CAPACITY FOR CARE CALCULATOR

Capacity for care documentation

This page describes the concepts and equations used by the capacity snapshot calculator so you can understand the logic behind the results and adapt it to your own shelter.

What this calculator models

The calculator provides a daily operational snapshot of capacity for care. It focuses on:

  • Animals currently in the building
  • Usable housing units for cats and dogs
  • Minutes of care required per animal per day
  • Productive staff and volunteer time available per day
  • Explicit safety margins for housing and care

The tool does not calculate a long term capacity target based on average daily intake and target length of stay. Instead, it uses the same core ideas that support capacity for care work and applies them to today’s population and staffing.

Key definitions

Animals in care

The number of cats and dogs physically present in the facility at a defined census time. The calculator separates total animals from the subset that require special care.

Usable housing units

Units are individual housing spaces that meet animal welfare standards for size, design, and intended use. Only units suitable for ongoing housing are counted. Overflow crates, temporary cages in hallways, and other stopgap spaces are not counted as usable units.

Care minutes per animal

Care minutes include daily tasks such as feeding, cleaning, sanitation, observation, basic medical care, and planned enrichment. The calculator allows different care minutes for standard animals and special care animals, plus a separate enrichment allowance.

Productive staff and volunteer time

Productive time is the portion of each shift spent on direct animal care tasks. Meetings, breaks, administrative time, and training are excluded. The calculator uses productive time for full time staff, part time staff, and predictable volunteer hours.

Safety margins

Safety margins are buffers that prevent the shelter from running at the edge of capacity. A housing safety margin reserves a percentage of units as always empty. A care safety margin increases the total care minutes required to account for daily variation and unexpected needs.

Housing equation

For each species, the calculator adds the usable units in three groups:

  • Adoption ready units
  • Intake or holding units
  • Medical or isolation units

Raw housing capacity is:

CatCapacityRaw = catAdoptUnits + catIntakeUnits + catMedicalUnits
DogCapacityRaw = dogAdoptUnits + dogIntakeUnits + dogMedicalUnits

The housing safety margin is expressed as a percentage of capacity that should remain unused. The calculator converts this to a usable capacity:

UsableCatCapacity = CatCapacityRaw × (1 − HousingMarginPercent ÷ 100)
UsableDogCapacity = DogCapacityRaw × (1 − HousingMarginPercent ÷ 100)

The housing status compares today’s animals in care to usable capacity and reports whether cats and dogs are within or over the margin.

Care minutes and staffing

Care minutes required

The calculator separates standard and special care animals and applies different care minute values to each group plus enrichment time:

RegularCats = max(CatsTotal − CatsSpecial, 0)
RegularDogs = max(DogsTotal − DogsSpecial, 0)

CareCats = RegularCats × (CatCareStandard + CatEnrichment)
     + CatsSpecial × (CatCareSpecial + CatEnrichment)

CareDogs = RegularDogs × (DogCareStandard + DogEnrichment)
     + DogsSpecial × (DogCareSpecial + DogEnrichment)

Total care minutes before applying a margin:

CareMinutesRequired = CareCats + CareDogs

Care safety margin

The care safety margin increases total required minutes:

CareMinutesBuffered = CareMinutesRequired × (1 + CareMarginPercent ÷ 100)

Staff and volunteer minutes available

The calculator converts full time staff, part time staff, and volunteers into total productive minutes per day. For each group it uses:

  • Number of people
  • Hours per shift or per day
  • Percentage of time spent in direct care

Full time and part time staff:

StaffMinutes =
  FullTimeCount × FullTimeHours × (FullTimeProductivePercent ÷ 100) × 60
+ PartTimeCount × PartTimeHours × (PartTimeProductivePercent ÷ 100) × 60

Volunteer hours:

VolunteerMinutes = VolunteerHours × (VolunteerProductivePercent ÷ 100) × 60

Extra minutes from foster support work, if entered, are added directly:

TotalStaffMinutes = StaffMinutes + VolunteerMinutes + FosterSupportMinutes

Staffing sufficiency and FTE estimate

The calculator compares available minutes to buffered care minutes:

If TotalStaffMinutes ≥ CareMinutesBuffered → staffing is within the safety margin.
If TotalStaffMinutes < CareMinutesBuffered → staffing is below the safety margin.

It also estimates how many full time equivalent positions would be required at eight productive hours per FTE:

FTERequired = CareMinutesBuffered ÷ (8 × 60)

Intake projections

The projection step allows you to enter expected intakes and outcomes for cats and dogs over a chosen number of days. The calculator estimates a projected population:

ProjectedCats = CatsToday + ProjectedIntakesCats − ProjectedOutcomesCats
ProjectedDogs = DogsToday + ProjectedIntakesDogs − ProjectedOutcomesDogs

These projected values are not used directly in the intake recommendation. They are intended to help you visualize how current intake and outcome patterns will affect population over time.

Intake recommendation logic

The final intake recommendation is based on two checks:

  • Whether today’s cat and dog populations are within the housing safety margin
  • Whether available staff and volunteer minutes meet or exceed buffered care minutes

In simplified terms:

HousingOK = (CatsTotal ≤ UsableCatCapacity) and (DogsTotal ≤ UsableDogCapacity)
StaffingOK = (TotalStaffMinutes ≥ CareMinutesBuffered)

The calculator then uses four cases:

  • HousingOK and StaffingOK → intake can proceed at the current pace within the specified margins.
  • Not HousingOK and StaffingOK → housing is over the safety margin, intake should slow or pause until population falls within margin.
  • HousingOK and not StaffingOK → staffing is under the margin, intake should slow or pause or staffing should be increased.
  • Not HousingOK and not StaffingOK → both housing and staffing are beyond margins, intake should pause and a mitigation plan should be developed.

References and alignment

This calculator is intended to translate widely used capacity for care concepts into a simple, transparent tool for shelters. It is informed by guidance from shelter medicine programs and professional organizations but is not an official product of any of them.

  • Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV). Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters, first published in 2010 and fully revised in 2022, describe core requirements for humane housing, population management, staffing, and daily care in animal shelters.
  • UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program. Capacity for care overviews, shelter capacity calculators, and guidance on calculating shelter and staff capacity helped shape the structure of this tool and the emphasis on housing units, population balance, staffing, and length of stay.
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison Shelter Medicine Program. Resources on calculating shelter capacity and staffing levels for daily care informed how this tool frames staff minutes, productive time, and safe census.
  • ASPCApro and Maddie’s Fund / Million Cat Challenge. Educational materials and workshops on capacity for care and adoption-driven capacity contributed to the focus on aligning housing, staffing, and intake and outcome flow to maintain humane conditions and shorten length of stay.
  • Peer-reviewed research on Capacity for Care. Published studies examining the impact of C4C implementation on health, length of stay, adoptions, and euthanasia provided evidence that right-sized housing and population management are associated with improved outcomes.