 This is Dennis McMahon and welcome to Positively Vermont and today we are going to be exploring the world of pets and how to adopt the pet, how to support pets and pet friendly activities and all that good stuff with the folks from the Humane Society of Chittenden County. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having us. And my first guest here is Aaron Alamed, the Director of Volunteer and Community Outreach for the Humane Society of Chittenden County and Diana Hill, the Director of Development of Humane Society. A wonderful organization and really something that we hope you'll learn a lot about during today's program. So tell us a little bit about yourself, each one of you, how you got involved and what you do for the Humane Society. Well, I've been with HSCC for just over a year now. I keep pinching myself. I'm very, very lucky to be able to be working for this organization and this role with Aaron. Before coming to HSCC, I worked for some other animal welfare organizations and it just really instilled that this was the work that I wanted to do. But my task at the Humane Society is fundraising. 75% of our annual revenue comes from charitable donations. So that's just support from the community. So I just work each day and I get to be involved with community supporters who help really make HSCC all that it is. Aaron's got a fun role too. Tell us about yourself. Yeah, so I actually have been with the organization for over five years. So I started as a volunteer actually and I loved the organization so much that I really wanted to work there and I got that dream come true. And so yeah, it's been a really amazing experience. So I head up the volunteer program, which is 200 strong and 200 people help us every day. We only have a staff of about 15 people. So it's a small staff so our volunteers are a crucial part of how we do our jobs every single day and take care of the amount of animals that we take in each day and care for. And then I also head up our educational programs and some other programs and services too and do a bunch of community service outreach as far as with community groups like schools, veterans groups, things like that that really want to get involved and help us whether it be donating their time or doing an event or so on. So there's a lot of different hats that all of us wear in order to get the job done. That's great. I see from your website which is a very interesting website and we published the reference that the society was founded in 1901. Tell us a little about the history and the mission as it has developed and what you do today. That's great. I know. We've been serving in Chittenden and Grand Isle County since 1901 so 118 plus years. It's pretty remarkable and our building used to be when you drive up to the Humane Society you'll see our big dog yard where we have adopters meet dogs that they could potentially be taking home and that's where the Humane Society used to be until the early 2000s when we had this big capital campaign and we put the new building. It's really beautiful in the site that it sits there now. But our mission has changed a lot. We really tried to meet the demands of our community. Now surrender prevention is one of our biggest initiatives so we work with community members to help keep their pets at home with them. We have a couple programs that really worked in this effort but one of them is our rainy day pet fund so we will work with community members if they have a pet who has an emergency that's come about and they needed a surgery. They've just torn their ACL and it's $3,000 and they can't afford that bill. Whether or not their animal came from the Humane Society they can apply through a grant for us and we will step in and try to help cover that cost. We really want to keep pets in with people that love them so surrender prevention has definitely been something that's become who we are now. It's the Humane Society in 2019, almost 2020. Just tell me so we can be clear because what do you classify as a pet? What types of animals? Because a lot of people are getting kind of exotic with things. Just give us a list of dogs, cats, whatever. Yeah, it's mainly companion animals so dogs, cats, small animals is what we like to kind of bracket the ferrets, chinchillas, bunny rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats, gerbil sponsors. So furry companion animals is really what we're directly helping and then we do have a Humane Investigator on staff that investigates those animals. Any report that comes in as well as livestock and those other animals too. So we do touch that kind of community but mainly we're dealing with the companion animals, the legal companion animals in our community. Tell us about some of the statistics about the course of the time you have been with the society or even in its history. How many people have been served? How many animals have been saved, rescued or put out for adoption? Give us some idea of that because I know particularly legislators and people involved with organizations like to see what the numbers are. The numbers are great and we're really fortunate to report that in the last decade we've re-homed over 9,000 animals. In 2018 we celebrated 974 adoptions but so far this year, the year is not even over yet, we've celebrated over 1,200 adoptions. And people are connected, we help people just as much as animals because there's always people connected to the animals that we care for. We have an emergency pet food shelf so everyday people come in and utilize that. It's free for the public to use that may need extra food to support