Lynchburg Humane Society Blog

What we are finding in this amazing world of animal welfare is that everyone has a cat problem.   In the shelter world there is a “cat season”.   This is the time of the year when cat intake goes through the roof and there are way too many cats than there is space for.   This results in alarming euthanasia rates at traditional county/city run shelters. What does it look like? Well to give you an idea – Jan, Feb, Mar months typically see an intake of around 49-55 cats a month, during kitten season and summer months it shoots up to around 200-279 a month. Why?   Kittens.   Spring is when kittens begin arriving.   The question we always ask ourselves is when it will end? Some years it starts around March other years later like May, and continues all the way through to the fall.    The traditional shelters who are not no kill will euthanize cats to make space for new ones coming in because there is just no room at the inn, so to speak....

One of our organization’s core values is to set goals and then smash them when possible.  Last year we smashed all sorts of records including helping more animals than we have ever helped in over a decade. With a continued save rate of 94% and with adoptions up by 44%, we had an amazing year.  But we are not ones to stand still.   Our management team met at the beginning of January and have set up new goals for 2016.  In 2015 we: •  took in 3,286 dogs and cats which was 968 more than the year before and more than we have ever helped in a decade •  brought in 290 pets from high kill shelters in the region •  adopted out 2,467 dogs and cats which was an increase of 44% over last year •  fixed 7,035 pets at our spay/neuter clinic and fixed 1,736 feral cats • served 1,200 children with birthday parties, camps, field trips and   other educational activities •  oriented 909 volunteers •  reduced our dog length of stay from 19 days t...

This is the perfect time to reflect on last year’s view of animal welfare in our community.   We don’t have final 2015 statistics yet with only a week left we have brought in 3,273 pets which is 946 more than last year and we have adopted out 2,419 which is 727 more adoptions with a save rate of over 93%.   We have had over 1,200 children take part in birthday parties, summer camps and educational programs thanks in part to the Grainger Foundation. We oriented 888 volunteers this year and have on average about 250 volunteering on a regular basis!     We have had Terry Volkswagen Subaru sponsor our adoptions for two months and had other businesses such as Flat Creek Pet Care, Learn Play Stay Doggie resort, Crouch Insurance Group, Domino’s Pizza, Fur Kidz sponsor the care for the pets and adoption fees. Our local business engagement with our operations have increased tenfold through sponsorships, volunteerism and endorsement, we couldn’t have done it wi...

Where there is success, there will be detractors.   There will be those who will communicate false information or want to discredit the work of others.    We know there will always be differing opinions in this field and other groups from time to time disagree with us.   We certainly have opinions as well about a few of the other Humane Societies’ policies and restrictions. We feel a few of them sometimes choose to follow classic old fears, myths and thinking. Recen tly, some of the actions by a few people in these other groups have made it difficult to ignore our differences.     We strive to be progressive, learn from studies and best practices and by doing the right thing to help the pets.   We strive to continue to learn from mistakes and grow and change to meet the needs of this community.  So while we know that others will not always agree with our progressive, life-saving style or policies, we feel it is unfortunate tha...