By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
In an effort to give the Sitka Animal Shelter more support, a non-profit has formed to raise funds, organize volunteers and reach out to the community.
After months of organizing, the Friends of the Sitka Animal Shelter will start fundraising this summer, board president Kristina Tirman told the Sentinel. The group aims to facilitate adoptions and promote spaying and neutering of pets, among other things.
Sitka Animal Control Officer Jim Rogers kneels with Sonic, a shelter resident yellow Lab, and Friends of Sitka Animal Shelter board members, from left, Laura Rogers, Dusty Kidd, Susan Jones, Rhea Ehresmann and Kristina Tirman, recently. The non-profit friends group plans to facilitate adoptions and promote spaying and neutering of pets at the shelter among other goals. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
“We’re doing it for the animals, obviously, but we’re also doing it for the community, providing more community engagement, hosting fundraising events and adoption events,” Tirman said. “We have a website now where people can go and find out information about all the current adoptable pets.”
Further, she said, with the public being able to make tax deductible donations, the group is now able to write grants and be more proactive with fundraising.
One of the group’s first large goals is raising money for an AmeriCorps position for the animal shelter, which will cost about $15,000.
“We haven’t really started fundraising yet. This is kind of our first attempt at doing that. We are just now starting to put ourselves out there and first we really want to tell the community what we’re about... But we’re planning on getting an AmeriCorps volunteer this fall so we can build more capacity to meet our mission. And so the first big fundraising effort will be to provide funds for that,” she said. AmeriCorps volunteers receive a small living stipend.
For longtime shelter volunteer Dusty Kidd, the Friends group will allow an extra layer of needed organization.
“Being a non-profit, the status itself is less important to me than having an organization that organizes the work of the shelter,” Kidd said. “Instead of a group of ad hoc volunteers, many of whom don’t even know each other and don’t even see each other… there’s a lot more information sharing, and a lot more even distribution of really important work to keep the animals healthy, safe, fed, and so forth.”
The group’s 501(c)(3) non-profit status became official in March.
In the long run, Kidd would like to see a spay and neuter program reduce the number of feral cats in town.
He also hopes the non-profit’s fundraising will help finance improvements at the shelter on Jarvis Street.
“First would be the facility itself, which is a great space that needs a lot of upgrades,” Kidd said. “The basic stuff like plumbing and ventilation and feeding, light control, all those sorts of things. A facility needs to have a safe place for animals. That’s the first thing, and the second is we have a big feral population here, primarily cats… They’re a health hazard and they also multiply.”
Tirman, too, wants an increased effort to spay and neuter animals.
“Offering spay and neuter clinics is something that we would like to do and are looking at different ways of bringing that to Sitka in the future,” she said.
At the Pet’s Choice Veterinary Hospital on Halibut Point Road, veterinary technician April Wheldon said spay and neuter operations are often completed within a week of scheduling. Spay and neuter costs, she noted, can range widely from about $126 to north of $400 depending on the size of the animal.
“We do that quite a bit (of spaying and neutering) here and there for the shelter,” Wheldon said. “I hear that they’re six months out on spays and neuters at the busy practices down south, but I would say here we can usually get them in sometimes in the same week.”
The Jarvis Street shelter currently houses one dog and ten cats, and another ten felines are out in foster care. Many of the cats taken in aren’t accustomed to people, and Tirman would like to ensure the shelter has enough volunteer staff to acclimatize the cats to human interaction.
Animal Control Officer Jim Rogers said the volunteers would “be able to really effectively run a shelter.”
“The animal control officer will be responsible as well, as right now a plan is still forming,” Rogers told the Sentinel over the phone. “The animal control officer will be taking care of the enforcement end of things and the Friends organization and the volunteers that are attached to that will actually be taking care of the shelter.”
After about a year on the job, Rogers is stepping down July 15, but plans to stay involved with the shelter. The shelter is operated by the City and Borough of Sitka through the police department. Its FY2022 budget is $152,048.81, which is in line with its funding over the previous five years, and covers everything from wages and insurance to basic supplies.
Rogers described the animal control officer’s work as “almost relentless.”
“Originally during the interviews, I had thought that maybe I would end up retiring in this position, but about a month into it I realized that there was just so much time that was necessary to do this job properly and to make sure that the animals get the proper care and time along with just being able to respond efficiently to the public,” Rogers said.
When an animal is adopted, the city finances vaccinations and spaying or neutering, he noted.
He said he might apply to Sitka’s Animal Control Board as a way to suggest changes to city ordinances. He highlighted the town’s barking ordinance as particularly problematic and time consuming for the officer.
At the Sitka Animal Hospital, veterinarian Dr. Toccoa Wolf supports having a non-profit run the shelter.
“It’s essential that they take over,” Wolf said. “I think that the idea of a non-profit to run adoption and the welfare of the shelter being separated from the legal aspects of animal control – which is also essential – is going to help have a broader impact on animal welfare in Sitka.”
The Friends of the Sitka Animal Shelter is run by a six-person board that includes Tirman, Kidd, Rhea Ehresmann, Brooke Volschenk, Laura Rogers and Susan Jones. About 20 Sitkans currently volunteer at the shelter, Tirman added.
The group plans to start sending adopted animals home with a kit designed to ease the transition for both owner and animal.
“One of the specific things we’re going to do for that is offer what we’re calling ‘welcome home adoption kits.’ So for new pet owners, they would have what they need for the first week of caring for their animals,” Tirman said. “Plus some information on how to welcome a new pet into your home, which isn’t always as easy as you think it would be.”
The education component of adoption is important, Kidd said.
“How to foster a pet, effectively how to adopt a pet. Those sorts of things that maybe a little basic education will help people become better stewards of the animals,” he said.
Tirman stressed the importance of human-animal relationships.
“It’s more than just loving animals,” she said. “It feels good to be caring for animals and knowing that you’re doing something good for them, but it’s also what the animals can do for you. I think anyone who has a pet knows that they do more for humans than we can do for them.”
More information on the group is available on their website at https://www.sitkaanimalfriends.org.
The group plans to hold its first fundraiser July 17 at the Mean Queen.
