Annual Report: County Humane Society operations break new ground, set service records, and maintain ‘no kill’ status

The saying is that “no news is good news”, but for at least one volunteer organization in Warren County, the good news now flows forth on cue from the Humane Society of Warren County at each year’s Annual Meeting, beating national rescue averages at its animal shelter and setting achievable goals for the years ahead.

This is a far cry from when, for example, I joined the HSWC ranks more than a decade ago when a mass meeting of members — more than 100 — voted unanimously to start over by replacing an entire board of directors with a small group of volunteers, including me, to carry on what some call “God’s work” and many others call the “hard work” of caring for the county’s forgotten or otherwise lost and sick animals that live among us.

Apart from perhaps one or two humanitarians who came before her, no one, except perhaps Julia Wagner, founder of Front Royal’s animal shelter back in the 1940s, has brought about the recent progress at the shelter more than its current executive director, Meghan Bowers, as indicated in each of the annual meetings she’s reported to this past four years.

At this year’s meeting at The Apple House on April 11 for example, records were set in adoptions, mainly dogs and cats, but this year including a feisty black pig, bringing the total adoptions to 674. According to ASPCA’s national figures, only 6% of lost dogs nationwide are found and reunited from an animal shelter. To a round of applause, Bowers announced that in Warren County, her shelter reunited 88% of its stray dogs with their owners. She said the pig was signed over to the shelter (does anyone out there have a home for a rather larger pig?).

HSWC Executive Director Meghan Bowers, and below, Kayla Wines, Director of Shelter Operations – Photos Courtesy HSWC

Bowers is always ready to shower praise upon her staff of 17, including nine team leaders, and did so at this week’s meeting, singling out Julia Wagner Shelter Director Kayla Wines for an award recognizing her total of nine years service to the shelter, and also recognizing recent volunteers Jess and Shawn Cox for the 2022 Service Award “who have dedicated their lives to caring for the most vulnerable animals in the shelter.”

Over the past two years, on behalf of the HSWC, Bowers has opened two downtown satellite premises, a spay/neuter clinic which so far has completed more than 5,000 surgeries, including several “freebies” thanks to a new “Spay It Forward” program; and a “Pick of the Litter” thrift store that opened to a brisk business last November.

Thrift Store Team of Laura, Jessie and Linda; below, HSWC Spay Clinic, Linda R. Lorber Campus

Treasurer Katrina Meade reported a total net profit of $89,601 from five fundraising events, along with a net shelter income of $865,821 less $782,307 shelter expenses, and a clinic income of $376,458 during its first full year of operation, minus expenses totaling $341,300, for a $35,158 net profit.

Twenty-eight foster families helped 115 dogs and cats during the year; 119 volunteers provided 1,389 hours of service.

Bowers was most proud of the live release rate for her “no kill” shelter – the rate for 2022 was 93.1%. Among the shelter goals she announced for 2023 were reduction of the longest residents’ length of stay; daily dog play groups and more enrichment for cats. Opened last year, a memorial garden dedicated to the “dogs of war” and law enforcement K-9s, will again schedule a ceremony at the shelter the Saturday (noon) of Memorial Day weekend May 27-29.

Culminating the 90-minute long meeting was the election or reelection of four board members, President Amanda Kindall, Krista Beahm, Kathy Dodge, and Renee Baker.

HSWC Board President Amanda Kindall

(Malcolm Barr Sr., Rockland resident and retired journalist, is a former HSWC president and, at age 90, remains active in animal welfare)