their animals. It's hard to put a number on the amount of people we've served because an animal is usually touched by multiple humans on either side of their care. As well as animals that aren't even coming into us as well as the groups that we give tours to and help out in our community with their animals. So it's hard to put a number on that, we hope it's a grand number because I think we do help almost everybody in our community whether it be when they're following our Facebook page and seeing all the great animals go home and they're feeling good about that or giving them advice over the phone as far as having issues with, people just call us up with issues like hey my cat's peeing outside the litter box, I can't handle anymore, I think I need to relinquish my animal, they're super upset about it. We feel for them and we give them a couple tips like if you want to keep your animal maybe add an additional litter box or have you tried to go to the vet to get some blood work taken to see if there's anything wrong with the animal and they never even thought about that and then they're able to keep their animal. So we help so many different people in our community on so many different levels. That's amazing, the numbers are really fantastic, how many families and homes and individuals have been impacted by that. That's huge, the public awareness, so you see a lot of people walking around and you know their dog and there might be a service dog, there might be a dog that it's not looking too well at the moment and all of a sudden next thing you know the dog is all over the place jumping around. I guess that's part of education too. Absolutely, it is totally part of education and we have so many different programs to educate the youth in our community about animal care and about the different ways they can get involved with animals. Animals are a huge part of us and I think in Vermont and especially in New England animals are really part of the family and they really help us through hard times and so all of us that are in the building whether we work there or volunteer there just coming in we all have something in common and that is because an animal has touched our lives in some way helping us through a hard time or what have you so I think it's really impactful what we do and we are really passionate about what we do. That's great, tell us a little bit about the process from just the point that someone will probably watch this program or sees the website and how does the adoption process work? We try to keep it pretty simple. It used to be if any of you are out there who adopted from us ten years ago or even less we used to have a pretty strict adoption policy. We used to do you know background checks as far as you know calling your landlord and we did reference checks and we made it really hard to just get these animals into amazing homes. We trust the people that are coming into our building so they simply fill out an adopter profile and it's just that it's asking you about your life so it could be questions like we ask one question which is is your life like the Champlain Valley Fair like a library so that way we're matchmaking so we're all about matchmaking we want to have conversations with adopters to make sure that we're suggesting or they're interested in the right animal for them. So for example if they're interested in a cat named Callie who's super shy really kind of afraid of loud noises we have a history that she gets a little bit more nervous and say it's a family of ten people and they have constant parties and family reunions every day. We might suggest a different animal for them to make sure that it's a really good it's a good match. So we just have a conversation with people and just say this is what the history of the animal is. Are you okay with maybe this medication that they might be on or this prescription food or maybe it's just as simple as are you okay with that they might need a dental in the future. You know we give them all the history that we get from them whether it be from the finder whether it be from their previous owner and then if we feel that that is they can be an amazing owner of this animal and they're okay with what they've heard about the animal then we make the adoption appointment and send the animal home as soon as possible. And it can be same-day adoption so people may come in and they fall in love and it's a click and it works and we can go home that day. I'm trying to visualize this. Do you have the animals on display or are they on a certain area? How does that work? Do they look at the animal first and you do the profile? Does the profile come first or maybe you do a combination? Well a lot of people I will say they'll go online so we keep our website up to date. As soon as they come in we try to get their pictures up because people really like to kind of scroll through and say oh I want to meet this particular animal but when you come into the adoption lobby it's full of animals. You can go in and meet the cats. We have cat rooms where there's a couple cats that are together where you can actually go in and visit with them and we have our cat condos all of our smallies are out. We also have an area called our camp take me home where you can go see some of the dogs that are available to go home. If you're interested in meeting with them you'll talk to the counselor and then like for a dog they'll actually bring the dog out to you in the dog yard or in the classroom and you'll get to have that one-on-one time with them where they can really show who they are and maybe play some fetch and with