Road to Rescue

The nation's largest pet adoption database, Petfinder.com, showcases well over 10,000 adoption groups listing hundreds of thousands of adoptable animals at any given time. Many of these groups are private animal rescue organizations that are operated out of private homes, with a network of transport and foster volunteers who support the immense number of animals these rescues save each year. Despite the fact that this industry is obviously sizable and growing, it is virtually unregulated, without even a best practices handbook for rescues to use as a reference. That is, until now.

To create Road to Rescue, Up For Pups collaborated with numerous experienced, diverse private rescue organizations and animal welfare societies. After developing the project outline, each rescue wrote about two or three topics, which were subsequently posted on the Up For Pups blog for public discussion. The beginning of the discussion can be found at the Up For Pups blog. The entire data-collection and editing period spanned six months, and Up For Pups continues to monitor comments on these blog posts for information to add to this manual.

The purpose of this manual is to help new rescues do it right from the beginning; give existing rescues a measuring stick and guide for maximum effectiveness; and present a foundation for evaluating rescue effectiveness for those interested in donating and providing grants.

Careful observation of the practices outlined in this manual will help rescues save the most lives, spend the least money, and ensure a good experience for both volunteers and rescued animals. Up For Pups recognizes that dog rescue is not a one-size-fits-all effort and that some upstanding rescues may have policies that differ from those listed herein, but regardless of size or breed, some practices are better than others, which is what we have set out to highlight.

In addition to comprehensive, indispensable information about running a successful dog rescue organization, Road to Rescue also includes exclusive access to over 100 pages of document examples and to the following generic documents in .doc format for your use: Articles of Organization for a 501(c)3, Bylaws, Conflict of Interest policy, Surrender contract/form, Intake/evaluation form, Volunteer/foster application, Foster contract, Foster welcome kit template, Adoption application, Adoption contract