PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson County and Port Angeles humane societies are hosting open houses to encourage animal adoptions Saturday, joining 30 other shelters statewide.
The event takes place during the shelters’ regular hours, which is from noon to 5 p.m. at the Humane Society of Jefferson County at 112 Critter Lane in Port Townsend and from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society’s shelter at 2105 W. U.S. Highway 101, Port Angeles.
Steve Gillard, chairman of the board of the Humane Society of Jefferson County, said its shelter is diligent in its mission to “go the extra mile” in placing a lost animal.
“If we weren’t here, the animals might be taken to a shelter that doesn’t have such a compassionate policy,” he said.
“If there was no place to take the strays, the animals may be left to wander.”
The event is coordinated by Pawsitive Alliance, a volunteer organization in Kenmore, in the hopes of placing more than 400 animals statewide on a single day.
Find homes for pets
Mary Beth Wegener, executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society, would like to place five or six animals Saturday, while Devon Carney, who manages the Jefferson County shelter, hopes to find homes for all of the animals on site: five cats and nine dogs.
The Jefferson County shelter plans to hold a raffle. Both will give out goodie bags.
“We are using this as a meet-and-greet,” Carney said.
“We want the community to know that we are good people and this is not a ‘pound’ like in the past.”
The shelter in Port Angeles found homes for 724 animals in 2014; during the same period, the shelter in Port Townsend placed 260.
Both shelters take in more animals than they place in new homes. Many of those at the shelter are lost and then reunited with their families.
Dog licenses from the Port Townsend shelter cost $20 for two years, or $48 for an animal that has not been spayed or neutered.
Lifetime licenses are also available for $112 and $266, respective to spaying/neutering.
In Port Angeles, licenses cost $10 per year, $55 for those not spayed or neutered.
The shelter also offers a lifetime license for $50, requiring the animal be spayed or neutered, vaccinated regularly and have a microchip installed.
The shelter in Port Angeles does euthanize, but only if an animal is very ill or has behavioral issues that make it a danger, Wegener said.
Don’t euthanize for space
“We do not euthanize for space,” she said.
The shelter in Port Townsend has a similar policy.
“We have not euthanized an adoptable animal in many years,” Carney said, adding that the shelter will euthanize sick animals at the request of the owner, which is a service the shelter in Port Angeles does not provide.
The Jefferson County Humane Society is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.
For more information, phone 360-385-3292, visit www.jeffersoncountyhumanesociety.org or email shelter@hsjcwa.org.
The Olympic Peninsula Humane Society is open from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 11 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays.
For more information, call 360-457-8206 or go to www.ophumanesociety.org.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
