Happy tails
<p>BLITZ/Press Kootenai Humane Society Board President, Cindy Edington, left, and Kootenai Humane Society Executive Director, Debbie Jeffrey, right, accept the human society’s induction in to the Idaho Hall of Fame Saturday at the organization’s annual fundraiser. “We are just thrilled,” Jeffrey said.</p>
The Tails at Twilight fundraiser for the Kootenai Humane Society on Saturday had an extra, special feature this year.
To the backdrop of happy, barking puppies and happy, drinking humans, the Kootenai Humane Society was inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame.
“It was a total surprise,” said the humane society’s director of development, Vicky Nelson. “Looking at who’s been inducted in the past and this year, too, it’s an unbelievable honor to see our name next to theirs.”
The Kootenai Humane Society started in 1975 when a group of six women held bake sales and yard sales to raise money to help abandoned and unwanted cats and dogs. Since then, it has grown into an organization with 175 active volunteers and a $1 million annual budget raised solely by donations and fees.
In 2003, the human society adopted a “no kill” policy. Even today, it is still the only humane society in Idaho with that policy. Animals are only euthanized if law enforcement declares they are vicious or if a veterinarian diagnoses them as unable to survive.
Dogs and cats are spayed or neutered and adopted out almost immediately. The shelter has a 97 percent adoption rate, adopting out 2,130 pets last year.
That’s why Freeman Duncan, a director of the Idaho Hall of Fame Board, urged to the board that the Kootenai Humane Society be inducted. The board unanimously voted in favor to do so.
“Can ordinary people do extraordinary things? Yes,” Duncan said. “I think the humane society is an amazing organization and exemplifies this.”
The Kootenai Humane Society has many great programs like its Pawsitive Works program that connects at-risk youth with shelter dogs, raising morale and connecting two needing souls. The low-cost spay and neuter program helps maintain feral populations and the rescue program allows households to volunteer care and space for animal placement opportunities.
The fundraiser Saturday, at the Coeur d’Alene Airport, may have found even more placement opportunities for rescue dogs when an airplane full of them landed and delivered 14 dogs from California to the humane society.
The Kootenai Humane Society was approached by an organization that rescues dogs and cats from kill shelters around the country and was asked if they had room in their shelter for some more guests. The humane society, along with everyone else at the fundraiser, welcomed the dogs with open arms.
The 12th annual event moved on with both a silent and live auction, food and drinks. The new rescue dogs got to wander around the venue and meet everyone there, taking in all the new scents and sounds and getting more love than they probably ever had before, thanks to the Kootenai Humane Society.