Dear Friends of Animals,

Our 50th year is winding down, but everything else at the shelter is bustling. As I write this, in the last seven days we’ve welcomed over 2,000 visitors, received 125 animals, and adopted out 122 animals. Staff and volunteers are equally exhilarated and exhausted. Our “busy season” (from early spring through late fall when litters of puppies and kittens are more prevalent) can be grueling. It’s the perfect place for adrenaline junkies!

We’re growing fast, and the animals are depending on us to keep up. Remember from the “Field of Dreams” movie, “If you build it, they will come?” We’re living it. We moved into our new facility with double the square feet of our previous shelter in 2020, and we went from receiving nearly 4,000 animals in 2019 to 5,200 in 2023! What we haven’t seen, however, is a proportionate increase of volunteers and staff, and those who are here are working harder than ever. I show up every day in awe of the dedication and huge hearts around me, but I’ll be honest, I fear they may burn out if things don’t change.

Nonprofits always have a hand out, or in our case about 800 paws (from around 200 pets) out at any given time. We cannot function well without gifts of time, talent, and treasure – and each of these three categories is as important as the other.

It’s annual budget time, so we’ve crunched numbers to add more staff. We also need more volunteers in every area: customer service, animal care, dog walking, assisting with surgery, building and ground maintenance, laundry, dishes, administrative duties, offsite adoptions, special events, working our thrift store, fostering pets ... the opportunities are endless. As we build our dream team in our field of dreams to better serve pets and people, we invite you to join us!

The season of giving is upon us. We hope you will consider giving your time, your talent, or your treasure to help the many animals who arrive at Tri-County Humane Society. There’s no such thing as a small donation, and, as the saying goes, many hands make light work! 

To learn more about how you can help, click here, or feel free to contact me.

With gratitude for your support,

Marit Ortega
Executive Director
(320) 371-0871
ed@tricountyhumanesociety.org

P.S. We have a special opportunity to give, receive, and celebrate in December! Plan on joining us for our virtual “Cheers for 50 Years” birthday bash, beginning on December 11 - the day we were incorporated.