Program areas at Humane Society of Utah
The Humane Society of Utah's murray clinic has licensed veterinarians that provide all necessary medical services to animals prior to adoption in our resource center. Additionally, the clinic offers affordable vaccinations, spay/neuter surgeries, microchips, and heartworm tests for members of our community. In 2022, in-house veterinarians and medical teams spayed/neutered 10,746 pets in the community, providing affordable spay/neuter surgery to help prevent pet overpopulation and administered 142,529 vaccinations. We also performed an additional 1,117 special surgeries and expanded our services to include vaccination and sterilization of rabbits. Our clinics perform medical procedures for shelter animals to improve their adoptability and quality of life. The Humane Society of Utah operates two low-cost preventative care clinics in murray and st. george.
The Humane Society of Utah's pet resource center cares for and adopts companion animals. In 2022, our pet resource center found homes for 5,097 companion animals - with the average length of stay for available animals being seven days for cats and three days for dogs. As the need for assistance to community pet guardians grows, hsu continues to invest in keeping families together and animals out of the shelter through our pet retention program. In 2022 hsu distributed over 150,000 pounds of pet food to community pet food pantries, rescue groups, and reservations. Additionally, 499 families were given medical resources to keep their beloved pets. We hosted three off-site vaccination clinics in 2022 at the geraldine e. king resources center, the gail miller resource center, and the ute reservation. Through these clinics, hsu assisted 49 clients with 96 animals with vaccinations, microchips, supplies, and a quick, hands-on vet exam. In total, we served 1,130 companions through our pet retention program in 2022.
Foster care, transfer program, Humane education, behavior programfoster care program: Humane Society of Utah plays a crucial role in helping care for animals needing extra attention. Our foster volunteers care for ill, shy, injured, or baby animals until they're ready to be adopted. In 2022, we onboarded 260 new foster families, allowing our foster department to place 1,189 animals in foster homes. We couldn't provide the services and programs that we offer without the assistance of our volunteer program. Our volunteers gave 20,579 hours of service in 2022, valued at $267,527transfer program: (currently on pause) at the Humane Society of Utah partnered with 40 other groups and facilities to transfer 955 animals to our facility for adoption in 2022. This program helps reduce shelter overcrowding across Utah and neighboring western states and allows hsu to provide medical and behavioral care to animals from overburdened or under-resourced areashumane education: 2022, we believe that educating younger generations is the key to ensuring better lives for animals in the future. Our proactive approach to ending animal cruelty and neglect is through our Humane education program. Hsu serves children of all ages by providing various unique learning opportunities in and out of the classroom. In 2022 we visited 148 schools across Utah. Teaching 8,251 children in-person and 3,588 virtually, reaching 11,839 children total. We teach proper pet care, pet safety, how to greet a new dog, the importance of spaying/neutering a pet, and other age-appropriate animal welfare issues. In addition to classroom visits throughout the year, our Humane education team also hosts kids' camps at hsu for hands-on learning.behavior program: this program works hands-on with almost half of the dogs and cats surrendered or transferred to the Humane Society of Utah. We provide enrichment and training needed during the animals' stay at our center and ensure adopters have the information they need to help make a good match. We also provided 538 training and behavior consults in 2022 for community members to work with their pets and keep them in homes with families who already love them.