Western Arizona Humane Society
Victoria Cowper,
Community Relations Manager
This is a regular column, presented every two weeks to provide information about pet and animal care, including the legal responsibilities of pet ownership. We invite you to send your questions to answer in upcoming issues.
Please send your questions and comments to the Today's News Herald or directly to me a W.A.H.S. 855-5083 or wahs@ctaz.com

Some of you may have read last Sunday's newspaper and noticed an article about Lake Havasu City's current budget. The article identified several local agencies that receive funding from Lake Havasu City - including the Western Arizona Humane Society. The information in the article may be confusing to some and we would like to explain what we do for the city funding.

What is the relationship between Lake Havasu City and the Western Arizona Humane Society?

Lake Havasu City does not make charitable contributions to the Western Arizona Humane Society. Almost twenty years ago, the Lake Havasu City government decided that it did not want to employ Animal Control Officers, operate and maintain a "city pound", or be directly responsible for enforcement of animal control ordinances. Instead, it decided to contract those functions to the Western Arizona Humane Society. This is not a unique situation but one that is common throughout the United States, as exemplified in Atlanta, Georgia, Seattle, Washington, and small towns such as Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

What services does the Western Arizona Humane Society provide Lake Havasu City?

For many years, the Western Arizona Humane Society has worn two hats - that of an animal control agency responsible for investigating animal control complaints, managing a rabies control program, and enforcing animal control ordinances; and that of a humane society responsible for sheltering unwanted animals, arranging adoptions, and promoting and teaching responsible animal care.

How is the funding distributed?

Approximately 60% of the operating funds for the Western Arizona Humane Society come from the contract for Animal Control. These funds provide for the following: trained law enforcement personnel available 24 hours per day, 365 days per year to respond to and investigate animal control complaints; trained animal care technicians to care for the animals in our care; operation and maintenance of facilities for stray and unclaimed animals who must be held (by law) at least 72 hours before disposition; food and vaccines for animals housed within the facility; operation and maintenance of animal control van and ambulance; low cost rabies clinics held twice per year; issuance and maintenance of city dog licenses; care and maintenance of injured wildlife pending release into the wild or transfer to Arizona Department of Game and Fish; and various education programs. We respond to approximately 250 animal control calls per month.

Why does the Western Arizona Humane Society need fundraisers ?

The remaining 40% of our operating funds come from donations and fundraisers. These funds provide for the operation and maintenance of our adoption facilities, a portion of personnel salaries and benefits, food, supplies and medications. These funds are especially important because they provide monies necessary to sponsor low-cost spay/neuter certificates for pet owners who could not otherwise afford to have their pets altered. For example, last year we spent approximately $55,000 for such surgeries. We pay for the veterinary care of some sick or injured animals that come in for adoption. We sponsor low cost adoptions to senior citizens.

The 8th Annual Duck Derby is a big part of our fundraising campaign. All of the proceeds directly benefit the homeless animals and support our spay/neuter efforts. It is also a fun event that the entire community can participate in. This year's Duck Derby is scheduled for Saturday, September 25th, under the bridge at the Island Mall and Brewery.

What about volunteer participation?

Despite the monies we receive from the city and from donations, we rely heavily on our volunteers who donated over 4,000 hours last year to do the following: provide accounting and management services, work in the office answering the phone and handling the paperwork, exercising and training animals, performing maintenance and construction duties, assisting at rabies clinics and education programs. We also receive assistance from many of the businesses in town that provide materials and services at below retail costs, as well as support our fundraisers like the Duck Derby.

We are blessed to have such tremendous support from the community and from the city. We believe that as a humane society we are able to provide animal control functions in a humane way. In many locations, where city or county governments are responsible for animal control, unclaimed pets are euthanized after a three-day holding period. Because we wear the two hats I described above, we are able to transfer adoptable pets from the animal control kennels to the humane society kennels after the required three-day holding period. In this way, the animals have a very good chance of finding good homes.

We invite you to visit our facilities and see our staff and volunteers at work at 1100 Empire Dr., 855-5083, or we will be happy to schedule a presentation of the many functions of the Western Arizona Humane Society to your club, group or classroom. Also, watch our Adopt-a-Pet program on TV-45.