The Winnipeg Humane Society: A Heartbeat at Your Feet

The Winnipeg Humane Society A Heartbeat at Your Feet A presentation for the 2010 Annual General Meeting

Animals and the Shelter

2010 Presented Difficult Challenges The homeless, lost, ill, injured, abused, loved or simply unwanted... ...they turn to us in their time of need. In 2010, we saw 8,928 faces who needed our help.

How Do We Spell Success? A-d-o-p-t-i-o-n-s! Of the 1,799 dogs who came into the shelter, 1,151 found their home. That means 3,697 pets were able to find happiness in a forever home. We celebrate this every day. Of the 6,083 cats who came into the shelter, 2,333 found their home. Of the 329 small pets who came into the shelter, 213 found their home.

Adoption Innovation A fresh look for our adoption photos helped the beauty of our pets sparkle and shine!

Satellite Facilities Over the year, 254 cat adoptions were processed through our satellite locations! We also started visiting Pet Valu with adoptable dogs, to help them gain more exposure. These visits were well received by the public.

Special Promotions The summer months saw a particularly high number of incoming cats, but a successful $25 promotion helped place more deserving cats in forever homes.

Special Promotions To help promote adoptions, we tried some fresh approaches to publicizing our adoptable pets.

The Keats We had the opportunity to work with a very talented, all-Canadian country band, The Keats. Together, we worked on a video to promote our Yelp Line.

The Gull Lake Dogs

The Gull Lake Dogs An animal hoarding seizure of 64 dogs from Gull Lake, Manitoba created an environment of despair in the shelter.

The Gull Lake Dogs The case was one of the worst in WHS history and took a toll on staff and volunteers.

The Gull Lake Dogs The shock of the situation was felt by everyone in the community.

The Gull Lake Dogs 25 of the dogs were officially turned over to The WHS, and Copper was the first to be adopted. With time and work the other dogs eventually found homes.

The Gull Lake Dogs The “Lucky Seven” dogs stood out from the pack. They were in the worst shape and would need extensive rehabilitation, beyond what The WHS could offer. To help these dogs, The WHS contacted Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah, and through amazing public support the Lucky Seven were flown off to Dogtown where they are all doing well, and currently up for adoption!

The Gull Lake Dogs With animal hoarding becoming a more publicized issue, more and more people are now reporting cases to The Winnipeg Humane Society. The WHS created a new department called Investigations and Emergency Response, bringing our Animal Protection Officers and Emergency Responders under the direction of one manager.

Education, Programs and Advocacy

Fluffy’s Law The issue of pet friendly apartments received a lot of attention on both sides of the issue.

Fluffy’s Law But unfortunately in the end, Fluffy’s Law was not realized sending supporters back to the drawing board.

A Voice for Animals The WHS continued to speak for animals who cannot speak for themselves. Animal welfare laws and responsible pet ownership are always top of mind. “ These amendments will have some teeth. We’ve already experienced breeders, coming to us and surrendering their animals – up to 70 at a time,” Bill McDonald. “ Ensuring dogs are properly socialized will help them know what behaviour is appropriate and what isn’t,” Aileen White.

A Voice for Animals The WHS continues to work on banning the import of cat and dog fur in Canada. We hope to see concrete action in 2011. The public knows that it is time for change.

A Voice for Animals The WHS worked to see positive change and more humane conditions in farming operations. Industry commentators are beginning to see change approaching. “ In an ideal situation, we would like to see a free-run, open barn concept,” Bill McDonald.

A Voice for Animals We covered a variety of farm animal welfare topics in our newsletters, helping to spread the word about humane treatment for all animals.

Humane Education We offered many courses, kids camps, dog classes and more in 2010. Our abundance of programs keeps the community engaged and educated on all aspects of pet ownership.

Classes and Support We implemented a Pet First Aid course in partnership with Emergency Essentials and have had a great response to the program. We also continued with our Pet Loss Support Group and offered our first Candlelight Pet Vigil in October.

The WHS and the Community

Stray Cat Issue The media plays a key role in informing the public of some of Winnipeg’s worst animal welfare issues. Public education, along with spay and neuter programs are the key to reducing Winnipeg’s cat over-population issue.

Stray Cat Issue Often, some issues are difficult to navigate, such as the Spence Street Cat issue where the help of The WHS was limited by property rights and legal requirements. Thankfully, by working with other groups and members of the community, most situations can be rectified and animals can be saved.

Connecting with the Community Spreading the word about abuse cases raises public awareness and garners support to advocate for tougher animal welfare laws. Communication is also key when The WHS is in need of additional or circumstantial support. We can always rely on our amazing supporters to pull us through the tough times. “ Sometimes people need to be taught ethics the hard way, and the hard way in this case is the law,” said Bill McDonald, CEO.

The Website The WHS Website was completely overhauled early in the year. Armed with a bold new look and a user friendly interface, website traffic has been consistently increasing by about 1,500 per month! By the end of the year, the website was attracting 36,900 visitors pet month.

Social Media The WHS twitter feed has also grown quickly and now has almost 1,000 followers. With daily updates, posts and photos, our number of facebook followers doubled in 2010 from 5,000 in January to over 10,000 in December. Today The WHS facebook page is an open forum to ask questions, debate important issues and share pet stories and photos.

Publications Three newsletters were published in 2010, each bringing new animal-related issues and information to the forefront of people’s minds. A successful, full-sized calendar packed with winning images from the annual Pet Photo Contest raised $144,000!

Breakfast Television After doing adoptable pet segment on Breakfast Television for several years, we were honoured when we were approached to take over a regular, weekly time-slot! Thank you Breakfast Television for all of your support over the years!

Winnipeg Women Winnipeg Women did a feature on three very valuable women who make a difference at The Winnipeg Humane Society. Congratulations to Dr. Erika Anseeuw, Gabrielle Thiessen and Gail Kreutzer for playing a part in an amazing feature!

Santa Claus Parade For the first time in many years, The Winnipeg Humane Society participated in the Santa Clause Parade. We were extremely happy to be presented with an award for the most innovative, interesting and inspirational float!

Events and Fundraising

1001 Donations Lights, camera, action! Our live radio and telethon raised both awareness for our shelter and over $60,000.

Used Book and Movie Sale Our first used book and movie sale raised over $10,000 and was a great community event.

Yappy Hour’s Viva Paws Vegas With over 150 “Elvis Paws-ley” look-a-likes and their dogs in attendance, it was a cocktail party gone to the dogs!

Paws in Motion Our largest fundraiser of the year raised over $280,000 for our spay & neuter programs!

The Bow Wow Ball – Mission Pawsible Thanks to over 500 secret agents in attendance, the Bow Wow Ball was able to raise over $180,000 for our furry friends.

Paws for the Season Our animals warmed everyone’s hearts in December at our annual Open House.

Holiday Pet Pics Pet Pics with Santa Paws and Hannukah Pet Pics put everyone in the holiday spirit. This year’s new appointment-based system shortened wait times and kept everyone happy. We are always so happy to welcome Doug Speirs back as Santa.

Thank You We are so much more than an animal shelter; we are a community of animal lovers. We would like to thank everyone who helped us with our mission in 2010; to our donors, volunteers, sponsors, media support, staff and ambassadors – THANK YOU!

The End

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The Winnipeg Humane Society: A Heartbeat at Your Feet

by TheWinnipegHumaneSociety on May 20, 2011

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The Winnipeg Humane Society: A Heartbeat at Your Feet — Presentation Transcript