HSEC NEWSLETTER
Humane Society of Elmore County News – 28 Apr '25
Rea Cord
Executive Director
This Wednesday, 30 April is National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day! What a great day to bring awareness of all the wonderful pets that are in Shelters locally and across our country. Right here in our River Region we have three Shelters that house anywhere from 800-1200 total pets in the Shelters and foster homes. And that number is starting to climb rapidly as kitten season is now underway. That is a lot of unwanted and displaced pets in need of new and loving homes for one three-county region! Of course the first thing we hope happens for the lost pets coming into our Shelter is for their owners to come and reclaim them. All of us are fielding dozens of lost & found pet reports daily and working to reunite pets as we would much rather get a pet back to its owner than have to find it a brand new home. But owners have to be ACTIVE in looking for their pets and not give up too soon! Call Shelters, use social media & keep your lost posts updated. Having photos is really important as we too often get descriptions that do not really match what we are seeing.
After the legal stray holds and for those surrendered by owners, our next steps are getting them ready for adoption. In this day and age you can easily check out pets looking for homes using the internet – the two oldest and most active sites are www.petfinder.com & www.adoptapet.com. Now will you see 800+ pets online between our three Shelters? No, as there are many steps we all have to take before adoption – some might be under medical treatment, or too young for adoption, or being evaluated for any behavior issues, possibly being held for court actions, waiting spay/neuter appointments, etc. Shelter staff play a kind of animal Rubik’s cube all day long as new animals come in, medical issues are addressed, fosters step up, animals are readied for adoption, adoptions & transfers (to rescue partners) happen, and yes, euthanasia is determined to be necessary. That means these online adoption sites are updated daily, if not hourly so what you see there today may be quite different tomorrow.
What you will get when adopting from our area Shelters are pets that have been fully vaccinated, treated for internal and external parasites, spayed or neutered prior to (in our Shelter’s case) or as a condition of adoption & microchipped (our Shelter also registers the pet’s microchip to the adopter during the adoption). Shelter staff also evaluate these pets and do their best to help potential adopters make a good adoption choice based on numerous factors that take into account the pet’s personality, activity level, breed propensities as well as the adopter’s lifestyle, living situation, personal preferences, etc. Since far too many of these pets have been discarded at least once, our goal is to help make a ‘good fit’ placement that will be successful for pet and human alike which is the key to successfully ‘adopting’ a pet. We have an Adoption Application process so that we can help potential adopters make a good choice for pet and people alike. All of our pets listed online have the link to fill out our application online at the bottom of their information. And if you want to do a Wish List Adoption Application to tell us what you are looking for, you can fill out that here: https://www.elmorehumane.org/wish-list-adoption-application.html . Telling us things like breed types, age range, male or female, coat length preferences, etc will help us stay on the lookout for a potential match and we will email you with info and photos of any pet we think might fit your ‘wish app.’ So when you are considering your next pet, please check your local Shelters as we can promise there are animals with years of love to give you, and Shelter staffs who want to help you find your perfect match.
Rea Cord, M.S.
Executive Director
Humane Society of Elmore County
255 Central Plank Rd
Wetumpka, AL 36092
Ph: 334/567-3377
Fax: 334/567-8774
Email: hselco@bellsouth.net
Website: https://www.elmorehumane.org
If you do need to contact our shelter you can call us at 334-567-3377, email us at hselco@bellsouth.net or message on our Shelter Facebook page.
"Each of us can only do the best we can for as many as we can and that will never be good enough for those of us who care!"
"Adoptions are about finding homes more able, more committed or simply better for the pet that came into our charge. Adoptions are not about numbers or rewards or statistics. We strive to place our pets like they are our own."
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