Shelter Standards Task Force

The ASV Shelter Guidelines project was initiated by the 2007 Board of Directors.
Resources
Goals
- Provide shelters and communities a tool for self-assessment and improvement
- Increase consistency of care across US
- Promote highest standards of welfare, for existing facilities as well as new construction
- Provide sound reference material for regulatory purposes when communities look for guidance
- Provide a benchmark for when corrective action is needed
- Create a living document that will be responsive to developments in shelter medicine and animal care
- Establish what is required for a decent quality of life for populations of companion animals
- Dispel notions that high morbidity and mortality from disease and injury is the norm in shelters
- Connect expectations of sanitation, medical care, and mental/behavioral well-being to acceptable sheltering, and dispel any notion that these essentials are frivolous “extras” or cosmetic
Scope and Intention
- Apply to any shelter caring for companion animals
- Written by shelter veterinarians as a tool to help advocate for animal care and well-being more effectively in shelters and communities
- To be equally important for shelter veterinarians, directors, managers, board members, and members of the community
- Emphasize the important contributions of shelter medicine for quality animal care
- Based on the “Five Freedoms”
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