About the Rifle Animal Shelter
The Rifle Animal shelter is a shelter in western Garfield County that shelters and provides care for over 1,500 lost, ill, injured or orphaned animals each year.
The Rifle Animal Shelter:
- Adopts animals into new homes.
- Reunites owners with their lost pets.
- Assesses the temperament of all shelter animals prior to adoption.
- Provides low cost vaccination and microchip clinics.
- Places underage, ill, injured, or under-socialized animals into foster homes until they are healthy, adoptable animals.
- Financially assists community members with altering their family pets through our Spay and Neuter Makes Them Cuter Program. Ask us!
- Reaches out to overcrowded shelters to save lives as part of our Operation Outreach Program.
- Offers public education and information.
- Assists those in need with feeding their animals.
- Assists the community with a Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) program for feral and free roaming cats.
- Provides volunteer opportunities for community members.
- Provides housing and care for animals running at large in the City of Rifle and Town of Parachute.
Our History
Rifle Animal Shelter, a 30 plus year old building, originally served as an impound facility for the City of Rifle. In 1998 the shelter was on the verge of being shut down for not meeting the Pet Animal Care Facilities Act (PACFA) standards. A group of volunteers started a campaign to help renovate the shelter. In just six months, the shelter was renovated with donated labor and materials. Volunteers from all over Garfield County came together to make this project a success. This core group of volunteers formed a 501 © (3) non-profit corporation and became Garfield County Animal Welfare Foundation, Inc., also known as Friends of the Rifle Animal Shelter (FRAS).
FRAS’s next goal was to spay/neuter and provide medical care for every animal coming into the shelter. Today, no animal leaves the shelter without being current on vaccines, altered and micro chipped. In approximately 2002, FRAS expanded its services to include financial assistance to the Garfield County community and began to help community members alter their family pets.
On January 1, 2012, FRAS took over operations and management of the Rifle Animal Shelter. With this contract came expanded services, more efficient operations and greater public outreach.