Delightful Pet Menagerie Newsletter – May Edition 🗞️

Greetings! Welcome to the May edition of Dr. Pet Mom’s Delightful Pet Menagerie (DPM) Newsletter. This month, I’m sharing a different story about animals. I have lots of ideas for DPM – one of my dreams is to create an animal sanctuary. Time to think about the process and I’m excited to begin the journey. Sharing my thoughts with you and the universe will make it happen. Enjoy!

Early Days: Learning the Landscape

People may think that an animal sanctuary is an animal rescue. My learning starts with understanding the landscape: Do I want to start a sanctuary or a rescue? Or something else?

I started DrPetMom.com with a vision for long term care for senior and special needs pets. Creating a sanctuary to give lifetime care to animals is still my dream.

But first, I need to learn more about the animal sanctuary industry…

According to the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) (the only world-wide organization recognized for providing high standards for legitimate animal sanctuaries), a sanctuary provides lifetime care for animals, while a rescue offers temporary care.

GFAS was created because the animal sanctuary industry is poorly regulated with questionable quality and care of a variety of animals. Roadside zoos, the “entertainment” industry and puppy mills are examples of questionable animal care.

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Early Days: Animal Sanctuary, Rescue or Microsanctuary?

GFAS identified three different care residences for animals:

1. A true sanctuary provides lifetime care for animals who were injured, abused, abandoned, or otherwise in need (from research laboratories, private owners, government authorities). The sanctuary must offer exceptional and humane care for animals in a non-exploitative environment with ethical policies in place.

2. An animal rescue gives temporarily care to animals. The goal is to place them in foster care, in permanent homes through adoption, or in accredited sanctuaries. Examples include farmed animals, birds, reptiles, and domestic horses.

3. A rehabilitation center offers temporary care for wildlife. The goal is to return wildlife back to their natural habitat. This transitional support model is key to the reintroduction protocol and also an important conservation tool.

I found an interesting fourth kind of animal care residence called a microsanctuary. This type of animal sanctuary is based on the vegan principles where no animal products are consumed. A microsanctuary can be as small as one rescue animal, including fish, rodents, special needs, or non-companion (farm) animals.

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The Basics: Standards of Care

Accreditation from the GFAS requires a high standard of care and compliance. GFAS maintains the very highest standards about the sustainability, ethical principles, finances, staffing, education outreach, security and safety of an animal sanctuary.

GFAS standards include:

• No captive breeding (except through a reintroduction program to return wildlife to their natural habitat).
• No tours that are not guided and conducted carefully to limit the impact on the animals and allows them to seek privacy and quiet.
• No commercial trade in animals or animal parts.
• No direct public contact with wildlife (with limited exceptions for small reptiles and some birds).
• Animals are not exhibited or removed from the sanctuary or habitat for non-medical reasons (with limited exceptions for some animals like horses).

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The Basics: A Business Plan

First off, I’ll need a business plan to outline the procedures and activities for starting a new business. Ideally, a business plan can launch a new business in about one year.

The key elements are:

1. An organizational plan which defines the vision, value and marketability of the business. This plan will help forecast when the business will turn a profit.
2. A financial plan will outline the assets, liabilities, income, expenses and hidden costs of a business.
3. A marketing plan covers the company’s brand and forecasting sales. This plan will identify the target market and competitive advantage of the business.

If I decide on a social enterprise business model (combined profit and social value), a business plan is a great idea. The plan will help me connect ideas into a structure designed to maximize profit and social value.

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The Basics: A Strategic Plan

Next, I’ll need a strategic plan to describe how to grow the sanctuary. It’s a roadmap of my business goals and a growth plan for the next five years.

This document is dynamic and includes short and long term planning, market research, overview of the competition, financial benchmarks, and a review of trends in the niche for animal sanctuaries.

Another basic piece of the strategic plan are the capacities for the sanctuary. Capacity is the ability to provide humane care for the animals.

A sample of the different capacities includes:

• Population capacity – The number of animals on the sanctuary
• Care staff capacity – The number of animal care staff and volunteers
• Experience capacity – Training and skills needed for care staff
• Financial capacity – Short term and long term financial resources
• Length of stay capacity – Permanent and temporary animals in care
• Spatial capacity – Property and facility space
• Uncertainty capacity – Emergency and contingency plans
• Sanitation capacity – Cleanliness, sanitation, and pest control
• Well being capacity – Behavior, health, social interactions of animals
• Medical health capacity – Access to veterinary care
• Housing capacity – Number and quality of housing for animals
• Isolation and quarantine capacity – Isolate (physically separate animals diagnosed with an infections disease) and quarantine (physically separate animals exposed to but not showing symptoms) to prevent the spread of disease.

The final piece of the strategic plan is the strength of, and access to networks. Building networks includes finding stakeholders who are important in the community, committed and experienced in animal care. Crafting these relationships can promote financial benefits and social impact.

