Dear Friends,

I’m sure you’ve heard the news lately. Shelters are in crisis. All across America, shelters are full - over capacity, even - and the calls keep coming. People are surrendering their pets in droves because of increased expenses due to inflation, housing issues and a shortage of veterinary services. And, many people who adopted pets during the pandemic no longer have time, now that they have gone back to their regular work life.    

This time last year, adoptions were steady and calls from people needing help to keep their pets were higher than normal. With your help, we were able to meet their needs. Now things are different. People are declining help to keep their pets and opting to surrender them instead. With an increase in surrenders and a slow down in adoptions, pets are coming in faster than we can adopt them out. This, in addition to a shortage in veterinary services available to us, creates longer lengths of time in shelter for our animals. 

At West Columbia Gorge Humane Society we are struggling. Our shelter is full and our foster homes are maxed out. Our animals are experiencing kennel stress due to longer wait times and our staff is working overtime to keep them active and healthy. We have a surrender waiting list as long as the California coast. We could use your help, so that we can continue helping others. Cash donations will allow us to increase our veterinary services and provide spay/neuter, vaccinations, microchipping, flea/tick prevention, etc. to shelter pets and pet owners facing hardship. Food donations will keep our pet food pantry going. Volunteering will help us keep our payroll costs down. Fostering will allow us to take in more pets. Advocating will get the word out in the community about the pets we have available for adoption, the need we have for volunteers and fosters, and the services we can provide to help people keep their pets.

I have to be honest, it’s hard to write this email and as executive director, it's heartbreaking to lead through this. It’s an added layer of difficulty we don’t need right now. The only thing that brings me comfort is knowing that with your partnership, we will climb these mountains together, as we have all the others. The WCGHS pack is strong and we are united in our passion to save the lives of pets and do everything we can to help pets and their people stay together. 

I leave you with a link to some very sweet pets that have been waiting far too long to be adopted. Please take a look. Read and share their stories. In honor of PetSmart's National Adoption Week, we are running special adoption promotions on some of our longer term residents. Look for our emails over the next couple of days highlighting these pets. Let’s get them adopted as soon as possible so they can get out of the shelter and into loving homes. This will literally save their lives and create space to help more pets in need.         

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions, comments, ideas please feel free to contact me at 360-835-3464 or mickis@wcghs.org. I'm all ears and believe collaboration is the key to solving our problems.  

Warm regards,
Micki
Michelle 'Micki" Simeone
Executive Director

P.S. Know someone who needs help? Have them call us. We have programs and services that can provide food, emergency veterinary care, temporary boarding, pet supplies like kennels, collars, leashes, flea/tick prevention, etc. Early intervention is always best and makes for more options to keep pets and their people together.

West Columbia Gorge Humane Society
2695 Index Street, Washougal, WA 98671