Animal Welfare Professionals

This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous

Hello, I am trying to create an SOP that outlines what animals qualify for our shelter's foster program, and was wondering if anyone else has something like this in their shelter for staff to refer to when looking at animal pathways and would be willing to share!

Thank you!

#FosterPrograms

This one is from an AZ shelter-

------------------------------
Kelly Duer
Senior Community Solutions Specialist
Maddie's Fund
------------------------------

We don't have any official SOP, but our M.O. is any animal that is not yet ready for adoption gets posted as needing foster care. This could be due to age, weight, health status (if it's an illness we feel is treatable, or we would like to see if it's treatable, and it's above and beyond what we'd want a pre-adopter to handle), behavioral status (either needing socialization or manners or an environmental shift to assess out-of-shelter behaviors), and nursing moms. We have a brick-and-mortar adoption facility, so when the animals are deemed healthy enough for adoption, they return from foster care and move into the adoption center.  We also only ever have 1-2 people managing pathways at a time so that there aren't too many cooks in the kitchen. These people are very aware of what animals qualify for foster placement and which ones don't/need more discussion.

Hope this helps!

------------------------------
Evie Schenkel
Foster Care Manager
Asheville Humane Society
Asheville, NC
------------------------------