July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020
“Thanks to the generosity of our incredible
community, Humane Society Silicon Valley
can be a safety net for the vulnerable pets
and families who need help more than ever.
We are grateful for the support that makes
our lifesaving work possible and keeps pets
and their people happy, healthy, and safe.”
-Kurt Krukenberg, President
At a Glance
Finding Forever Homes in a Pandemic
Almost immediately after receiving the mandate to shelter-in-place, we began brainstorming ways to safely reopen our adoptions program and continue to find forever homes for our animals. Although we were anxious to restart adoptions as soon as possible, we were focused on ensuring we could do so while keeping our staff and adopters safe. We created a virtual adoptions process, in which potential adopters could meet animals through video chat, then pick up their adopted animal through a safe, socially-distanced appointment process.
Expand Lifesaving Impact
Partnering to Save Vulnerable Animals
The goal of expanding the Regional Rescue Program is to reduce euthanasia by identifying animals in shelters within our community and beyond that need more care or are housed in overcrowded shelters. By partnering with shelters throughout California, we are working to save our state’s vulnerable animals. Our Foster Program supports rescue efforts by increasing the space and capacity available to take in and care for animals in need. And thanks to amazing donors like David and Yelena Sedano, we can support our feline and canine foster families with necessary supplies while they provide TLC in their homes.
As the pandemic began and many shelters were in need of help while their adoption programs were paused, we continued to be a safety net. We used our extensive network of fosters to provide extra capacity to take in animals from shelters all over the state.
One such animal was Lex, a shy, young dog from a shelter in the Central Valley. Lex, like many of the animals we took in at the beginning of the pandemic, was sent to a foster home with another dog to heal and gain confidence. Thanks to his incredible foster family and their dog, Lex found more than just a friend. He found a new lease on life.
Providing Treatment and Rehabilitation
Many of the animals who enter our doors need extensive medical treatment and rehabilitation. In Fiscal Year 2020, more than 3,000 animals received medical treatment and rehabilitation by our medical team.
Animals like Puppy, a Labradoodle puppy that came to us with parvovirus, are given the care they need before they find their forever homes. Puppy came in from a shelter within the WeCARE coalition, a coalition of Santa Clara County animal agencies that work together to save the lives of animals in our community. Puppy was sick, extremely thin, and in need of care. Our medical team provided him with fluids for his dehydration and medications to help him recover.
It was touch and go for a few days, but finally, Puppy started to look brighter and began eating on his own. He continued to improve over the next few days until he was finally recovered from his ordeal. Puppy was placed up for adoption and found her home soon after. We are so grateful to be able to provide specialized medical care for animals like Puppy thanks to the support of our community.
Preventing Unintended Births
We help prevent unintended births in order to drive down the number of unwanted animals entering shelters through a wide range of spay/neuter programs, including:
Support People and Animals in Our Community
Caring for Pets and Their People
We operate programs aimed at addressing key issues facing under-served individuals, including those experiencing homelessness. The programs include wellness clinics for the pets of low-income individuals, as well as temporary emergency boarding services for pet owners facing issues that prevent them from providing care to their furry family member. In Fiscal Year 2020, we provided more than 260 spay/neuter and wellness services to the pets of people experiencing homelessness.
Providing a Safety Net for the Community
With many people in our community facing financial and other hardships due to the pandemic, we knew we needed to do whatever possible to provide more support. We heard from pet owners who were struggling to feed their four-legged family members, including some who were even thinking about surrendering their pets because of financial issues. In response, we expanded our Pet Pantry Program — which gives food and other supplies to pet owners who are unable to feed their pets — to meet the new and ever-changing needs of our community. We even started a delivery service to transport much-needed items to housebound clients.
One such Pet Pantry client was Colleen, who was struggling to secure housing because her dog Pinky was not up to date on her vaccinations. We helped Pinky get the vaccinations she needed so that Colleen and Pinky could stay together, and signed them up for our Pet Pantry service to make sure Pinky would have the food and supplies she needed during this difficult time. We even provided Pinky with a tiny collar, leash, and bed to use. Colleen was so grateful for this support. “Thank you so much,” she wrote to our Medical team afterwards. “No one has helped me like this in so long. It’s been four years that we’ve been living like this.”
We are so thankful for the generosity of incredible supporters who donated food and other supplies to our Pet Pantry Program to ensure families like Colleen and Pinky could stay together through hard times!