the cats you really get the time to really just to be with them and see what are they like, what could this really work. It's really fun. A lot of parents will come in first and then bring the kids after. I think you get familiar with your scent and everything else and how the touches are and stuff like that. Because you have the image maybe of somebody going to a dog thing and the dog's there on occasion so you have a little more interactive kind of stuff. And we try to make it positive too so we really encourage people to take the dogs out for walks and really interact with the animals. And then there's some people that walk through our door and say, I want Fluffy. Nope, I just want to get counseled on Fluffy and that is it. And they know who they like and they see a picture and they fall in love with the pictures on our website. So it just ranges. It's different every time. Let's also explore from the other end. Again, you're familiar with all these issues that are going on right now and the whole thing nationwide. But what about people who can't deal with their pet anymore? Do you take them for adoption? How does that work? And that's really where we come. We're your local humane society. So when the community has needs and they have an animal that they love but it's just not going to work. Either it doesn't fit with their family or they're moving or they need to leave, relocation, that's where we are. And so the community does call on us and says, you know, I need to relinquish this animal to you. And we welcome that animal and we work with the animal and we place it for adoption and looks for another home that would be a better fit. But that's a big part of what we do as the local community humane society is we do take in animals that just, it doesn't work. It's not a perfect match. And even with our adoptions, as much as we want every adoption to be great and for the animal to stay with the person. If it doesn't work, that's okay. That's why we're here, too. So you can bring them back. We want to have a great relationship with adopters or people who may need to relinquish so that they know that we're always there, whether they're adopting or asking us to take in that animal. It's really a judgment-free zone and that's what we just try to be there for community support. We take in animals by appointment only for the most part. So that way we don't over-crowder our shelter and overwhelm our staff and that way we have enough resources for all the animals in our building. Now that's not to say there's not emergencies that come through our doors that we definitely try to make work and take those animals in. But if anybody is out there needing to re-home their animal or just has questions, it's a conversation we have with people first when they need to relinquish their animal. We ask why and what the issues are. And if it's some issue that we believe our Surrender Prevention Program can help, we try to suggest those. And if it's something they really just don't want to deal with and that is okay, we'll go ahead and make the appointment. But we really try to have conversations with our community and to be a resource, like Diana said. That's great. Tell us a little bit about some events you have coming up in the next month or so, even beyond. We have awesome events. And I'll let Erin take the wheel on this one, but I will say it's our first event of the new year. It's one of our biggest annual events. And it's called Purses for Pause. So this will be at six year. So it's on February 6th, 2020. And it's a live and silent auction of new and like new purses that have been donated from members from our community. Whether it be, you know, your aunt Sue at home who has a million purses who gets rid of half of her collection. Or, you know, Red House, which is a local purse maker who donates, you know, brand new purses, beautiful bags. Or some people from our community that go to, you know, purse outlets in New York City and purchases like a new Kate Spade for our live auction. So all of these, this event benefits the Humane Society directly. We have a goal of $60,000 to raise. Last year we raised $54,000. So it's a huge help to basically raise the money that we need to care for the animals that we do every year. But it's a really fun event and tickets are now on sale and it's on our Facebook page. We have an event page for it and on our website. So it's just a really fun event. We have three major events every year. One to raise the money, but also more importantly to get the word out about what we do and really engage people that may not normally be involved in our organization otherwise. So that way they can have a fun experience while also benefiting what we do. But again, purses for pauses are really amazing event and I can talk about the next event, which is huge. And I will say for purses, it's not just purses. So if you're interested in coming, we have some interesting tropical vacations and a local jeweler donates a ring each and every year. After midnight jeweler. After midnight jeweler. So it's just move locations and it's a dog friendly venue. But it's beautiful. But following purses for pauses is our Walk for the Animals and 5K doggie fund run. This year will be our 26th annual walk in 5K and we're going to have a new location this year at the waterfront. So it's really fun. It's Vermont's largest dog friendly event and it's just a great way to kind of get out there, get exercise with your dog and support the humane society. Can't ask for more. What about on your website? Do you have any gear that people can get or any of that kind of stuff that's associated? People might want to get it for Christmas or? Well, holiday gear is better. I wish we had hats and vests. We don't necessarily have those but we do have opportunities for people to make gifts to humane society as a gift for a loved one or a friend. We have a couple of naming opportunities. We have these little tags that we put on our dog yard but they're called memory fence tags. And they can be made in memory or honor of a beloved pet or a friend, relative. And we'll put those up and they stay on our fence forever. And so you and your family can see them. You could put a little note in a stocking or something fun saying, look what I got you for the humane society. 