Humane society endures staffing shortage, pandemic challenges
Changes to daily operations have helped the Butler County Humane Society stay afloat during a year and a half of COVID-19 pandemic conditions.
Despite increased activity, COVID-19 restrictions and a flurry of adoptions, humane society representatives said volunteers, employees and donors have risen to the occasion.
The Butler County Humane Society is a no-kill shelter and continued operating, albeit with adjusted hours, during the pandemic. The shelter is open on an appointment-only basis from Wednesday to Sunday, and closed on Monday and Tuesday.
“We need people here every day, and our volunteers have stepped up,” said Michelle Edinger, director of development and community engagement at the Butler County Humane Society. “We're doing OK, but there's still lots of animals that need love and care and medical treatments.”Continuing the appointment-only system even after COVID-19 restrictions were dropped has helped adoptions run more smoothly at the shelter.“We are short-staffed like every other business out there,” Edinger said. “Having appointments, that has been really helpful for us, and we have maintained that.”
Veterinary technician Lyndsay Newhart started working at the shelter last year during the pandemic, and also spoke highly of the appointment system.“It makes things easier,” she said. “We can plan for who's coming in when doing appointments and know who's leaving.”According to Edinger, as of the end of August, the shelter was caring for 147 animals in-shelter and across its foster system. She said the volunteer community at the humane society contributed a lot during the pandemic and onward.“We really expanded our foster program. That was a huge help,” she said. “Any time we can have animals in a foster situation, it's better than being a kennel.”
Getting volunteers involved in fostering is a self-continuing cycle, she said. When foster animals are adopted out of a home, volunteers often continue by fostering other animals. Fostering also helps give potential adopting families a sense of what the animal is like in a home situation.“It's about pulling the animals out of the shelter and giving them a home experience because animals do so much better in a home environment,” she said. “Then. we can report back to potential adopters (about their temperament).”Forever homes for petsEdinger said that in the month of August, the shelter adopted out 48 animals — six dogs and 42 cats.Customer service assistant Emily Hayden said “kitten season,” when more cats are having litters of kittens, starts in the spring and stretches through the fall.“Butler is sometimes completely overrun with cats, so people will come in with whole litters of kittens,” she said. “But kittens always (are adopted) the fastest.”Across the board, Edinger said, there have been conversations about animal shelters seeing “an uptake on returns,” or an increase in people returning pets they adopted during the pandemic. However, Edinger said the Butler County Humane Society hasn't seen much of an increase in returns themselves.“We attribute that to the stringent adoption process,” she said, adding that the shelter makes sure people are prepared to adopt a pet. “We are stringent about our requirements in the application process. Some of it is daunting, but there's a purpose behind it. We're not seeing the returns that other shelters are because of that.”At the same time, Hayden said the pandemic has led the shelter to adjust the adoption process.“In our adoption contract, we ask people to get their pet to the vet within seven to 10 days,” Hayden said. “We've had to change our adoption contract because vets are so booked out that getting the pet there would be impossible.”Edinger said getting both volunteers and employees in to work at the shelter in a consistent fashion is sometimes a more difficult task, but the shelter is always willing to train people who want to help.“It's not easy working here, it's a physically taxing place, but the amount of love that goes around in this place is huge,” she said. “Everyone here has the same focus. The animals are our number one concern. Our mission is to provide care and prepare animals for their forever home, and that's what we're focusing on.”
The humane society had to cancel a number of fundraising events during the pandemic, but will be holding its fourth annual Garrett Fifield Memorial Mutt Strut from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 2 at the Rotary Shelter at Butler Memorial Park. The event will feature costume contests and a peanut-butter-eating competition for dogs, along with a prize wheel, raffle baskets and other activities to benefit the shelter.Edinger said the event will help support the humane society after a year and a half of lean fundraising.“We couldn't have our events in 2020, and our events can range between $60,000 and $100,000 of income,” Edinger said. Between the Mutt Strut and previous events this year, including the 14th annual Fur Ball at the Butler Country Club, she said the shelter is “doing OK.”“We lost those funds in 2020, but we're coming up in 2021,” she said. “We're still business as usual, and we're doing OK. The community has supported us, and we're very grateful for the care and financial support that we get.”
