Animal Welfare Professionals

It is true for almost any shelter that you talk to that takes in more than one species that cat and critter care has a lot of catching up to do compared to dogs. Most places have decently robust programs and protocols for their dogs, and over the last few years there has been a significant focus on improving feline welfare and behavior programs. It can be easy to forget our critter friends, you don't get as many intakes as cats and dogs, and the care is wide reaching and very individualized. When looking for resources, especially enrichment, what is available is very limited and usually suited more for long term care in a home or in zoos which can be difficult to apply to a shelter setting. 

At my shelter I supervise both the cat and critter care and really want to put in the same effort that we've been giving dogs and cats to our critters. Our shelter takes in 15-16,000 animals annually and critters make up a fairly small portion of that, but just because they're smaller does not make them less deserving of our time and effort. I have my own ideas but I wanted to know how what other shelters are doing for their critters. What are your favorite or more out of the box enrichment ideas? Do you do anything special to try and get them adopted? Do you intake livestock or fowl ever, how do you manage that? If money or space wasn't an issue, what is something you would love to provide for your critters?

#AdmissionsandIntake(includingIntake-to-placement)
#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
#Behavior,TrainingandEnrichment

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Laurel Wilton
Feline Welfare Supervisor
Nebraska Humane Society
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Hi Laurel,

We are a small facility in rural Arkansas, and we occasionally take in horses, chickens, and rabbits.  Horses, we have a couple of community members who are my go-to for horses.  They generally assist with housing and rehoming.   Our veterinarian is also a great resource; he has pasture and stalls. 

As for the smaller critters, we have a chicken house, we generally do not rehome them, they live out their lives her on the property.    And Rabbits, we have an emergency space for them, but we work with a fantastic rescue in Central Arkansas, and they generally take all of our rabbits.  We may have to hold for 2-6 weeks, but our little emergency bunny space works well for us. 

I am interested to see what others do.

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Connie Ash
Director
Mended Paws Sanctuary
AR
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Hi Laurel, 

  We are a much smaller operation and typically handle dogs and cats.  We do not have a designated space for small animals but we typically house them in employee offices.  I hope to have some space later next year but right now we have volunteers that foster most of ours.  We are building a database of small animal fosters.  How many small animals do you handle a year?  Enrichment for most small animals would be chewing and larger running spaces. I am assuming you have a small space to work with?

Kayla Shealey

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Kayla Shealey
Foothills Humane Society
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In 2025 we took in 720 non-wild critters. A large amount of this was guinea pigs, domestic rabbits, turtles, and chickens, but we've taken in mice, tortoises, geckos, bearded dragons, goats, pigs, all kinds of birds, fish, other rodents, ferrets, you name it. Our critter area is fairly small, the rabbit room has 4 small runs with platforms to climb and hide under as well as 6 "condos" that are much smaller. Then we have a couple other rooms that are essentially shelves to hold tanks and cages, with some space for larger cages or the occasional water trough for large turtles. We also have 5 outdoor runs to use for livestock that are just fenced and roofed concrete pads which we have a couple chicken coops in as well for when we get groups of chickens. We don't really have the ability to change our physical space.

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Laurel Wilton
Feline Welfare Supervisor
Nebraska Humane Society
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-05-2026 05:46 AM
From: Kayla Shealey
Subject: How Does Your Shelter Manage Critters (guinea pigs, rabbits, reptiles, chickens, etc.)?

Hi Laurel, 

  We are a much smaller operation and typically handle dogs and cats.  We do not have a designated space for small animals but we typically house them in employee offices.  I hope to have some space later next year but right now we have volunteers that foster most of ours.  We are building a database of small animal fosters.  How many small animals do you handle a year?  Enrichment for most small animals would be chewing and larger running spaces. I am assuming you have a small space to work with?

Kayla Shealey

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Kayla Shealey
Foothills Humane Society
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