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Pet placement soars at humane society

Increased traffic, waiving of cat adoption fee aided growth of
over 30 percent

By Liz Greenawalt; Feb. 18, 2005

Featured by Permission from News Graphic Staff

Ozaukee County – No matter where they come from, we all love our pets, and last year, more pets were adopted from the Ozaukee Humane Society (OHS) than in years past. The OHS placed 197 animals in 2004, over 300 more than in 2003, while serving as a temporary shelter for more than 2,000 animals.

Kim Schlote, OHS shelter manager, said there are many factors involved in the higher adoption rate, including more people coming in, more adoptable animals at the facility and more animals overall. Schlote also said waiving the adoption fee for cats probably accounted for some of the increase. In 2004, the fee for cats over one year was waived and for a portion of that time, there was no cost for cats five months and older.

“We know that people can obtain cats from many places and we wanted to eliminate the barriers of adoption and we want them to come to us versus anywhere else,” said Schlote.

In 2004, 772 cats were adopted, 261 dogs were taken home and 164 small animals found families.

Last year was bustling with energy not just because of the amount of animals coming in and going out, but because of two other changes that have enhanced the facility.

In December 2003, the county board voted to designate OHS as the official county pound which enabled the organization to collect surplus funds from dog license taxes collected by local municipalities. Just over $10,500 was forwarded to OHS in licensing fees in 2004.

Victoria Wellens, executive director of the Wisconsin Humane Society (WHS), said the licensing fees will go toward enhancing operation and the ability to respond to stray animals through adding more hours, providing more training and utilizing more appropriate vehicles for animal transport.

The OHS also merged with the WHS in September 2004 in an effort to create efficiencies. Both Schlote and Wellens said the first five months of the merger have led to improvements. “We've gotten positive feedback from everybody about having more options at OHS and more resources available for us to use, so overall it's going great,” said Schlote.

Wellens said the WHS loves the partnership and believes there are a lot of good ideas and new energy that comes from the OHS, as well as the increased efficiencies. “Specific examples are having the OHS use our human resource team to help to screen candidates, the utilization of our volunteer training, our adoption teammates and people who already have more systems knowledge and we've been able to share computers and the phone systems,” she said.

While the past year has been positive for the OHS, the future is looking exciting as well. The current facility in Grafton is comprised of a former drive-through's concession stand and a trailer, and Wellens said there is a short-term effort under way to get rid of the trailer and expand the former concessions area to accommodate the administrative work that was being done in the trailer.

For the long term, the OHS is looking at a central location in the county, probably in Grafton. Wellens said they are looking for a bigger location the shelter and trailer only contain about 2,5000-square feet.

“We need a bigger facility to be able to do more intervention because for animals that are sick when they come in, we want to provide them with a dignified area for isolation and vet care and we want to be able to keep the dogs and cats separate,” said Wellens.

Overall, Wellens said it has been a great experience working with OHS staff and volunteers. “They are just really fabulous, hard working, and very diligent about their interest in caring for the animals and making sure that the program is working effectively,” said Wellens. “It couldn't be better.”

For more information about the OHS or to view a listing of animals available for adoption, please call 377-7580 or visit www.ozaukeehumane.org .