Okay, we're talking pets, dogs, cats, all kind of animals because with me is Angela Speed,
the vice president of the marketing and communications for the Wisconsin Humane Society.
They're all over the state, but they also have an office in Racine.
Were you located out of which office?
Right now I'm located in my home office out of Port Washington, but I have just
that Milwaukee and Ozaki and Soxville.
Yeah, I think Racine's got a new office recently.
I could be wrong. I thought I read something about that.
You should.
Yeah, we moved into our Racine campus and right in the midst of the pandemic.
So if you haven't been there, it is a beautiful building and the community made it possible.
We built it new and if you haven't been by, you should definitely step in.
Now there's a big CC going on right now.
It's a cat crisis because there are a lot of cats out there that need homes.
You know, I'm a sucker for any pet.
Doesn't matter what hamsters, I mean, I've had them all in my life.
Unicocketeals, we had hundreds of pigeons.
My father had a pigeon coop.
So I grew up with animals, had dogs my entire life.
Cats, hamsters, birds.
We had everything in my house.
Yeah, it wasn't as it was like a real menagerie in there.
But cats are a little different because people let their cats roam the neighborhood.
You know what happens when cats roam the neighborhood.
They make more cats.
So let's talk about the cat crisis going on.
Yeah, I got to tell you that this last summer was incredibly tough.
We've just had unprecedented intake and unfortunately that's continuing into the fall.
There was a day about a week ago where we had 121 cats.
Surrendered, come in and sprays.
So we've just had it really high intake and families are struggling right now.
And they're struggling to keep their pets.
Whether it's housing insecurity, the vet shortage or just the rising cost of pet supplies,
we're seeing more animals come to our doors.
So last week, there was a point in time where we had 1500 animals in care and of that 1100 were cats.
This week is looking slightly better.
But we definitely are still in pretty much a capacity crisis.
We've had cats in crates in our boardroom or office spaces.
So we really need the public health.
If you've been on the fence about adapting, here's your sign.
All cat adoption fees are named your own fee.
Literally that can be 50 cents or zero.
And kittens have body pricing.
So if you adapt to kittens, the second fee is 50 percent off.
And it's a great deal to adapt from the Humane Society or other shelters.
At WHO, the adoption fees include a new to surgery, vaccine, the microchip,
a certificate for a free vet exam, starter bags of food,
and even 30 days of pet insurance.
So there's lots of perks to adapt.
And if you're not in a position to adapt, there's other ways to help too.
We're always looking for foster families to take care of, especially young kittens who weren't ready
to go into our adoption program yet or simply for space.
You know, when I was in high school, my brother and I were mowing this lawn on this estate.
And all of a sudden, we heard the dogs really barking and they chased this little kitten up a tree.
And the kitten was petrified because the dogs were just jumping at the bite base of the tree.
So I climbed the tree.
Those are the days where I was able to climb a tree.
And I got the kitten down and we put it in our car and brought it to one of the first burger
kings that ever was back in the 70s, one of the first burger kings out there.
Brother, we think, well, cats like fish.
So we brought a fish sandwich.
Cats must like fish, right?
And she did. And then we brought her home and we had it for the next 15 years.
But yeah, we weren't going to keep it because we had a dog.
So we let the cat and we didn't let the cat was not an outside cat.
This was going to be indoors only because I didn't want to be worrying about cats roaming the
neighborhood. And so she's behind like she hears the dog coming. She runs behind the couch.
The dog goes to see what's going on.
All of a sudden the dog comes out with blood trailing from the tip of his nose.
And we assume the cat just gave him one strike.
And for the next dozen years, the two never met again in the house.
I mean, they roamed the house, but they kept separate.
It was all on their own.
If the cat was in the rec room, the dog stayed upstairs, vice versa.
They just didn't meet again.
They spent separate times the entire time for the rest of their lives.
They often rule households.
I myself have 170 pound dog who is petrified of our cats.
Good reason it took one swipe of that nose.
And that's at the course for the next decade.
I felt bad too because the cat had diabetes or the end she had to get a shot every day.
And she had a great life.
And she's actually buried in a casket in my parents old back yard.
If the people ever start doing excavation in that yard, they're going to find a casket back.
The dog is buried there right next to the cat.
They couldn't live together a lot, but they can live in peace side by side.
And that's okay.
So you want to get people to adopt cats.
Don't adopt it because you think they're cute.
You want to have some fun with it.
You really got to be committed to a pet.
I mean, pets are dogs are a lot more difficult to take care of.
They require more than cats do because you got to walk them.
Dogs are just more dependent.
They can survive on their own cats can.
But do you suggest people let their cats roam the neighborhood?
I mean, we don't.
So what it comes down to is like the average lifespan of a cat indoors is 16 to 18.
And when they're outdoors, it's two to three years.
