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Humane Society Statistics

In the past there has been much controversy over the Humane Society of Central Washington being a “dog pound” and not a “humane society”. The last five years have brought about significant changes to shelter operations. The shelter strives for community involvement and better access to the programs we have available. We are always looking to implement new programs to further our mission.

The shelter participates in several adoption events throughout the year, utilizes an ever growing network of rescues and shelters for transfers, and is a leading coalition member for the Spay/Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) in Yakima County. These programs are vital to the success of our mission. In 2009 our Annual Live Release Rate (LRR), using the Asilomar Records equations, was 46.73%, up from 26.47% in 2004, an increase of 20.26% over those five years. Simply, our euthanasia rate of pets in Yakima County has decreased by 20% in the past five years.

As years go by and technology increases our productivity and accuracy we are better equipped to face the challenges of animal welfare. Through the accurate collection of data we are able to identify the areas that need to be addressed. Yakima County, no doubt, has an over abundance of animals and there is certainly a cat overpopulation crisis, the humane society is constantly at maximum capacity, adoption numbers are improving, but are still low and there are many unaltered cats roaming and repopulating. Statistics tell us that cats account for 69% of all euthanasia performed at the shelter—we will be focusing on reducing the cat overpopulation crisis by implementing programs for Feral Cat Colonies and Trap Neuter & Release (TNR) in the future.

The communities support and involvement will certainly help aid us in our mission to prevent pet over-population and end animal suffering and cruelty. Our Volunteer & Education program is designed to get the community involved and educate our youth about responsible pet ownership while promoting community kindness and commitment to the welfare of animals.

We are proud of our past accomplishments and excited about the future of animal welfare in Yakima County!

ADOPT ~ DONATE ~ VOLUNTEER ~ GET INVOLVED…

The files below detail our progress over the years... feel free to browse through them and see for yourself the results of the improvements we have made over the last few years.