Animal Welfare Professionals

In addition to being the volunteer director of the humane society, I am also a nurse at the largest hospital in NH. Because of this, the hospital social workers contact me when there is a patient with a pet issue. Sometimes it is just providing the family with food to feed the pet while the owner is hospitalized, sometimes it involves myself and volunteers going into their home to care for the cats and sometimes it involves having to bring their animal into temporary foster. We are currently housing a dog (for the last 8 months) and Friday, I had to drive over an hour to pick up a patient's cat. These are all indefinite fosters as these owners are very sick. Unfortunately, we are pretty small and have limited space.  Does anyone else offer a service to help the pets of hospitalized patients? If so, how does it work?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Hi Cheryl;

    The MRFRS has offered the Bridge Program for years.  Feel free to reach out to them for information.  

Are you experiencing an emergency situation that prevents you from caring for your cat for a period of time? MRFRS's Bridge Program provides boarding for cats whose owners are in perilous circumstances. Is this program an option for you? Please emailinfo@mrfrs.orgfor more information.

In addition to being the volunteer director of the humane society, I am also a nurse at the largest hospital in NH. Because of this, the hospital social workers contact me when there is a patient with a pet issue. Sometimes it is just providing the family with food to feed the pet while the owner is hospitalized, sometimes it involves myself and volunteers going into their home to care for the cats and sometimes it involves having to bring their animal into temporary foster. We are currently housing a dog (for the last 8 months) and Friday, I had to drive over an hour to pick up a patient's cat. These are all indefinite fosters as these owners are very sick. Unfortunately, we are pretty small and have limited space.  Does anyone else offer a service to help the pets of hospitalized patients? If so, how does it work?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

In addition to being the volunteer director of the humane society, I am also a nurse at the largest hospital in NH. Because of this, the hospital social workers contact me when there is a patient with a pet issue. Sometimes it is just providing the family with food to feed the pet while the owner is hospitalized, sometimes it involves myself and volunteers going into their home to care for the cats and sometimes it involves having to bring their animal into temporary foster. We are currently housing a dog (for the last 8 months) and Friday, I had to drive over an hour to pick up a patient's cat. These are all indefinite fosters as these owners are very sick. Unfortunately, we are pretty small and have limited space.  Does anyone else offer a service to help the pets of hospitalized patients? If so, how does it work?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Hi Cheryl,

You are providing a great service- and studies show it is greatly needed.  Our shelter (Humane Society of the Ohio Valley) has begun offering community service help- we have always tried to help when their was a need.  Pet owners contacted us with short-term boarding needs - whether it was a domestic violence situation, rehab, or even a short jail term.  If they were a loving pet parent, we tried to help.  Recently, we added hospital-related needs to our list.  We wanted to start community outreach and these all seemed to fall under that category.  

We are early in, and our official planning and program started about 2 years ago- right before our regular intake almost doubled.  Before that, our animal housing numbers were manageable, and decreasing annually. Adoptions have also gone down.  I guess I have said all of that, to say- we are struggling.  I will share a little of what we have learned so far:

We (The Executive Director and me (Board President) discussed the program and agreed that no matter what 'guidelines' we create- there needs to be some flexibility to allow for emergencies.
-Short-term help allows us to help more people and animals- we also have dogs that were to be short term- and have been with us for months.
-We needed to create a signed agreement to allow us some control if a situation become more long-term.  Our program is for intake diversion- we want to keep pets with their people- but things sometimes happen to change the original situation and our staff and the animal need to be taken care of. 
-We have not advertised much- we would like to but are overwhelmed with requests with no advertising.  The tough economy has made it worse. We work with local leaders to let them know we would like to help. 
-Our hospital had grant funding available and I applied and received some to help with our program.  Maybe you can ask hospital leaders to help?  I have researched and have info supporting the need and how patients heal better with pets and will leave the hospital early or refuse treatment because they worry about pets. I am happy to share it if you think it will help you get help there. 

-We are learning and it is a work in progress.  My research and talking with local hospital leaders showed it is a great need.  I did learn 'Meals on Wheels' helps in some areas.  Those areas are usually larger cities- we are a small town (no resources).

Thank you for being a good volunteer and answering needs.  You are going above and beyond.  It is a very tough time to be a nurse and a very tough time to be in animal rescue.  Be sure to take care of yourself. 

