Transports for Shelters and Volunteers

Today’s guest post comes to us from Krista Beucler, Marketing & Communications Intern at Community Cats Podcast.

Dale’s volunteer name tag at Animal Friends Alliance (AFA) in Fort Collins, Colorado reads “Cat Chauffeur.” He is one of a dedicated group of volunteers that helps to transport animals to AFA from other shelters and rescues that need a place for their overflow population. From Fort Collins, Dale regularly drives to Denver and to Rawlins, Wyoming, where he meets another volunteer to pick up cats from partner shelters. Dale swaps the empty carriers he brings from AFA with the full—and meowing—carriers from the partner shelter. After expertly packing the back of his RAV4, Dale heads back to AFA. After much experimentation, he says he has discovered that the cats prefer to listen to Enya’s music and are quietest when listening to her crooning on the several hour drives back to AFA. Since his retirement, Dale has been an active transport volunteer at AFA, his local animal shelter.

Transport programs can be a great way to create partnerships between shelters and ensure the best outcomes for all of the animals involved. Transports can help destination shelters meet demand in their area and help source shelters cope with the volume of animals they are housing. It’s important to first analyze the needs of the participating shelters’ local communities and make sure that all actions are benefiting those communities and contributing to the best outcomes for the animals. Sometimes that means trying to support pet owners and keep pets in their homes, so they won’t be potentially needing space at a shelter.

Shelters and rescues can create volunteer transport programs for both local and long-distance transports. Many volunteers are only too willing to take animals to foster homes or adoption events and many are even willing to drive a leg of a longer transport. There are many different technological tools that can help rescues plan transports, including Facebook groups (search under Colorado Transport, for example); PilotsNPaws.org, an organization that unites volunteer pilots with animals needing transport; and Doobert.com, which helps rescue organizations find volunteers and plan longer transports. If you’re a volunteer, connect with your local shelter to find out how you can help, or check out one of the above groups to volunteer your services.

At the 2020 CCP Online Kitten Conference, we had the chance to hear from Chris Roy, CEO of Doobert.com. He shared some great information about finding the best transport options for your shelter’s needs, as well as considering how COVID-19 might affect transports. The ASPCA and the Maine Federation of Humane Societies have both put together resources on transporting safely during the pandemic. Make sure both your shelter and the partner shelter have agreed on the protocols you’ll be following for cleanliness and mask-wearing.

Join us for next year’s Online Kitten Conference to hear more great presentations from innovators like Chris!

Originally from Colorado, Krista Beucler received a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing at the University of Mary Washington (UMW) in Virginia. She was the editor-in-chief for Issue 7.2 of the Rappahannock Review, the literary journal published by UMW. Krista’s creative work has been published in From Whispers to Roars literary magazine. She is spending COVID-19 at home with her cats.