Updated September 7, 2021

Enter your organization’s (or your) name and email below to download a printable checklist to review basic OSHAThe United States Occupational Safety And Health Administration, a government department that ensures workplace safety, or the Occupational Safety And Health Act, the law that governs workplace safety. compliance at your sanctuary. Please note that this is an introductory educational reference to sanctuary safety and legal compliance. Your sanctuary may have its own safety challenges to consider when reviewing this list and creating policies!

Check out our full article about OSHA compliance for your animal sanctuary here!

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Full Text Of This Checklist

The Open Sanctuary Project’s OSHA Compliance Checklist

All organizations in the United States with at least employee must comply with OSHA regulations. Review this checklist regularly as your sanctuary grows to ensure you are 

providing a safe environment for everyone at your sanctuary. If you are looking for specific recommendations for your sanctuary, contact OSHA and ask for a non-penalizing inspection.

For more details about this topic, see this article at OpenSanctuary.org

GENERAL SAFETY

• Regularly review your sanctuary for potential hazards to employees or volunteers that could be reasonably remedied; implement fixes as soon as possible
• Communicate all unmitigable hazards of your sanctuary to employees and volunteers
• Record all non-consumer chemical products used at your sanctuary and their potential hazards in one centralized location; make this information easily available to employees
• Provide employee training for heavy equipment; do regular equipment maintenance

STRUCTURE SAFETY

• Provide first aid kits in all structures; provide basic first aid training to employees
• Provide fire suppression devices in all structures; train employees on their effective use
• Ensure all electrical equipment and wiring is installed and operating safely at all times
• Ensure all structures regularly accessed by humans have lighted emergency exit signs
• Ensure all ladders and lofts are stable, secure, and inaccessible to the public; determine each loft’s weight limit, post signage of this limit and abide by it at all times
• Create policies to keep volunteers and visitors from accessing all hazardous areas

EMPLOYEE AREAS

• Prominently display OSHA’s official poster in an area where employees can easily see it
• Provide bathroom facilities with hot and cold water, soap, and hand dryer or clean towels

RESIDENT AREAS

• Provide emergency eyewash stations and sharps disposal containers in resident areas
• Create a quarantineThe policy or space in which an individual is separately housed away from others as a preventative measure to protect other residents from potentially contagious health conditions, such as in the case of new residents or residents who may have been exposed to certain diseases. area that is physically separate from other areas and secure; create a quarantine protocol and an employee hygiene policy to avoid human zoonotic transfer
• Provide protective equipment for any employees treating ill or quarantined residents
• Provide employee training for resident behavior and safe resident handling
• Keep all dangerous or addictive medication under lock and key at all times

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

• Create policies to immediately address any human injury or illness on sanctuary grounds
• Create emergency action and evacuation plans to be used in case of fire or natural disasters that your area is prone to; make all plans easily available to employees
• Report all serious employee injuries on your sanctuary’s grounds to OSHA immediately
• Log all serious employee injuries on OSHA Form 300; keep record for at least five years