And social impact is the basis for a social enterprise business. The strength of these social enterprise partnerships add value to the wider community, a key factor to the success of any business.

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The Basics: Listen and Learn

I’m a big fan of talking and learning from people who help animals. Another way to learn the landscape is to listen and learn from others.

For example, best advice from the Kathy Stevens, founder of nonprofit, Catskill Animal Sanctuary for rescued farmed animals, is “volunteering at a sanctuary, doing homework, and talking to fellow sanctuary owners to learn what they wish they had done differently when starting out.”

Ellie Laks started the nonprofit, The Gentle Barn and suggested “visualize what your sanctuary looks like… and get those details super clear in your mind. Research to understand the business side of a sanctuary (zoning laws, staff, volunteer needs). Finally, “never ever take no for an answer, keep problem solving, and keep working towards your goal. Don’t ever give up!”

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And a few more lessons learned from Crystal Miller-Spiegel, founder of the Down to Earth Farm Animal Sanctuary.

• Start small and learn to say no. Keep the size of your sanctuary manageable to fit your comfort level. Growing too fast or housing too many animals is not good for the animals or humans.
• Research and pick your site carefully. Learn the zoning laws and restrictions on the number and types of animals allowed on properties. Make sure the property can comfortably handle the number of animals in your care.
• Caring for animals takes money. Create an advisory board to solicit funds or donations. Find a financial advisor to decide if a non-profit, social enterprise or microsanctuary makes sense for you.
• Make a contingency plan for emergencies (sick animals, transportation, fires, floods, loss of power or water). For smaller animals (cats, dogs), train them to feel comfortable and safe if traveling inside a pet carrier.
• It’s hard to find good help. Look for caretakers who are also veterinary technicians. You need people onsite to handle morning and evening care for the animals. Find people who are truly dedicated to help care for the animals.
• Long term commitment.  You will need to be committed to caring for the animals every day. Time off will be limited. Know that you are in this for the long haul to save the animals.

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The Basics: Nonprofit or Social Enterprise?

Several years back, I co-founded a nonprofit called Children’s Animated Television, Inc. (CAT). We produced educational videos for tweens about the social concerns (diversity, violence, peer pressure) in their lives.

Our goal was to encourage youth to talk to adults, learn from each other, and figure out solutions for themselves. Great ideas, but the lack of funding closed us down.

While you can’t Google CAT these days, our ideas and videos were ahead of the curve. We produced an award-winning video about diversity. And our video on HIV/AIDS for young people, was the first of its kind listed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Looking ahead, I’m leaning towards starting out as a microsanctuary, and evolving into a social enterprise animal sanctuary. This business model centers on key social objectives as its primary purpose. The idea is to maximize profits and maximize social value.

Creating and sustaining social value is what excites me. My idea for an animal sanctuary will not change the world – that’s not my job. If I can change the life of one animal, then good on me.

A quick look at the pros of a social enterprise include:

1. Building partnerships with established businesses. Focused partnerships can enhance a company’s reputation and bring added value to its shareholders.
2. Access funding from social impact bonds, impact investing networks, pitch competitions, social enterprise fellowships and grants, microfinance and selling goods or services. Or combine funding from different sources.
3. Promote, market and increase exposure through social media. We all know the power of social media. Animal rescue videos and blogs are wildly popular.

The cons of a social enterprise include:

1. Ongoing monitoring of the target audience to keep up with changing consumer interests and demands.
2. Competition with similar businesses in the commercial market.
3. Focus on goals and strategic plan to maximize financial and social impact.

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Closing Thoughts

I’m very happy to share this outline for an animal sanctuary with you. Thinking through some of the basics tells me that there is much to learn.

I know a bit about working with rescue cats and dogs. And I volunteer helping horses to learn more about working with large animals.

One thing I also know is that compassion burnout is a real thing. As a volunteer for animal rescue groups, I can see it when staff interact with the animals. While I spend time with the animals once a week, they work daily to rescue, clean, feed, transport, and care for older and special needs animals.

As I said, my job is not to change the world, only the world of one animal. Baby steps toward my dream can prevent burnout. I want animals in my care to be happy and well, and I want the same for me.

I’ll start small and build partnerships with other sanctuaries. Partnership will give me some real world hands on experience in running an animal sanctuary.

I will post updates as things move forward.

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Thanks for stopping by!
Dr. Pet Mom

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“Every individual can make a positive impact on the lives of elephants and all animals. It starts with education, empathy, and taking action.”
–Sangdeun “Lek” Chailert

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2024 Book Update

This month, I finished editing my Dr. Pet Mom’s Delightful Pet Menagerie (DPM) Newsletter book. Next week my book is off to the graphic designer to update the book cover. June looks like a perfect month to publish a book!!

“The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.”
–W. Somerset Maugham