Henrico Humane Society celebrating 30 years of service

The Henrico Humane Society, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, aims to help find homes for homeless dogs and cats in Henrico and the surrounding Richmond area.

“The thing that makes Henrico Humane Society very special is that we are a 100% volunteer organization,” said Cara Salman, Henrico Humane Society president. “So everything that we do is done by people who are donating their time, and we like to make sure that we're seeing our volunteers a lot.”

Salman, who noted that the most difficult aspect during COVID-19 was not being able to see the volunteers as frequently as they would like, also said that the Henrico Humane Society’s adoption numbers have increased since the pandemic. The organization was able to move all of its adoptions to virtual, before resuming adoption stands in person at the Petco store in Short Pump, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.

“We have been lucky that people in the communities have been very receptive to [virtual] and they still continued to adopt from us,” Salman said. “And so we're very grateful for them.”

Aside from adopting from the Henrico Humane Society, community members can aid the organization by donating through the organization's website or volunteering to transport the animals, work administratively, or fundraise. The organization also accepts applications for foster homes, which prospective volunteers can fill out an application on their website.

“We are always looking for volunteers and we can never have enough foster homes,” Salman said. “That's one of the most important things we do because we don't have a shelter, all of our animals do live in foster homes, and the benefit of that is that we get to learn the animals’ personalities really well when they’re living in your home so we know how to place them well.

The Henrico Humane Society also participates in a spay and neuter program titled SPAY RVA, created for pet owners who cannot afford the cost of surgery to spay or neuter their pet. The program assists owners who may have to re-home their pet or have unplanned litters that could have been prevented by spaying or neutering.

“We're always looking for different ways to help people in the community,” Salman said. “During COVID we also had our COVID fund. We raised funds from the community so people who were faced with large veterinary bills, emergency veterinary bills, who had been financially impacted by COVID, we were actually able to cover the costs of their vet bills.”

The organization charges $95 for a cat or kitten, $150 for an adult dog and $200 for a dog under one year old. The adoption cost covers the fee of shots, spaying or neutering, microchipping and worm and flea treatments.

“We're trying to help people in the community, we're trying to help animals in the community, and our ultimate goal is to grow as much as we can to continue that mandate,” Salman said.

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This is part of a regular series of article profiling Henrico nonprofit organizations. To submit your nonprofit for future consideration in this section, please email citizen@henricocitizen.com.