an essential element in planning and building a new animal shelter.
The separation process should be a key component in every agency’s written policies and procedures, and staff should be trained to understand the importance of the concept. If strictly adhered to, it will provide great benefit to an organization. Animals will be healthier, staff will be more equipped to tend to the variety of needs animals present, and the efficiency and quality of your operations will be increased.
