The Humane Society of Greater Dayton is excited to announce they have fully raised the funds required to expand their current facility to better serve the needs of the animals and people in our community.
“In 2014, the Humane Society of Greater Dayton began an in-depth strategic plan where we worked with staff, board, volunteers, community leaders and residents to see what we can do to better serve the needs of our community,” said Brian Weltge, President & CEO of the Humane Society of Greater Dayton. “Through this process, we pinpointed several key needs to be addressed. With this expansion we are taking steps to impact the animals and we are excited to continue to grow and expand to better serve our community. In the past few years, we began quietly fundraising to make this big vision to transform animal welfare a reality. We are proud to say that we are fully funded with the first phase of this campaign.”
Through this expansion, the Humane Society of Greater Dayton has fully raised more than $5 million to grow their current facility at 1661 Nicholas Road. This expansion will include:
- Regional Full-Service, Needs-Based Animal Hospital to help all pet owners in our community regardless of their income level. Through this Full-Service, Needs-Based Animal Hospital, the Humane Society of Greater Dayton can offer solutions for those in need while continuing to provide top-notch medical care to the animals in our community. This animal hospital will be open to not only Montgomery County residents, but surrounding counties as well.
- Regional High-Volume Spay/Neuter Clinic that will positively impact the cat overpopulation concerns facing neighborhoods. With an estimated 50,000 stray or community cats within just Montgomery County, programs such as Trap-Neuter-Return are critical to humanely and effectively battle cat overpopulation. Through the High-Volume Spay/Neuter Clinic, we will have the resources available to scale up our already established Community Cat Initiative program, which is currently performing 4,000+ spay/neuter surgeries annually. With this new clinic, the Humane Society of Greater Dayton looks to increase surgeries over the next ten years by 400 percent.
- Cruelty & Neglect Animal Rehabilitation Center to house, protect and rehabilitate all types of animals. Each year, the Humane Society of Greater Dayton investigates hundreds of cases of cruelty or neglect toward animals. We are the only organization in the Montgomery County that investigates cases against all types of animals. With such a large range of animals needing our assistance, the Animal Rehabilitation Center will provide us with the resources needed to house large-breed animals such as horses as well as give us the housing to help in large-scale cases. Right now, we rely solely on fosters to care for many of the animals that are part of cruelty and neglect investigations.
“As a leader in animal welfare that has been serving our community since 1902, it was very important for us to be responsible in planning this expansion,” said Weltge. “Although we are excited for this growth, we wanted to ensure that we were 100 percent fully funded before we moved forward with construction on this expansion. As good stewards to all donations we receive, we could not justify moving forward without having 100 percent of the funding in place.”
For the $5+ million raised for this first phase of their expansion, 99 percent of the gifts were secured from philanthropic individuals and private foundations including contributions by The Jesse & Caryl Philips Foundation, a $1 million gift from the Joanie Bernard Foundation, Harold & Mary Rieck, Charles D. Berry Foundation and the Berry Family Foundation. More than 80 percent of the money raised was cash donations and short-term pledges.
The Humane Society of Greater Dayton plans to break ground this Spring on this phase of their expansion.
The Humane Society of Greater Dayton continues to lead the way in creating a community where every animal is valued and free from suffering. We have already made great strides in this, but we still have more to do! In 2019, the Greater Dayton community was able to officially call itself a no-kill community. This is a huge step in the right direction and we could not have accomplished this alone. We are excited to see other rescues as well as our county animal control facility evolve to help improve the lives of companion pets in our community.
The Humane Society of Greater Dayton has a big vision for the future of all animal welfare in the Miami Valley. Thanks to a small group of generous supporters, fundraising for expanding the services offered at our Nicholas Road location is complete. The next phase in our Master Plan to help more animals in need is the creation of a new adoption and community center at our site on Austin Boulevard. This new facility near Austin Landing will allow us to continue to move forward and impact the community to better meet the needs of all animals, while saving more lives! For more information on how you can be part of our expansion on Austin Boulevard near Austin Landing, contact Courtney Steckel at (937) 262-5923 or e-mail csteckel@hsdayton.org.
