An update on strides in Animal Welfare in the past years:

Animal welfare is one of those fields where specific stories make the headlines, but the overall climate of animal welfare is usually not something that is talked about much.  To fill you in a bit, our field has made leaps and bounds in lifesaving.  In recent years, an increasing number of shelters and communities have made the same commitment the Lynchburg Humane Society made over a decade ago – not to euthanize healthy pets or treatable pets and to never euthanize because a pet has been in the shelter for a certain amount of time or because their shelter is out of space.  Instead of euthanizing healthy pets, shelters are holding adoption specials, increasing foster programs, offering rehoming resources and resources to help people keep their pets in their homes. We are excited for this positive change for the pets.

Animal Welfare organizations had a difficult 2022

However, 2022 showed to be the most challenging year in lifesaving that has been seen in recent history.  There are shelters across the country who have not had to euthanize for space or time in years, but in 2022 these shelters were forced to make some tough decisions because of the decrease in adoptions and increase in pets in need. We are still learning and gathering data as to why this is happening.  Currently, it seems to be in line with the economic climate – people are having to make tough choices too, choosing between paying their bills or having a pet. 

While the Lynchburg Humane Society didn’t have to make those difficult lifesaving decisions, we were greatly affected by the challenges of 2022. We had pets staying longer than they have in years past and we saw a decrease in adoptions. But the most notable challenge was the number of emails and pleas we received from other shelters to help them with their overflowing shelters and feeling helpless because we couldn’t help as much as we usually are able to.  We were able to help over 700 at-risk pets from other shelters, but because we were at (or over) capacity ourselves, we couldn’t help as many as we wanted to.

How you can help lost and homeless pets across the country:

We are committed to help fight this battle and continue to help pets in need and help other shelters become “no-kill” to stop the euthanasia of healthy, treatable pets.  As always, we need your help to do that.  Please encourage everyone you know to adopt a pet instead of buying one, to spay/neuter, to seek resources when needed, to volunteer at their local shelter, to donate.  All these things will help us help the pets in 2023.

“Did you know” is a new educational series on our blog!

We are starting a new educational series about the Lynchburg Humane Society and animal welfare in general.  Each week we will be bringing you a new “Did You Know?” article in the hopes to answer a lot of those frequently asked questions we receive.

How is the Lynchburg Humane Society Funded?

To kick off this new series, we are answering one of our most asked questions…” How is the Lynchburg Humane Society funded?”.  

First, it is important to know that we are a private non-profit and not affiliated with national organizations like the ASPCA or the Humane Society of the United States.  

Over 50% of our funding to save pets comes from Donations and Grants

As you might have guessed, most of our funding to save the pets in our care comes from donations. These donations come from people like you that believe that pets deserve a second chance, or even a first chance when it comes to our neonate kittens and puppies that just came into the world and need extra care to survive.  We also receive grants to help us with new programs and additional lifesaving.  We are lucky enough to also receive bequests from kind people who left the Lynchburg Humane Society in their wills.  All these examples, make up over 50% of our funding.  So, you can see how important your donations are to our mission. The fees we charge for adoptions, spay/neuter surgeries, etc. make up about 34% of our funding.

Our relationship with the City of Lynchburg

We also receive funding from the City of Lynchburg to fulfill their state mandated public shelter requirements for Lynchburg.  This accounts for about 16% of our funding.  Pets from the City of Lynchburg account for a little more than 50% of our annual intake and include pets that are required to be held for health department quarantines, are awaiting court hearings, and of course stray pets and pets surrendered by their owners who live in Lynchburg. None of the City’s funding is used for no-kill programs like spay/neuter, medical care, foster program, etc. 

Every penny that we raise, whether through donations, grants, fees, or City funding goes to help the pets.  

Thank you for helping us save pets!

We think it is important that our community understands that when they donate to help the pets at LHS, they are the helping us fulfill our largest monetary way we save the pets, help pet owners keep their pets, and operate our no-kill programs! Thank you for supporting us to help pets in our community and beyond!