Shelters vary in their role in animal care. They are catagorized into three primary types: Municipal, Private, and Rescue Groups & Sanctuaries.

Municipal Shelters-

These are shelters that provide animal control services funded mostly by local taxes, dog licensing fees, and other specialized programs.

• Our city shelter is Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care. They are a law enforcement agency as it relates to animal issues within the city limits of Houston. They were set up to prevent rabies infection in animals and people. They do offer adoptions, redemptions, vaccinations, & pet licensing. Visit them at www.houstontx.gov and search the city govenment site for BARC.
• Our county shelter is a division of Harris County Pulic Health & Environmental Services, Veterinary Public Health (AKA Countypets). Their primary goal is to create a safe & healthy county for animals and people by enforcing animal regualtion that reduce the spread of zoonotic diseases. They do offer adoptions. Visit them at www.countypets.com

Municipal Shelters are open admission. They must admit every animal relinquished to them regardless of the number of animals in their care, the animals state of health, or the animals adoptability chances.

Private Shelters-

These are generally not for profit privately held corporations that have a 501(c)(3) tax status.

They do not have animal control contracts from their municipalities. They derive their funding from donations, adoption fees, and certain charitable events.

They tend to focus on humane treatment of animal education and enforcement, animal behavior issues, neutering services and community projects.

• Citizens for Animal Protection www.cap4pets.org
• Noahs Ark www.noahs-ark-sanctuary.org
• Houston SPCA www.houstonspca.org
• Friends 4 Life www.nokill1.org

Rescue Groups & Sanctuaries-

These groups often focus on specific breeds or species. They utilize a fostering system. The animal is taken into the rescue through the municipal shelters and private owners and placed with a foster parent. The animal is rehabilitated and made adoptiable by the foster parent to a new loving home based on the Rescue Groups criteria.

Parker Road Animal Hospital has a very long relationship with the Minature Schnauzer Rescue of Houston. We provide some of their medical care to "critical" patients at a discount to the rescue. The hospital also dontates to the rescue when ever their is a referral to the hospital from one of their "new" pet parents. Our Pet Resort also donates to the rescue group whenever a pet owner chooses our cottages for their pets vacation or day boarding stay. Visit them at www.msrh.org