General Definitions and History of Rescue Organizations and Foster Care Programs While some examples will be given here, a rescue organization or foster care provider should check the specific state and city laws where they are located. Some of the types of laws that impact companion animal rescue and foster care organizations include legislative definitions, licensing, sterilization and vaccination, pet limit laws, zoning and nuisance laws, tethering laws, Breed Specific Legislation (or BSL), tort liability, and reimbursement for medical care in cruelty cases. This article will focus primarily on the rescue and foster care issues. While there is already a decent amount of information available concerning animal shelters and the law, less information is available about how the law impacts rescue groups and foster care programs. This happened when the Fort Worth Texas Animal Shelter continued to give animals to a rescue group even though the animals were living in deplorable conditions (Andrew Mclemore, Animal Behavior: Shelter is Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Fort Worth Weekly, (Dec. It can be difficult for the shelter to inspect and maintain supervision of each rescue and foster placement. This need is exhibited when rescue groups and foster homes take in animals from shelters. There is a need for laws to protect the animals that are placed in rescue and foster care, and there is a need for those laws to be strongly enforced. Moreover, in Colorado, the Pet Animal Care Facilities Report of 2012 indicated that there were just four inspectors to monitor the whole state of Colorado (available at ) however, they have just added a fifth inspector this year. In Georgia, 19 inspectors must cover the 159 counties within the state ( Animal Protection FAQs, Georgia Department of Agriculture, available at ). Even in states where laws are in place, enforcement can be a problem. The laws can vary from one state to another as well as from one city to another. However, in places where laws do exist for rescues and foster care programs, the laws can come from various levels: the state, county, and city ordinance level. Requiring licensing of the organizations will subject the groups to inspections and hold them accountable for the animals they take in (Ron Fonger, Growing pains: Animal rescues grow in Genesee County with little oversight or rules, Michigan Live, (Feb. A few bad rescues that are unregulated can give all rescues and fosters a bad reputation. In some areas of the country, rescues will violate zoning laws and hoarders will set up a rescue organization as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and without regulatory oversight, the good intentions can get out of hand. This means that the rescues and fosters are functioning on an honor system. The lack of laws signify that the groups are not subject to inspections nor do they have a mandated minimum set of standards of care for the animals. IntroductionĪlthough most rescue and foster care organizations have the best interests of the animals in mind and at heart, traditionally, there has been a lack of regulation and supervision in monitoring these groups.

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