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Lake Tahoe Humane Society Board of Directors Update: June 2018

  Tahoe Chamber  |   June 20, 2018   |   Community News • Press Releases

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Chantale Hansen | Vice President, Operations
Lake Tahoe Humane Society | chantale@laketahoehumanesociety.org 

Lake Tahoe Humane Society Board of Directors Update: June 2018

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

As we continue our re-building and transformation efforts, engagement with you is critical for creating a common vision and shared goals for the greater good of our community. For almost sixty days, our Board members have had several engagement conversations with these valued partners: Alpine Animal Hospital; Sierra Veterinary Hospital; Tahoe TV; South Lake Tahoe Fire Department; El Dorado County Animal Services; Animal Coalition of Tahoe; Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care; The Tahoe Chamber; Our beloved volunteers, local businesses, and donors. More are coming!

Each have been welcoming, forthcoming, and transparent. We recognize that changing hearts and minds will take time, and we are willing to take the journey. Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?

With the sale of the Humane Society building, we have to go back to the drawing board and consider how things are going to operate in the future. Our conversations have encompassed the restructuring of our organization and identifying which programs will be of highest importance for the community and how they will be funded and managed. We believe in talking to our resident experts, making informed decisions, building partnerships, and shifting resources to the places that do it best. Which brings us to a new direction for a few of our programs.

Animal Welfare Services
We have spoken with Karen Kuentz, Animal Coalition of Tahoe (ACT), and Chief Brzezinski & Lieutenant Petri, El Dorado County Animal Services (EDCAS), and Tom & Cheryl Millham, Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care to determine how the Humane Society can build a valued animal welfare alliance by jointly working together.

Here is how the Humane Society will work with these organizations:

  • Population Management: Our intent after the sale of the Lake Tahoe Humane Society property, is to help expand the spay/neuter programs in Lake Tahoe. Currently ACT offers a voucher program through the Round Hill Veterinary clinic (when funds are available). We have spoken with some of the local veterinarians and we were encouraged to see their willingness to work with our organization when we are in a financial position to restore services. ACT currently offers the only low cost spay/neuter voucher programs in our community. If you would like to contribute to their program to help our furry friends and keep the population levels down, refer to the link above.
  • Domestic Donations in Kind: During our massive cleanup, we found and donated close to 50 pet carriers for the rescue, safety, and transportation of animals in need, along with ambulatory equipment, pet supplies and more for the county’s donor program. El Dorado County Animal Services offers adoption, rescue, pet surrenders, charitable pet food pantry, and has a special Pet Aid Fund that you can contribute to in order to help shelter animals. We will continue with our outreach to request donations of food and other needed supplies to help this incredible team out. The community is encouraged to donate to the Pet Aid Fund that helps shelter animals in need.
  • Wildlife Donations in Kind: We recently donated equipment, cages, and hundreds of pounds of expired pet food that specific types of wildlife can consume. This allows us to have zero waste and support all organizations in Lake Tahoe. To donate to the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, refer to https://ltwc.org/
  • Charitable Pet Food Pantry: The Humane Society is now in a much better position to help the community with an expanded set of charitable pet food pantry pickup locations. We receive donations from many places and ensure that the locations below have stocked pantries. Please note that available food may be from multiple types of brands and previously opened bags. Here are locations where you may pick up food for your pet when in need:Monday – Saturday: 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 1:00 – 4:30 p.m.
    El Dorado County Animal Services 1120 Shakori Drive, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
    530-573-7925

    Mondays: 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
    Bread & Broth – St Theresa 1041 Lyons Ave, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
    530-544-3533

    Tuesdays: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (Beginning June 25 – and available at this location until the building is sold)
    Lake Tahoe Humane Society 884 Emerald Bay Road, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
    530-542-2857 (We do not currently have regular business hours, please leave message)

    Wednesdays: 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. 
    First Baptist Church 1053 Wildwood Ave, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

    Fridays: 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (Until the building is sold)
    Lake Tahoe Humane Society 884 Emerald Bay Road, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
    530-542-2857 (We do not currently have regular business hours, please leave message)

    Fridays: 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. 
    Bread & Broth – St Theresa 1041 Lyons Ave, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
    530-544-3533

If you would like to donate food, please contact the Lake Tahoe Humane Society at info@laketahoehumanesociety.org. With the sale of our building we will be changing our food drop off and shipment locations. If you are a local business, non-profit, etc. who would like to be a food distribution location on a regular basis, please send us an email at: donations@laketahoehumanesociety.org

Emergency Preparedness
The South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) will join the Lake Tahoe Humane Society in the management of the Disaster Animal Response Team (DART) program. This partnership will be facilitated via a cooperative agreement that is currently being drawn up, however, the trailers, cages, fencing and other resources will be transitioned to SLTFR before the end of June.

This program is very important for when fires, floods, and other disasters impact the animals of our community. Chief Meston shared “we are very pleased with this partnership. SLTFD has certified over 100 South Tahoe Action Team (STAT) members. These volunteers are trained to mobilize our community in times of large scale emergencies, and adding the animal response component and FEMA certification to this program will expand the level of service we offer to Lake Tahoe.” The agreement will allow the trailers to be used not only for DART, but also in collaboration with El Dorado County Animal Services to transport animals when needed and for mobile adoption fairs.

If you would like to apply to become involved with the DART program through STAT, please contact Fire Captain Kim George at Fire Station #1 at (530) 542-6161 or via email at kgeorge@cityofslt.us

Where We Need the Most Help
We are delighted to be partnering with these organizations in order to provide a more centralized model and clearer vision of how we can all collectively help the animals of Lake Tahoe, and where you can provide support. Even though we will receive some profit from the sale of our building, we still need donations in order to continue our work in the community. We anticipate the demand for services will be higher because they have been absent for so long and we exist solely on private donations and/or grants that we qualify for.

Here are ways that you can help:

Volunteer
We are starting to participate in more fundraising events and need volunteers to help us. We are very shorthanded with only five of us board members and we can really use the help. If you would like to be a volunteer, please send us an email: volunteer@laketahoehumanesociety.org

Host
Have a restaurant/bar/business/garage sale and would be willing to allocate proceeds, let us know! We would love to partner with you to help generate funds.

Donate

Please refer to our website and Facebook community for more information.

With incredible gratitude,
Board of Directors, Lake Tahoe Humane Society 

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