Capacity for Care Calculator
This tool helps shelters understand how many animals they can safely care for with the housing, staffing, and time they have available. Enter a few numbers to see whether you are within recommended safety margins and how intake decisions affect your capacity.
What this tool does
- Estimates safe housing capacity with buffers for cleaning, emergencies, and variation.
- Compares care minutes required to staff and volunteer time available.
- Shows whether current intake pace is sustainable with your current length of stay.
- Helps teams decide when to slow, pause, or redirect intake.
What you will need
- Counts of housing units for cats and dogs, including adoption, intake, and medical spaces.
- Approximate minutes per animal per day for basic care and enrichment.
- Staff and volunteer hours per day and reasonable productive-time estimates.
- Average daily intake and outcomes when using the projection step.
Why this matters
Shelters run best when animals receive consistent care, appropriate housing, cleaning, enrichment, and medical attention. When housing or staffing is stretched thin, stress and illness can increase. This calculator helps teams plan ahead, maintain safe capacity, and support good outcomes for animals and staff.