At the start of the month, the Peterborough Humane Society launched their final fundraising campaign of the year. Until December 31st, donations will be matched up to $25,000. PHS is hoping to raise $75,000 during this fundraiser, their most ambitious year-end campaign yet.

The furry face of this fundraiser could not be more adorable. Like many of the dogs at PHS, Maggie’s life began with misfortune. Her mother was involved in an act of animal cruelty, and was brought to the Humane Society injured and terrified. The morning after her first night there, she was found with a single newborn puppy lying next to her. Sadly, the mother was not producing milk and rejected her offspring. Without the quick thinking and action of the PHS staff, Maggie would not have survived.

“I chose [Maggie’s] story because…it represents everything we do here,” said Kevin MacKenzie, the Director of Fund Development at PHS and Maggie’s adopted father. “Our vet techs [were] monitoring her health, our management and our animal care managers [were] coaching me on everything I needed to know when we decided to take Maggie home…I just think there’s a machine here at PHS, and Maggie’s story touches so many of those pieces.”

“It shows how every part of the building helped with the success of [Maggie’s recovery],” said Desiree Kretschmar, PHS’ Communication and Development Coordinator. “And all of these stories end up bringing everyone together here. For an animal care staff, it’s not [their] job to take home a tiny puppy and feed it every two hours, but there was no hesitation.”

Maggie is just one of countless success stories. Over 700 animals were adopted from the Peterborough Humane Society last year. “We’re on pace to match and probably exceed [that number],” said MacKenzie. 

Kretschmar agreed, adding “We’ve had months where 70 to 80 animals have gone home.”

However, PHS’s impact isn’t limited to just adoption facilitation. “What’s not taken into account in that number,” said MacKenzie, “is that there’s probably another 200 animals that came to us as strays and because they were microchipped, and even if they weren’t microchipped, we [made] efforts through our website and our social media to reunite animals with their families…700+ animals may have found their forever home, but another 200 were reunited with their owners, which is very important and special work.”

MacKenzie went on to speak about how PHS’s role in the community is evolving. “We are in the midst of, I will say, leaning out of enforcement and bylaw enforcement,” he said.

“We will still have an animal control team because there will still be strays and so on…When it comes to the side of things that is governing a free roaming dog, [pet licensing], noise complaints, things of that sort, we are paid a fee by different communities to provide that service to them. Sometimes the fee that we receive makes it difficult for it to be a smart business practice for us, and very similarly to what you saw the OSPCA do about seven years ago where they stopped enforcing animal cruelty, they returned the responsibility of that to the province.”

As they move away from traditional animal law enforcement, PHS is shifting towards a more holistic approach to pet/owner relationships. “95% of people that surrender an animal, it’s because of the financial strain in their life,” explained MacKenzie. “So we are trying to address those barriers people have to pet ownership.”

“We are looking at our financial model and thinking, ‘where do we want to put our efforts?’ Our efforts have led to us…having a pet pantry program where people that are struggling financially can come to us and we’ll help them during those difficult times, give them some food, some accessories, make them aware of social services that are available to them in the community.”

This move away from a punitive enforcement model has also allowed PHS to adopt a more socially-conscious response to animal surrender. 

“If you walk in here and you say ‘I’m financially struggling and I don’t know what to do, here’s my dog,’ we’re not going to say ‘here’s some food, good luck for six weeks,’” MacKenzie told Arthur. “Tell us about what your struggle is, and did you know that you can get this service from the Salvation Army? Did you know that the community, the City of Peterborough, will help support you on this?”

“When we talk about helping people and pets, it’s not as simplistic as finding pets a home or accepting someone off the street and saying, ‘we’re going to cut you a deal on the surgery for your pet,’” he continued. “It’s connecting those people in the community that might have financial vulnerability with the services that they need.”

In fact, sometimes it doesn’t have anything to do with a pet at all. “A pet may have brought them through the door,” said MacKenzie. “But at the end of the day we’re trying to impact people in the community in ways that are going to better their lives."

Kretschmar weighed in as well, praising how PHS’s social services have transformed the way their resources have been allocated. “‘Both ends of the leash’ is a phrase we use a lot,” she said. “Because…if we can support people to keep their animals, then we don’t have to help those animals, they can help them.”

The Peterborough Humane Society relies entirely on the generosity of its donors, the importance of which cannot be understated, and thanks to PHS’s forward-thinking approach to its service deployment, those funds go back into the community, helping both Peterborough residents and their pets. 

To support the Humane Society this holiday season, please visit PHS’s website for more information on ways to donate.