Shelter management software: the gap for strays and non-profits

What shelter management software is meant to do

The Association of Shelter Veterinarians' Guidelines for Standards of Care (second edition, 2022) set out the basics. Records should be digital, preferably in software designed for animal shelters. Every animal needs a unique identifier and its own record. The system should produce individual records and population-level reports. The guidelines also say records must be kept for animals in foster care and other off-site housing, just as for animals in the shelter.

The products we looked at are built mainly around animals inside a building: intake, kennel, medical treatments, adoption and outcome. The difficulty starts when much of your work happens outside the building.

Where the gap is for stray animal care

Animals that are treated and returned

Some organisations sterilise, vaccinate and return animals rather than admitting them. The ASV guidelines note that sending healthy community cats to return-to-field services frees space for the animals a shelter is required to take in.

For dogs, the World Organisation for Animal Health's Chapter 7.7 on stray dog population control, 2021 edition describes what a capture, sterilise and return programme involves. Dogs are permanently marked (for example by tattoo or microchip) to show they are sterilised. Individual identification lets the programme track vaccination status and treatment history. Each dog goes back as near as possible to where it was caught, and its welfare after release should be monitored. The chapter also asks programmes to measure progress against a starting baseline over time.

That is a records job with three parts: a place, a medical history and a follow-up. A kennel-based system can hold the medical history. If it has nowhere for the place and the follow-up, those end up in a spreadsheet, a group chat or a paper map.

WOAH also warns that releasing dogs is not lawful everywhere, for example where laws forbid abandoning dogs. Check your own local rules before you plan a return programme.

Why the records matter beyond the shelter

The WHO rabies fact sheet says dog bites and scratches cause 99% of human rabies cases, and that vaccinating dogs and preventing bites can stop them. Most cases are in Asia and Africa. For groups vaccinating street dogs there, a reliable record of which dog was vaccinated, when and where is public health data, not just admin.

In the US, Shelter Animals Count's 2025 report counted 5.8 million dog and cat community intakes. It also found stray dogs were six times more likely than stray cats to be returned to their owners.

Money given for a purpose

Non-profits also need to show that a gift was spent on what the donor gave it for. On a Maddie's Fund forum thread about choosing shelter software, a humane society staff member who compared nine systems in 2023 wrote that most could list donors but could not properly track how donations were split between funds or events. They suggested a separate donor database. That is one person's view from 2023, and products change, so treat it as a question to ask rather than a verdict.

What the main options say they cover (as of November 2026)

The gap is smaller than it can look. Here is what each product's own site says.

Shelterluv

Shelterluv says more than 2,500 shelters and rescues use it. Its community programs page lists community cat programmes, logging visits from a phone, a map of colonies and field visits, and over 70 built-in measures for funder reports. It charges $2 per adoption, and says this makes the Field and Community Services module free to use. It may suit US non-profits with steady adoptions who want field and community work in the same system.

Animal Shelter Manager

Animal Shelter Manager is open source. You can run it yourself for free if you have the technical skills, or pay a fixed price per shelter per year for hosting. Its features page lists animal control with trap loans, vet and clinic management, costs and financial management, translation into 15 languages, and 752 ready-made reports, including Shelter Animals Count and RSPCA figures. Its hosting page notes that the phone apps come only with the hosted version. It may suit tight budgets and organisations outside the US.

ShelterBuddy

ShelterBuddy offers Express, a cut-down version for small shelters and rescues at reduced cost, and Pro for larger organisations. Pro includes donor records with donation history and campaigns, and a wildlife module that records where an animal was rescued so it can be released there. It is designed to work alongside your existing accounting software. It may suit larger shelters and animal control agencies.

RescueGroups.org

RescueGroups.org is itself a non-profit. Its free Pet Adoption Portal sends adoptable animals to over 200 listing sites, and it offers low-cost data management. It may suit foster-based rescues whose main need is getting animals seen.

Cat Stats

Cat Stats, from Neighborhood Cats, is a TNR tool for tracking colonies and caretakers with maps and spreadsheets. It is open to non-profits and government agencies for a $50 one-time setup fee. It may suit a cat group that needs a colony database and nothing more.

How to test a system for stray and community work

Take a real case from last month and run it through each demo. Ask:

• Can a call or field report become a medical record without retyping it?
• Does the record keep where the animal was caught and where it was returned?
• Can you record permanent marking, such as an ear tip, tattoo or microchip?
• Does it work where signal is poor? Try it in the field, not the office.
• Can a donation be restricted to a fund, and can you report on that fund?
• Can it produce the reports your funders and Shelter Animals Count ask for?
• Can you export all your data if you leave?
• How is it priced: per adoption, per year or per month? Work out the cost for your own numbers.

Questions people ask

What is the best animal shelter software?

There is no single answer. Adoption-led shelters, foster-based rescues and street animal programmes need different things. List your five most common jobs and test each system against them.

Is there free shelter management software?

Yes. Animal Shelter Manager is free if you host it yourself, and RescueGroups.org's Pet Adoption Portal is free. Shelterluv charges $2 per adoption with no minimum, according to its site.

What software tracks TNR or CNVR programmes?

Cat Stats is built for colony tracking. Shelterluv lists community cat programmes in its community module. Animal Shelter Manager lets you add your own fields. Check how each one handles location, marking and follow-up.

Can shelter software track donations?

Most of the systems above mention donor records. Whether a gift can be tied to a specific fund and reported on varies, and the 2023 forum comment above found most could not. Ask to see it in the demo.

This article is not veterinary or legal advice. For vaccination protocols, doses and the rules on returning animals, speak to your own vet and local authority.