Imagine living your best life as a dog, with an amazing family on a farm. Kids, goats and chickens were your daily playmates. No one taught you boundaries, so you wandered as you pleased. Until someone decided you were too scary, and shot you in the face with a shot gun. You were lucky enough to survive, but your family decided to give you up because you were too much trouble. After all of that, you end up at an animal control facility where your days are numbered.

Imagine you are a 10-month-old Heinz 57 with nothing flashy about you and you end up at a high kill facility. You get passed by daily by people looking for a dog, just not you. You are put on the euthanasia list.

Imagine being a shelter worker at a facility that euthanizes for space. You take this position because you really want to be the person who makes a difference in the lives of animals. Inevitably, you fall in love with the underdog that gets overlooked time and time again. And then the day comes that special dogs time is up, and he is set to be euthanized.

All of these situations are real-life examples of situations that we are asked to help with on a daily basis. Zeus, the gentle giant who was shot in the face, was loved and cared for by our staff for 153 day before finding his perfect forever home with a large, loving family. Penny, the plain brown dog, was pulled hours before she was set to be euthanized and was in our care for 59 days before finding her loving home. She completes their family. We get calls multiple times a week from surrounding animal control facilities begging us to give the one that is going to break their heart if they have to euthanize them one more chance. Mental health is a real issue for shelter workers.

Warrick Humane Society started in 1983 in the homes of a few generous people. Once we realized the growing need for an established no-kill shelter in Warrick County, we decided to build a safe place for animals to stay until adoption. Since then, we have added our Home Away Pet Spa, a boarding and grooming facility for the community where all proceeds help the animals in our shelter. Hundreds of dogs and cats from our community and beyond depend on us each year so we have fundraisers, volunteer opportunities and events to raise money and awareness year round.

At Warrick Humane Society, our mission is to end the animal overpopulation crisis in the community, to find homes for homeless and neglected animals, and to provide educational programs and community services for the mutual benefit of animals and people.

Our current facility is in poor condition. We are spending our money on repairs for our building, when we could be using it to help more animals in need and serve the community. Our Board feels it is time to take bold steps in reviewing how we use our resources so we can be an effective and efficient non-profit partner in our region. Our services are an asset to the community, but our building is a hindrance to our growth and impact. Due to a recent gift and our own self-reflection, we feel it is time to consider a new location for our services.

With a new facility, we would financially be able to focus solely on the health of our animals. We would also be able to provide the community with more low-cost veterinary options, which we get calls for every day. In addition to that, a new facility would provide:

• Multiple quarantine rooms with independent ventilation systems
• A separate intake entry to allow for longer intake hours and privacy
• More room to be a safe haven for additional dogs, cats, puppies and kittens
• A large conference room to allow for more educational programs
• Additional meet and greet areas to allow potential families to spend more time finding the right pet.
• Private adoption rooms to allow for uninterrupted time with adopters to review important documents.

WHS has been financially stable for over a decade, even with the burden of the ongoing maintenance issues and the rising vet bills, all while increasing annual adoptions by 195%. Over the last decade, WHS has also increased its fundraising dollars by nearly 394% and average general donations have increased by 126%.

At the beginning of 2021, a very dedicated volunteer left us transformations legacy gift: a parcel of land located just five lots east of our current facility and a monetary amount that has been dedicated towards the development of our new facility.

It is time for us to engage the community in taking our next step to fulfill our mission. Your gift can help us expand our no-kill community. With the legacy gift as a catalyst, we have the opportunity to provide a resource that will serve animals and families for generations to come.