County humane society to celebrate communities it’s served for a century

A century ago this year, what is now the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society, was incorporated to deal with stray and unwanted animals in Sioux Falls.

It originally opened nine years prior as the Animal Shelter, which worked in conjunction with the Children’s Home Society.

SFAHS Executive Director Kori Baade said the connection was that of “orphans,” as well as providing playmates for children in, hopefully, temporary surroundings.

But it wasn’t long before the Animal Shelter became its own entity in 1919.

Over the past 100 years, that Animal Shelter has grown to the point where it offers services to people all over Minnehaha County and the region.

The SFAHS currently has contracts with 29 communities in South Dakota, including Brandon and Valley Springs.

According to Baade, the humane society provides services such as, assisting with animal control and dealing with abuse and neglect reports and prosecutions.

But most of the work they do comes with finding new homes for the “orphans” of the animal kingdom – whether they be dogs, cats, parakeets, ferrets, emus, hogs or whatever wanders into their area.

Currently, apart from their adoption services, the former Animal Shelter, now the Humane Society for the entire area, provides Sioux Falls and other communities with, spaying and neutering, microchipping, vaccinations, education classes, and even has a kids’ club.

While the SFAHS is an “open shelter” that takes in all animals, they mainly work with dogs, cats and small animals (birds, rabbits, mice, etc.)

Baade told county commissioners in April that the organization had just implemented a program to see that all dogs and cats are spayed or neutered before they “go out the door.”

At that time, she said that this new program “will help with unwanted litters. It will help with animals running (loose) in the counties and cities.” 

Along with helping to take care of the growing animal population, the SFAHS also has a program to help animals that already have home – microchipping.

SFAHS Special Events Coordinator Allison Wyant explained that microchipping a pet does not provide a GPS locator on the animal, but if the shelter receives an animal that has a microchip, they have equipment which can read it, and the owner can be contacted.

But even with dogs and cats that do not have microchips, Wyant said they “encourage people to come in and look for missing pets.”

She also explained that people with lost animals can start the process of finding them by filling out a “missing report” online at sfhumanesociety.com, found under the programs tab.

But one of the most impressive things about the SFAHS, especially to animal lovers, is their “no kill” policy.

Wyant said that the shelter adopted this policy for “breed, time and space.”

This means that the SFAHS will not euthanize animals because they don’t like the breed, they are running out of space, or if the animal has been there beyond a certain number of days.

However, if an animal is a danger and has been court-ordered to be put down, or if an abuse or neglect victim is too ill to survive, those animals may have to be euthanized.

However, these are exceptions, not rules. The rule is that the SFAHS is a “no-kill shelter,” Wyant said.

In fact, the organization goes so far to help animals, that they may send them to other “rescue” operations, as they did with Wally the pig.

Wyant, Baade and animal control officer Andy Oestreich all shared a story of what they described as a “giant pig” that wiggled its way out of the back of a semi, apparently headed for Morrell’s (Smithfield Foods) in March 2017.

It seems the person in the vehicle behind the truck watched the animal free itself, fall out of the truck and walk away.

The driver then called the SFAHS and they “wrangled” the pig back to the shelter, where they took care of him and named him Wally.

In keeping with their no-kill policy and not wanting to take Wally to a slaughter house, Baade said that he was given to Soul Space Farm Sanctuary in New Richmond, Wis.

Wally is still there today enjoying his new life.

Now, to celebrate Wally and 100 years’ worth of other success stories, the SFAHS will celebrating their 100th anniversary Sunday, June 23 through Sunday, June 30.

While most of the events will be open to the public, there are a few things scheduled for their donors and their more than 400 volunteers.

The events for all include a microchip clinic on June 23, a movie night ($4 admission) on June 24, which will be part of a free-will small animal adoption that allows people to adopt small animals and pay as little or as much as they can afford. Wyant said this event will include kittens for the first time.

Wednesday and Thursday, June 26 and 27 will repeat the same free-will adoption for dogs.

And what celebration would be complete without BINGO? On June 28, festivities move to Burnside BINGO for a fundraiser from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

On Saturday, June 29, there will be free tours of the SFAHS facility from 1 to 4 p.m., and the celebration wraps up Sunday, June 30 with a free-will donation Kiddie Carnival in the SFAHS east parking lot.

But before or after the 100th anniversary, folks who might be interested in donating their time are encouraged to become volunteers at the humane society.

The time commitment for volunteering can be as little as four hours per month. Wyant describes SFAHS volunteers as the heart of the organization.

People can learn more about volunteering, adopting and other SFAHS programs at their website, sfhumanesociety.org.