I am happy to share the application and "rules" we came up with if you think it would be helpful.  Thanks for being such a caring human.

In addition to being the volunteer director of the humane society, I am also a nurse at the largest hospital in NH. Because of this, the hospital social workers contact me when there is a patient with a pet issue. Sometimes it is just providing the family with food to feed the pet while the owner is hospitalized, sometimes it involves myself and volunteers going into their home to care for the cats and sometimes it involves having to bring their animal into temporary foster. We are currently housing a dog (for the last 8 months) and Friday, I had to drive over an hour to pick up a patient's cat. These are all indefinite fosters as these owners are very sick. Unfortunately, we are pretty small and have limited space.  Does anyone else offer a service to help the pets of hospitalized patients? If so, how does it work?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

I'd love to get a copy of your rules as well as any research. I asked our hospital if we had a grant and was told no and that I'd have to find a donor who wants to support that effort. A lot of the animals we take in are to prevent the owner from going AMA (leaving against medical advice) We have a very flexible contract that allows them to adjust the date as needed but we often end up with these animals for 5-8 months or longer. Also, rarely do these people have any support so we are driving hours to pick up their animals from their homes, etc. If you want to e-mail your rules and any research you have found, please do to sullivanhumane@hotmail.com

I also worry about liability with these animals, we do say in our contract that we have the right to get them any necessary veterinarian care and will then reach out to the owner (in the case of an emergency) but I still worry. 

Hi Cheryl,

You are providing a great service- and studies show it is greatly needed.  Our shelter (Humane Society of the Ohio Valley) has begun offering community service help- we have always tried to help when their was a need.  Pet owners contacted us with short-term boarding needs - whether it was a domestic violence situation, rehab, or even a short jail term.  If they were a loving pet parent, we tried to help.  Recently, we added hospital-related needs to our list.  We wanted to start community outreach and these all seemed to fall under that category.  

We are early in, and our official planning and program started about 2 years ago- right before our regular intake almost doubled.  Before that, our animal housing numbers were manageable, and decreasing annually. Adoptions have also gone down.  I guess I have said all of that, to say- we are struggling.  I will share a little of what we have learned so far:

We (The Executive Director and me (Board President) discussed the program and agreed that no matter what 'guidelines' we create- there needs to be some flexibility to allow for emergencies.
-Short-term help allows us to help more people and animals- we also have dogs that were to be short term- and have been with us for months.
-We needed to create a signed agreement to allow us some control if a situation become more long-term.  Our program is for intake diversion- we want to keep pets with their people- but things sometimes happen to change the original situation and our staff and the animal need to be taken care of. 
-We have not advertised much- we would like to but are overwhelmed with requests with no advertising.  The tough economy has made it worse. We work with local leaders to let them know we would like to help. 
-Our hospital had grant funding available and I applied and received some to help with our program.  Maybe you can ask hospital leaders to help?  I have researched and have info supporting the need and how patients heal better with pets and will leave the hospital early or refuse treatment because they worry about pets. I am happy to share it if you think it will help you get help there. 

-We are learning and it is a work in progress.  My research and talking with local hospital leaders showed it is a great need.  I did learn 'Meals on Wheels' helps in some areas.  Those areas are usually larger cities- we are a small town (no resources).

Thank you for being a good volunteer and answering needs.  You are going above and beyond.  It is a very tough time to be a nurse and a very tough time to be in animal rescue.  Be sure to take care of yourself. 

I am happy to share the application and "rules" we came up with if you think it would be helpful.  Thanks for being such a caring human.

In addition to being the volunteer director of the humane society, I am also a nurse at the largest hospital in NH. Because of this, the hospital social workers contact me when there is a patient with a pet issue. Sometimes it is just providing the family with food to feed the pet while the owner is hospitalized, sometimes it involves myself and volunteers going into their home to care for the cats and sometimes it involves having to bring their animal into temporary foster. We are currently housing a dog (for the last 8 months) and Friday, I had to drive over an hour to pick up a patient's cat. These are all indefinite fosters as these owners are very sick. Unfortunately, we are pretty small and have limited space.  Does anyone else offer a service to help the pets of hospitalized patients? If so, how does it work?