I often get asked the question, “how can I start my own rescue?”  It is not an easy question to answer and honestly there are a lot of factors that I encourage people to think about before ever considering to rescue.  It is not something to take lightly and just hop into.

First and foremost you need to check into your town, city, county, state, and federal government ordinances.  For example when I got my start I contacted the USDA to make sure it was ok to run a small animal rescue out of my home.  Once I got their approval I then contacted my State zoning board to make sure it was ok to run a rescue out of my home.  I then contacted the State of Nebraska Secretary of State and filed my articles of incorporation with them so that I was legal and official.  I then contacted my local city zoning office to make sure it was ok to have a rescue out of my home.  Finally I contacted my city animal control and got licensed with the city to run a rescue out of my home.  Everything from day one was legal and legit.  I did this so that if someone got pissy with me and turned me in or my nosey neighbors got freaked out that I had "RATS" then the city couldn't come in and shut me down and confiscate all of my animals and charge me some huge fine. 

The next step is to contact your insurance company that covers either your renters insurance or homeowners insurance and make sure they are ok with you running a rescue out of your home and if they are not then you need to buy commercial insurance for running a business out of your home.  The reason for this is to cover you if anyone were to ever sue you due to your negligence.  For example.  If someone came to your home to look at rats and tripped on your front step and broke their arm then they can sue you for the medical bills.  You might be thinking that this is what homeowners insurance is for.  However, the insurance company will investigate why the person was there at your home and when they find out it was related to the rescue they will deny the claim.  I know this because I sell insurance for a living.  Another example is if you adopt out a rat and after the rat is in the new home it bites someone badly.  They can sue you for the medical bills.  Again your homeowners insurance typically won’t cover this.  And no matter what language you put in your contract it won’t hold up in court.

The final step is to decide if you are going to be a private rescue or a non-profit rescue.  Being a non profit rescue allows for more advantages like tax savings and it opens the doors for more donations, grants, and fundraising options.  However, obtaining your 501c3 status with the IRS is expensive and difficult.  I have yet to do it with my rescue but I am working on it. 

The next thing I did was set a limit as a new rescue on how many rats I could handle comfortably.  At that time my number was 10.  No more than 10 rats were ever allowed in the rescue at any one time for a good chunk of time when I was first starting out.  Now slowly over the years my numbers have increased.  My new comfort level is 50 but right now I have close to 100 in the rescue.  It is a bit harder for me but I manage.  I am working on getting my numbers back down. 

You have to have separate QT spaces.  You have to work on lining up foster homes.  You need to have a board of directors to help support you.  You need to have transportation for getting rats into homes lined up.  You need volunteers to help assist you, as you cannot do it all.  Trust me on this one.  I have tried myself to do this and it does not work.  I need help.

The biggest one of them all, you have to have money and lots of it.  The amount I spend on food, bedding, supplies, cages, toys, etc is just astounding not to mention the vet bills.  I spend easily $80 a week on the rats in a good month that doesn’t have any major medical issues.  And this is after I have the rescue established so my cages are pretty much set and I am not buying as many supplies as far as water bottles, food dishes, and igloos.  I am pretty set on those.  But OMG if I add up what I have sitting in my rescue right now and the amount of money I spent to start up.  I probably have well over $3000 of stuff between 4 Critter Nations/Ferret Nations, other misc. cages, well stocked first aid kit, hides, water bottles, food dishes, toys, play pen, and everything else I am leaving out.

You will need to print up a good solid adoption contract; you will need a good solid surrender contract.  You will need to be able to properly screen your adopters.  You will need to print up a lot of different educational materials.  You will need to start a petfinder site.  You need to have EXCELLENT working relationships with your vets.  And you need to have more than one vet to refer to at any one time as it never fails one vet or another is too busy or out of town when I need them so I have fall back vets. 

Check in your area before you start to rescue to see how many breeders, rescues, and shelters are already in the area.  If there is already a small animal rescue near you then I would recommend that you volunteer to work with them rather than start your own.  It is hard to compete to find homes for the animals when there are other shelters near by who have animals too.

Check in your area to see what the demand is for rats.  If the demand is not there for rats then you better resolve yourself to the fact that you may end up keeping the rats you take in on a more permanent basis as adopting them quickly is not going to happen.

And finally the most important of all.  You have to have thick skin, a hard heart, and a stomach of iron.  Rescue work is thankless, tiring, and hard.  You will see things, hear things, and experience things you have never before.  There are things that will make you want to sit down and bawl for days on end but you can’t.  You have to be able to make hard hard hard decisions that no one wants to make.  You have to be able to trust in yourself enough to know that you made the right decision.