More than 60 percent of the households in Kitsap County have a pet, and for the past 25 years, the Kitsap Humane Society has delivered compassionate, individualized care to the animals that come through the doors each year for adoption. For the last four years, the number has been growing, with an all-time record of more than 7,000 animals in 2017. These animals change people’s lives. They are loved by seniors, children or people who just want to walk their dog each day or have their cat sleep with them on their bed each night.
Connecting animals in need of a home to people whose lives will be enhanced by having an animal is the mission of the Kitsap Humane Society. KHS has an extraordinary commitment to saving animals’ lives and finding them a good home. The organization has a life-saving rate of 96 percent, one of the highest in the nation for a shelter the size of KHS.
This success is mostly due to the attitude and belief of the dedicated staff that every animal is worth saving and can be placed in a home. Last year, KHS placed over 6,500 animals, mostly dogs and cats, into loving homes, and had over 50,000 visitors to the shelter — people in hopes of finding a pet to take home and to love.
The Kitsap Humane Society is a nonprofit organization run by Executive Director Eric Stevens, a wonderful staff and a committed board of directors. More than 300 people who love animals volunteer at KHS, doing everything from walking dogs, brushing cats, feeding animals, doing laundry and washing dishes, to assisting with veterinary services and adoptions. The shelter is a loving place to hang out for humans and animals. If someone would like to be a volunteer, simply call Kitsap Humane Society and ask for the volunteer coordinator.
Kitsap Humane Society has grown dramatically in recent years. Intake of animals, including transfers from other shelters, has increased by the thousands. With more than 60 percent growth in the past three years, the old shelter is taxed, creating overcrowded conditions. So this year, the organization has launched a capital funding campaign to raise $5 million that would allow KHS to double the size of the existing shelter.
As part of the building project, kennels will be enlarged and made more comfortable, noise will be abated, and ventilation and drainage will be improved, creating healthier conditions and less stressful environment for the animals.
The new project will also create a more welcoming and larger lobby, will provide more rooms for adoption counseling and will include more- spacious customer service areas, which can better serve the thousands of customers and attract more people to come to KHS to adopt animals.
This proposed improvement to the shelter has been long in coming but the board and the staff agree now is the time to step forward and build a new shelter for the animals — they deserve it.
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