SOUTH SUBURBAN HUMANE SOCIETY

The South Suburban Humane Society is dedicated to promoting the well-being of animals in Chicago's south suburbs.

Through (1) the care and sheltering of animals needing protection, (2) education of the public as to ownership duties and responsibilities, (3) vetted and thorough adoption services, and (4) targeted, high-impact spay/neuter policies, the South Suburban Humane Society will make every effort towards ending animal homelessness, reducing pet overpopulation, and ending cruel, inhumane treatment and abuse towards pets.

The South Suburban Humane Society would like to decrease pet euthanasia, especially due to lack of space and overpopulation; increase pet adoptions and promote "Adopt First"; and put an end to animal cruelty.

The South Suburban Humane Society uses a variety of tactics and strategies to fulfill its five-point mission.

(1) The Care and Sheltering of Animals Needing Protection: Our intake staff is trained to receive homeless, stray, feral, unwanted, surrendered, and/or abused animals. Our team takes meticulous and accurate records, performs thorough physical and temperament evaluations, and helps determine adoption restrictions (if any). The Animal Care team is directly responsible for the day-to-day care of all the animals in our shelter, and properly cleans and sterilizes each compartment, ensures enough food and water are easily available, and that medications (if any) are properly dispensed.

(2) Humane Education of the Public: A large segment of the population will instinctively provide the right care, and treat their pets with dignity and respect. A small segment of the population simply doesn't know the proper way to care for their pets, but will do the best they can. A tiny of segment of the population willfully acts cruelly, and abuses their pets. This is the group our investigative arm tries to stop, but the long-term solution is providing humane education.

To truly end animal abuse and wanton cruelty, children, parents, and community leaders need to be engaged at all levels, and the care of companion pets must be seen as a community priority

(3) Thorough and Vetted Adoptions: Everyday, the South Suburban Humane Society accepts animals which are surrendered, abandoned, scared, or even abused. We would be remiss to bring these poor pets into our care, then adopt them into unprepared, inexperience, or negligent homes. The Adoption Counselors and Front Office team specializes in pairing potential adopters with our pets.

(4) Targeted, High-Impact Spay/Neuter Policies: Coupled with adoptions from local shelters, spaying/neutering is the method for reducing animal overpopulation. For a pet's safety, its owners sanity, and a community's security, spay/neuter surgeries are necessary. Intact pets are more liable to roam and risk danger while seeking a mate. In addition, certain diseases, conditions, cancers, and other health problems become much more threatening towards intact pets.

The South Suburban Humane Society is a 501(c)3 animal shelter, and the only Chicago-area shelter accredited with the Better Business Bureau's “Wise Giving" designation. Two of Illinois' three Certified Animal Welfare Administrators (CAWA) manage the shelter, at the CEO and Operations Director positions. The South Suburban Humane Society is confidently able to fulfill its mission. The South Suburban Humane Society has segmented its 40 full-time and 15 part-time employees into several different teams: (1) Adoptions and Front Office, (2) Intake and Animal Care, (3) Volunteer and Outreach, (4) Development, (5) Business and Resale, and (6) Spay/Neuter Clinic.

(1) Our Adoptions and Front Office team is responsible for greeting visitors, introducing potential adopters to pets, processing adoptions and interviews, and performing home checks. The Adoption Counselors work to pair potential adopters with our pets.

(2) The Intake division accepts animals from the public, strays and ferals from the surrounding area, police and Investigator seizures, anonymous drop-offs, and all other sorts at our shelter. The team handles the pets, performing behavioral and physical exams, and determines if the pet is suitable for adoption and any restrictions which are necessary.

The Animal Care division runs the day-to-day operations of the shelter. They are tasked with cleaning and sterilizing each pen and kennel, ensuring easy access to plenty of food and water, giving medication and monitoring the general well-being of each pet.

(3) Our Volunteer Coordinator works with the local community and our dedicated corps of volunteers to support the mission of the South Suburban Humane Society. He coordinates different tasks and activities to ensure the shelter operations run smoothly.

(4) The Development team is responsible for all the direct mail, fundraising and solicitation, grant-writing, and corporate sponsorships of the shelter.

(5) The Business Manager oversees the book-keeping of the South Suburban Humane Society, and ensures all of the proper documents and paperwork are filed. He acts as the HR head, and is the liaison between Paychex and SSHS.

(6) The South Suburban Humane Society's Spay/Neuter Clinic operates out of Chicago Heights (IL), and provides low-cost services to the public. The main focus of the Spay/Neuter team is to handle incoming appointments, and ensure the surgeries are performed safely, effectively, and in a timely-fashion. In addition, they provide- low-cost vaccines each Friday.

The South Suburban Humane Society increased adoptions each year for 5 years, and we would like to steadily improve each year. In 2009, 1627 pets found homes, 1705 in 2010, 1725 in 2011, 1680 in 2012, 1819 in 2013, and 1840 this past fiscal year.

Up until October 1st, 2014 our live release percentage had held firm at 49%, and hadn't wavered significantly over the last 5 years. In the interest of affecting long-term change in a low-income and underserved area, we have instituted a managed admissions process at the time of pet surrender. We hope to provide common sense solution to frequent pet owner complaints, to help these pets and their owners simultaneously. Since our transition to managed admissions in October 2014, our live release percentage has risen to over 90% without reducing intake.

The managed process has become so successful, the South Suburban Humane Society can proactively transfer pets out of high-kill municipal agencies in the area surrounding the shelter and the city of Chicago to give them a greater chance for adoption. Additionally, SSHS was awarded a PetSmart Charities grant in 2016 that was used to institute a transport program to work with partner shelters in southern states with very high euthanasia numbers. Since September of 2016, we have adopted out hundreds of pets that would have otherwise been euthanized at other facilities.

Our pet intake has risen from 3806 to 4280, but the trend has consistently gone down each year. 2009 saw (>5000) pets enter our shelter, 2010 saw (>4000), 2011 and 2012 dipped below 4000. Credit is due to our effective spay/neuter policies, and increased outreach and humane education campaigns. The recent uptick in intake suggests the unusual weather and unseasonably warm winter of the last year, as opposed to a marked increase in the breeding population. Further support from PetSmart and Petco should result in even lower rates of intake, as these grant monies will support targeted spay/neuter initiatives.

Due to our efforts at the shelter combined with the affordable services offered at our Spay/Neuter Clinic and the South Suburban Low-Cost Veterinary Clinic opened in collaboration with Dr. John Coyne in 2015, we are happy to report that 2015 was the first year in the history of SSHS that not a single pet was euthanized for space-related reasons.