Yeah, I do.
Yeah, it can be a dangerous world out there.
And so we always recommend that you keep your cat indoors.
There's traffic and predators and strange animals at night.
So outside is not the safest place for a cat.
Ultimately, they can pick up diseases.
So it's always safer to keep them inside.
Yeah, when I go to work in the morning,
I leave at 5.15 in the morning.
And I leave my bright sun going down.
Because they're crisscrossing the street.
Those cats and they're some of the quick, some aren't fast.
The squirrels are fast.
The cats aren't that fast.
And I don't want to hit them.
So you got to leave my bright sun when I go on down main street in the morning.
All right, let's talk about services to the community.
A pet food pantry.
Never heard of that one before.
Yeah.
So in these times, we're finding that a lot of our services that we offered
at the community are being highly utilized.
We have a spain neuter clinic.
For instance, in West Dallas, where you can get spain neuter surgery for your cats
or dogs at a affordable fee.
We also offer low cost vaccine clinics at all of our locations.
There's one in the scene coming up.
And those vaccines are just $16.
And that's completely open to anybody in the public.
And then we also have pet food pantries that are open to anyone
at all of our locations.
Those pet food pantries do depend on donations from the community.
But if you're struggling to make ends meet
and we have food on the shelves, you are welcome to it.
You just stop by during our adoption hours.
And our staff can help assist you.
In addition, we also have an animal-friendly housing list
of apartments and town homes.
If you're looking for housing that allows pets.
There's a huge shortage of housing right now.
And it's getting more expensive and harder to find
rentals especially that are affordable but alone allow pets.
And so we maintained a list on our website
if you are looking to rent.
And then in addition, we also have low cost
spay neuter at
rescuing in Kenosha that is income qualifying.
So if you're in need of spay neuter services,
you should definitely check out our website.
Yeah, who knew there was a pet pantry around?
First time I'm hearing about that.
That's pretty neat.
We're really focused on keeping pet
in the homes where they're loved.
We'd much rather have them stay in their homes
and end up at the shelter especially due to financial barriers
or accessing resources.
And so our staff really strive to bridge those gaps
when people are experiencing them.
Keep those cats and dogs in homes where they're loved
for their families.
Yeah, cats are looking for new homes to run and be in charge of.
So if you can, adopt a cat.
I mean, you see these faces on the cats and you just want to take them all home
with you.
But I don't want to be a cat lady.
Or a cat guy.
I don't want one of those people with 80 cats
roaming the house talking to Angela Speed.
She is the vice president of the marketing and communications
at the Wisconsin Humane Society.
And off the air, we were trading stories about pets
and I'm going to get old teary eyed talking about my pets.
So I'm not going to do that.
I'm just going to talk about the hopes,
holiday lights campaign, the lights holiday campaign.
You got coming up now.
What is that?
She gets.
So we just launched our annual holiday campaign
called Hope Slight.
And as part of the campaign, you can purchase the light
in honor or memory of a beloved companion animal or even a person
for $25 and people can make a donation online through the mail.
Anyway, that's easy for you.
We've been doing our Hope Slight campaign for almost 25 years.
And each year we feature a special animal in our TV commercial.
And this year we're featuring a dog named DW.
And she, I got to meet her a couple of times.
She's the sweetest dog who came in actually to our
Racine campus as a stray.
And she was completely emaciated.
She should have been about 70 pounds.
And she was, I think, 27 pounds at the time.
And she ensures all out of her, all over her body.
We don't know what happened to her.
How she got in this condition.
But she spent a couple months in care.
And eventually was adopted by the most wonderful couple.
And is absolutely thriving today.
And she's just a great example of one of the thousands
and thousands of animals we help every year.
And during the campaign, all of the funds go right back
to help the animals and families we serve.
Not everybody knows it.
But we are a local independent nonprofit.
There's no national umbrella organization in animal welfare.
And we don't receive general government funding.
So it's truly the generosity of the community
that funds all of our programs and services.
Yeah. And of course, I told you I'm an animal guy.
I have animals all my life.
And I can't stand the thought of an animal walking around,
gaunt, sickly, matted hair.
I see these YouTube videos when they're brought into the vet.
And I know it's going to end happy.
That's the reason I watch them.
Yeah.
But they come in.
They were afraid.
They have no confidence in anything.
They hide in the corner.
It's like the Blair Witch Project.
They face the corner.
And slowly but surely over the weeks, they come out of their shell.
And by the time they do, they get adapted.
Now they're running around yards, chasing things
with other dogs looking better.
So even the worst shape dog can be helped.
And get these people, these vets who really spend time
with them to take them out of that shelter.
They have no confidence in anybody.
And they just gave up.
But it's so good to watch them when they come out of that,
horrible human, horrible existence.