Partnering with Petco Love to Save Lives
In Fiscal Year 2020, Petco Love granted us a $50,000 Lifesaving Award to support our spay/neuter and wellness services for the pets of un-housed community members. That year, this partnership allowed us to host mobile clinics to provide free vaccinations and other services to dozens of pets of people experiencing homelessness. We are so grateful to partners like Petco Love who make our work possible.
Keeping Animals in Homes
In addition to expanding our Pet Pantry Program, we continued to help pet owners keep their pets by providing low-cost vaccine services, post-adoption behavior support, and lost & found services to reunite lost pets. We were also able to provide lifesaving surgeries to a number of pet owners when they had nowhere else to turn, thanks to the incredible support of donors like Robin and Bob Fox.
Saving Murphy
Murphy needed help. The tiny Beagle puppy was brought to us by his owners. He had parvovirus, a dangerous disease for such a young puppy. His family had spent thousands of dollars at their veterinarian trying to save his life, but he was still incredibly sick. Once he arrived, he was placed under intensive care. In addition to parvovirus, he had extremely low blood proteins causing swelling over his entire body. His immune system was weak, and he developed pneumonia that lingered for weeks. Our entire medical team took part in Murphy’s care, and they were all very invested in his recovery.
Finally, after more than a month in intensive care, Murphy recovered. His original owners, who had waited desperately for news of Murphy’s health, were able to bring him home. “Murphy is one of the most intensive medical cases I can remember in recent years,” says our veterinarian Dr. Moore. “He took a village — and an entire shelter — to save. We are rejoicing in his return home.” We are so grateful that we were able to save Murphy and keep him in a home where he is so cherished and loved.
Advance Animal Welfare
Sharing Our Expertise
We are committed to sharing our knowledge, resources, and expertise to help others build sustainable capacity to save more lives. Our team regularly provided onsite and offsite consultations to under-resourced shelters to help solve problems and identify opportunities to improve their standards of care.
We also provided educational opportunities current and future shelter veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and animal shelter employees. In FY20, we trained veterinary externs, hosted animal shelter and rescue staff from all over the country through Maddie’s Apprenticeships, and hosted Maddie’s Executive Fellows for a year-long internship to learn leadership skills in the animal welfare sector.
Our Chief of Shelter Medicine, Dr. Cristie Kamiya, was invited to present on shelter medicine and shelter management at many veterinary and animal welfare conferences to share best practices with shelters across the country.
Inspiring and Educating Youth
Our Education programs taught animal care, humane advocacy, and compassion for all living beings. Available to kids ages 4+, our programs ranged from tours to summer camp to volunteer opportunities for teens.
Financials
Letter from the President
To our partners in lifesaving,
This fiscal year began on July 1, 2019, which seems like a distant memory. The first two quarters went according to plan, and when I joined the organization in January we were excited about expanding our programs. Over the next couple of months, however, more and more attention turned to the emerging pandemic. By mid-March, the situation was evolving hourly and we scrambled to figure out how to keep going in the new world of shelter-in-place.
As an essential service, we were able to stay open with some staff on-site and others working from home. Based on rapidly changing guidance from the CDC, the California Department of Health, and Santa Clara County, we redesigned our operational processes three times in the first five days… and many more times over the months that followed.
I could not have more respect for our staff and volunteers whose flexibility, hard work, and dedication made it possible to keep going. Through all the change and uncertainty, our team never stopped bringing in vulnerable animals from our local community and our partner shelters. When we became concerned about capacity, thousands of volunteers raised their hands to foster animals in their homes. When we could not allow the public on-site, we figured out how to do virtual adoptions. Nothing was easy, but every problem had a solution.
I
am also extraordinarily proud of the results our team accomplished in the face of so much adversity. We saved the lives of 100% of healthy and treatable animals, and 95% of all animals in our care including sick and injured pets transferred in from other shelters. We invested in community-focused programs like the Pet Pantry Program to support families who need help more than ever. We never lost sight of the importance of keeping everyone healthy and safe.
None of this would have been possible without the unwavering support of our donors, our partners, and our community. Especially during such challenging times, it was heartening to see such confidence in our team and our work. Thank you so much for your encouragement, your generosity, and your steadfast belief in our lifesaving mission.
With gratitude,
Kurt Krukenberg
President, Humane Society Silicon Valley
Impact Numbers Summary
Download a summary of our impact numbers and financials for Fiscal Year 2020.
Board of Directors
