Lynchburg Humane Society Blog

When you work in the sheltering field, you almost always hate the summer.  That probably seems strange to hear but what a lot of people don’t realize is that the summer brings a lot more cats and kittens. Let me try to put this into perspective. In April, our center received in 176 cats and kittens. In May, we received in 314 cats and kittens and in June, we had 362 come through our doors. This is what we call kitten season, and it lasts all the way through September, sometimes into October. This month, we are seeing the second wave of mother cats having kittens and so it all begins again. Kitten season is brutal on the community and us because the summer is also when many people move and need to surrender their pets. But this year has been even worse, mainly because we had such a warm winter and the cats were able to comingle so easily. We have seen 280 more pets come in so far this year, and most of those are cats. We are not alone; every single shelter we are work...

Myths of No Kill We recently took in a 10-year-old dog from a great family who lived in Danville because they could no longer care for this dog.   They found him originally as a stray and kept him almost a year in their home.   He was a large red fuzzy mixed dog that was blind and deaf.    Some shelters may consider euthanizing this dog but instead we found him a new home where he can happily live out his life.   He was only at the shelter less than a week before he touched the heart of his new adopted family.    This is what no kill is, not taking the life of a pet just because they are old or have some manageable or treatable problems.   It is about being a resource for community members who can’t continue to care for their pets but don’t want them euthanized. What does no kill mean? No Kill does not mean we don't euthanize. It means that we don't kill healthy and treatable pets as a means of controlling the population. A 90% save rate ...

“What is happening at the Pittsylvania Pet Center?”   If you were not involved in the voting, and talks around building the new Pittsylvania Pet Center you may have heard or asked this question around town these past few weeks. This is my first article in the Chatham Star Tribune so I thought I would take this opportunity to clear up the questions. The first question being asked is, “Who is running the new center?’   The Lynchburg Humane Society is managing the operations at the new Pittsylvania Pet Center.   The county of Pittsylvania owns and built the new facility and are responsible for the building and the costs associated with maintaining the building. The Lynchburg Humane Society is responsible for hiring and paying the employees of the center and for all costs associated with caring for the pets including feeding and medical treatments. “How is this different from before?”   Prior to our involvement the Animal Control officers were responsible for ever...

Last year, after attending a national lifesaving conference we decided it was time to lead a statewide change. We put a stake in the ground; we would help lead our state to no kill status by 2020. To do this we committed to help other organizations reach a place where no healthy or treatable pet was euthanized in the state of Virginia.   We began working with other localities to bring in pets in an effort to save more lives, 602 to be exact in 2016.   In 2017, we have made great strides towards setting our goals in motion. We have begun managing the Appomattox Shelter and we applied for and received a very generous, multiple year grant from the Petco foundation.   The Petco Foundation Lifesaving Impact award will be used to assist with low cost spay/neuter and medical services, transport assistance, training, mentoring and for us to offer consulting services to other shelters. We will create No Kill VA support services to build relationships and coordinate effort...

The Lynchburg Humane Society has been taking in owner surrenders by appointment since the fall of 2009 when we made a commitment to become a no-kill community. When an owner needs help with their pet we offer counseling through our pet help desk. Counselors listen to the issues the owner is having and offer solutions as best they can. If the issue is not urgent, and the owner wants to try to keep the pet, we   help them with solutions such as; short term boarding, food, low cost medical care, training, and ideas on how they can improve the situation. If the owner does not want to try to keep the pet, we can learn more about their pet, help them advertise and list their pet for them on Petfinder, a national website. If they have not found a home through the Petfinder website, our wish list, or from our suggestions, when we have an appropriate space we can bring the pet to our facility to continue to look for a home. While the owner is waiting to bring their pet in, we keep in...

I am not a first follower, I am a cautious follower.  I am the first to admit that I need time sometimes to jump on the bandwagon.  I am never the first to buy the latest technology – I am still a generation behind on my iPhone and iPad and just got Windows 10.  I wait and see, contemplate and then listen and learn from others.   When it comes to new things in this field as an organization, we will jump in fast and hard and get the movement started, if it makes sense.  I ask a lot of questions and make sure I understand the “why.”  I don’t change things just to change them and even then after a change we track it and determine if it was the right decision.  So here we are.   Jumping on the bandwagon to remove the breeds off our adoption postings for our dogs.   This discussion has been going on for many years in this field. We didn’t do it at first because it didn’t make sense to me.   We didn’t have a problem wit...