#8: Shelter or Rescue: What's the difference?

Before we get into the facts about animal rescue, let's make a big difference between shelters and rescues. They can be used interchangeably by certain entities, but a rescue agency is distinctly different from a shelter.

A shelter, AKA the "pound", is a privately sponsored facility that accepts public animals, whether it is a private person surrendering a pet or a stray resident involved. Many people mean a government-funded shelter agency when they say "pound," which often accepts animals from government employees, such as animal control or park rangers.

A Rescue organizations are associations of fosterers and volunteers who adopt animals from private owners and shelters who, because of overpopulation, do not keep them. Rescue animals are mostly in the homes of volunteers as foster pets, instead of being kept at a shelter. In certain ways, this home setting makes rescue animals distinct from shelter animals, because they receive more individualized care.

Often times, there are private organizations that protects a certain nature reserves for the animal's sanctuary. This is where most wildlife animals and/ or domesticated animals are freely living on and supported by the private organization's sponsors around the world.