And they start interacting with other dogs.
And it's really good.
I like to watch those videos.
Only because I know they can end well.
If I knew they were going to end well, I wasn't going to watch it.
Wow.
Now can people donate food, like bags of food,
like when I used to get the food for our dogs,
we had three of them.
So I got the big giant size.
What's the Shiburgan Company?
I always go through a local food company.
Oh, it's, I can't think of it now because it's been a while
since I bought them big maroon colored bags of food.
Anyway, it's kibble, but I used to buy the local brand.
Anyway, so do you do accept big bags of food?
Oh, absolutely.
So we have a wish list on our website of our highest need items.
And dog food and cat food is always at the top of the list.
We go through so much food, as well as cat litter,
dog toys, paparoni and hot dogs are always at the top of the list
to our teens.
These go through just pounds and pounds every single day
as country.
Yeah.
And ponds and plush toys, squeaky toys,
anything to keep their days all of enrichment and activity
goes a long way.
And we go through so many of those types of supplies.
I told you we had a pit bull.
It comes over, she comes over every Friday.
And we started giving her getting toys.
The toys lasted 45 seconds because with her mouth, she,
she tears him to shreds.
Even the most, you know, the heart and bone you can get for them.
The tears at the shreds in a few seconds.
And that's about it.
So we had this toy for our other dogs called the tornado.
And one of this is three rotating plastic things.
You put food in each one of them.
A little, little treat in each one of them.
And the dog has to figure out how to get this thing around
so they can get the treat out of the hole.
And every dog we've had, we use this toy.
And now we have the pit bull using it, Juniper.
And she, when she comes in, she just stands there waiting
for the tornado game.
So she can figure out.
First of all, she used to throw it across the room
when figured out that doesn't work.
So now she's got to use her brain and turn it around.
And over the months, she realized how to get the food out
because throwing it against the wall ain't going to work.
It doesn't come out that way.
So it's actually a learning device, too.
And she learned to have patients with it.
And so I love it.
I love when she comes in and stands there,
and my wife fills it up and gives it to her.
It's called the tornado.
I don't know, we got a year to go for our dogs,
and they all love it.
Some have more patients than the others to deal with that.
All right, let's talk about how people can help.
There are several different ways here.
And let's go through the ways one step at a time.
And by the way, what's the address for the recene location now?
The recene location is at 8900-16th Avenue in Mount Pleasant.
Okay. That's in Mount Pleasant, okay.
And yet you can find the addresses of all of our locations
on the homepage of our website at wihumain.org
if you're looking for that address or contact information.
And right now, there's many ways that people can help if they're interested.
I'd say number one, adopt.
We have hundreds and hundreds of animals looking for new homes right now.
We open it recene today at 130, and our adapting experience is fun.
You get to meet as a counselor, talk about what you're looking for in a pet,
and make those successful matches.
If you're not in a position to adapt, you can always foster.
And get a short-term host guest.
It can be a lot of fun for the whole family.
And there are hundreds of animals looking for foster care.
Sometimes it's just a couple of days, in other times it's a couple of weeks,
but we can tailor that to around you.
We are, of course, could always use donations,
whether that applies or monetary gifts.
There's lots of ways to give.
And then if you're not in a position to foster, donate, or adapt,
you're simply sharing our posts on social media.
We're, of course, on Facebook, Instagram,
but even TikTok and YouTube just to get help,
amplify our message and our pleas for help right now.
I couldn't foster an animal. I keep it.
I can't, I'd say, yeah, I'm going to foster that.
I wouldn't let it go.
We did that once when I was a kid.
My mother took the dog in for a little bit.
Apparently the people came to pick it up.
I want to say, we change our minds.
And we have the dog.
For fuck, that was a dog.
It was telling you about it.
It got swatted by the cat.
My mother said, no, no, no.
What's up? We fall in love with them right away.
Get away.
I feel bad when they see the videos going through the shelters
and the person comes to tell them you've been adopted.
And I love the way the dog reacts.
It's excited, but the other dogs I feel
bad for. They were passed by.
I can't, I don't know how people work in a shelter.
I couldn't do it. I'd be crying my eyes out all day long.
I couldn't handle it.
Oh, well, I hope that's a great time to remind people.
Animals in our adoption program have as long as it takes
to find a new home.
We don't use a nice for spacer time.
We have a dog currently at our Ozaki campus
who's been with us for over 150 days.
Oh, don't tell me that.
He doesn't tell if he finds the right match,
but sometimes it takes the while.
Angela Speed from the Wisconsin Humane Society.
What's the website address?
It's wihumane.org.
Go there, even if you don't want to pet,
you can donate money, donate food,
donate supplies, donate things.
You can do that.
It doesn't mean you have to take a pet,
but you got to help out the animals.
Thank you, Angela.
