Dear Friends of Animals,

I am writing this during morning feeding time, and I can hear one little dog in particular who is impatiently yipping for his breakfast. The others chime in at different intervals as if to say, “Me too!” I feel like I am being guided by a chorus of furry angels, whose fate is in our hands.

Luckily for them, the Tri-County Humane Society has come a long way since our inception in 1974, not only in the numbers of animals we are placing into new homes, but in the quality of care and services we are providing for them. As an independent, nonprofit animal shelter in Central Minnesota, taking in over 4000 homeless dogs, cats, birds and small critters (and the occasional pot-bellied pig!) yearly, being able to afford these services can be a challenge. This is why we need your support.

I’d like to start by giving you an idea of who we are caring for, and under what circumstances they come to us. Approximately 15% of the animals we take in are strays, with the vast majority of our animals surrendered by people who are no longer able to care for them. With the economic struggles of the last few years, the two most common reasons for pet surrender are because their previous guardians cannot afford to keep them or are being forced to move and cannot bring their pets with them. Most of these pets are perfectly healthy, happy, friendly, and loved, and need new homes through no fault of their own.

We are proud to say that all of the cats and dogs in our care are given booster shots, de-wormed, micro-chipped and spayed/neutered before we adopt them out! All animals receive an external examination as well, and are treated for fleas, lice, ear-mites, and other parasites or ailments that we may discover.

In addition, we do not have time limits for the animals in our care. As long as they are behaviorally sound (not posing a danger to other animals or people) and do not have a life-threatening or seriously contagious illness that could effect the rest of the animals in our care, they will remain in our care until they are adopted. Our animals’ average length of stay before being adopted is only 10.25 days.

In an effort to save more lives, we started an aggressive adoption promotion in June of this year in which, for the first time ever, we started adopting adult cats 2 years and up for FREE to senior citizens, veterans, and anyone currently serving in the military. For the general public, cats 6 months and older have been “Name Your Own Price.”

Since these promotions were implemented, our adoption rate on adult cats has gone up 60% from this same time period last year! This is an incredible increase that we are very proud of.

But to be able to afford to continue saving more lives, we need help financially to offset the discounts in adoption fees.

Please consider donating today so that we may continue to make great strides in animal welfare within our community.

On behalf of the animals,

Marit Ortega

Manager of Fund Development

Tri-County Humane Society

St. Cloud, MN

P. 320.252.0896

tchs-events@hotmail.com

www.tricountyhumanesociety.org

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