Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA

I am an 8-year volunteer at and 2-time adopter from PHS for context. This organization does incredible work they and regularly go above and beyond what most people would expect out of an animal shelter. It’s true that they are not no-kill – it’s also true that they don’t pretend to be. In fact, there’s a huge sign on the wall of the intake area that emphasizes to people surrendering their pets that PHS should be considered a last resort. Another truth is that they adopt out 100% of healthy dogs and cats in their care. They work hard to educate the public about spay/neuter (and also have a low-cost spay/neuter clinic as well as a mobile clinic), provide behavior consults, training classes, etc. I myself have used several of their training classes and dog playgroups to help develop my little dog into a better citizen. As a volunteer, I see what monumental effort goes into the day-to-day operation of an open intake facility not just in basic animal care but also in enrichment, objective evaluations, top-notch medical care, and cruelty case investigations. All counties should be so lucky to have an open-intake animal shelter run as well, and as compassionately as PHS.

I’m a volunteer at PHS, and I have been volunteering there for over 10 years now. I help out where I can at both of their facilities. Today, I was at Coyote Point, working with dogs that have behavior problems that did not originate at PHS. Since PHS has an open door policy, people (I hate to use this word but it’s true) will dump their unwanted pets there for unbelievably selfish and uncaring reasons. Sometimes they will leave them in the night drop, so they won’t embarrass themselves in person, or they just don’t care and fill out the form giving their inane reasons why they no longer want their beautiful dog or cat–Here PHS, it’s on you now. This goes on 365 days a year. And then there’s the complainers like Dena that apparently think their wonderful cat is so special they can let it out of the house to get hit by a car only to be RESCUED by PHS and then have the gall to complain about it. (No wonder trump is president) Like I said, I’ve been volunteering a long time, I see what goes on there, and not once have I seen anyone abuse an animal there. And not once have I seen Ken White wave his paycheck around saying I make more than everybody. Just the opposite, to be honest. So the President of the organization makes a lot of money. If he did nothing, then yes, you may open your mouth and complain. But he has done so much in a short period of time to help save and rescue all these abandoned, sometimes abused, animals, along with inspiring his wonderful staff to come up with so many creative ideas with really just one bottom line here. Plus all the volunteers he and his staff inspires. This is a fantastic place dealing with problems of epic proportions caused by an uncaring segment of the population. The real problem here is any “Joe Blow” can write whatever he/she wants without backing it up with facts. I love animals, and I love what PHS-SPCA does to SAVE them.

Dena, I’m sorry you feel the need to spread things that are not true about PHS. We did not have 16 employees leave last November or anytime for that matter. The accusations about abuse are entirely false. Ken White does make a large salary, but it is not over $600k. When we received a call that a cat was hit by a car, we sent our staff to pick her up. The person that reported the cat being hit was very concerned about what she witnessed that she called more than once to check on the state of the cat. We are very pleased that your daughter’s cat appears to be ok and even though you didn’t want the medical record we created, we hope you do take her to your daughter’s veterinarian. I’m sorry you didn’t want us communicating with your daughter while she is on vacation (and while you were responsible for her cat), but it is our legal and ethical responsibility to make sure the owner/guardian of an animal makes the decision of who can receive their animal in their absence. We save more than 6,000 animals per year – adopting many animals into new loving homes, and reuniting lost pets with their concerned families on a daily basis. Lisa