100% of the proceeds go to us thanks to pet food warehouse who engraves them for free. We also have guardian angel tiles. It's another great opportunity to like leave your mark at the humane society. And kind of a message and it stays up in our lobby. So you get to come right in and see, look at this gift I made and it goes to support the humane society. You can also sponsor an animal in our care. So we like to say for those who have room in their heart, if not their home, you can symbolically sponsor an animal for just $30 a month. And you can do it for one month to a year. And if that animal gets adopted, which we hope the sponsorship will just move to support another animal. That's very clever. And then we also have a retail too. We have a retail, yes. We have a little store so items that are donated that maybe we don't have the room for or really can't use that are brand new we actually sell in our retail store. So we have an overabundance of really amazing items for pets at home. So if anybody is needing to shop for their animal or a beloved one's animal for their stocking, definitely come on by the humane society and you can purchase discounted pet supplies. That's where I do all my shopping. That's really good. That's really fantastic. There's a lot of attention now I've heard in the media recently about, you know, pets are just not gifts. And people are doing this thing or getting pets or maybe getting pets and it's not working out and the pets are being heard in addition to the people. Can you talk a little bit about that? You know, the idea of it's sort of self education and what to do in that situation. Yeah, it's hard. A lot of people want to get a pet for their loved one on a holiday for Christmas, which I totally understand that sounds, you know, you see all those ads with the puppy jumping out of the box under the tree. So I totally get it. But really, as I said before, we're matchmakers here. So we really want to talk directly to those people that are going to own the pets and live with the pet day in and day out to really make that connection because as much as maybe your daughter really connected with that cat or dog, you know, the parents could actually have a different way, you know, a different direction and like a different kind of animal. So we really, if they want to do that, maybe come in with them and say I'm going to cover the adoption fee for you. So just, you know, go in and visit the Humane Society and chat with the counselors there. So we really want to make sure that one, the person knows what they're getting into adopting that animal, if they do have special needs and two, that they know the amount of care in general it takes and if they're ready, you know, maybe they're not ready during the holidays. Holidays are a really busy season for a lot of people, a lot of family get-togethers and also, you know, sometimes a new animal that's coming into a home with a large party isn't the greatest idea either. So not to say the adoption isn't great to do right now, but we really try to make sure that those adopters are seeing our face and they know that we're a resource for them too. That's great. I mean, it's really amazing in the education part, the donation part. It really sounds like a wonderful thing for everybody concerned, including the pets. But I just like, I've had with me on Positively Vermont today, Erin Alamed and Diana Hill from the Humane Society of Chittenden County. I just like to close with giving you the opportunity to say something to my viewers. Oh, closing remarks. Well, I would just say, if you have adopted from us before, thank you. If you've supported us, thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank you. And if you haven't yet, it's a great time to get involved. We're here, we're open and we're, since 1901, and we hope to be here long, well into the future. That's just with your support. Yeah, it's just a really great place to volunteer and to support and to adopt from, but also just to get involved and come visit and come meet some of the animals that you help support, especially during the holiday season before the new year. Perfect time. You want to say something? Not really. I mean, we love what we do, and if anybody does have questions or just wants to chat about their animals, give us a call. Check out our website, and we're always listening to our community. So, developing new programs and services to help everybody in Chittenden and Grand Isle County. So, we're listening if you guys want to talk. That's great. And tell us your location, because I think that's important to emphasize. 142 Kindness Court in South Burlington, right off Queen City Park Road. So, right behind kind of the old post and where Kmart used to be. So, come on down and visit or give us a call. Excellent. Well, thank you very much, Erin and Diana. This is Dennis McMahon, and thank you for watching Positively Vermont.