Gulf Coast Humane Society

Gulf Coast Humane Society's ultimate goal as an animal shelter is to find as many happy forever homes for our shelter animals as possible. But GCHS is so much more than just an adoption animal shelter and our umbrella in animal welfare broadens each and every year. GCHS has become a fabric of the community during its 74 years of existence and it's through the many different initiatives and programs this has been possible.

GCHS' goals are many, but all will go back to improving and growing the positivity of animal welfare and those are met through community outreach. As a no-kill shelter, GCHS creates space in its kennels by adoptions and/or fostering. The more kennel space created, the more homeless animals can become shelter animals, which in turn can become more furever friends in forever homes. To keep this positive cycle moving forward, animal welfare initiatives such as Spay It Forward, Okan's Fund, Second Chance Fund and the Pet Food 4 Furever Families programs need to flourish.

In essence, with each goal met, the ultimate goal of more furever homes is met and keeps growing. The bar will keep moving up for GCHS, because unfortunately there will always be a need for shelters for homeless animals. Our goals of promoting animal welfare and disseminating GCHS' message of "Adopt, Don't Shop" will stay the same, but will need to keep expanding and being innovative to stay at the forefront of the communities' support.

At GCHS, we believe if you put good out in the community, good will come back. It is through this philosophy that GCHS has a strong community outreach with programs such as the Second Chance Program, Pet Food 4 Furever Families, Spay It Forward and Okan's Fund.

GCHS also has strong community ties with the local media, schools, senior homes/centers and businesses. These bonds are formed by being out front of the community in the form of visitations, the Senior to Senior Program, educational presentations and inviting media, community leaders, students and just the overall public to the GCHS campus for tours and social events. Every interaction with community members is an opportunity to talk about GCHS' initiatives and goals, as well as giving positive exposure to our shelter animals.

Having a strong community presence is vital to reaching our goals to improving animal welfare awareness and spreading our message of "Adopt, Don't Shop."

GCHS' capabilities of meeting its goals are as strong as the communities' support, staff/volunteers' passion and work ethic and the business community's gracious support of giving. With that being said, GCHS' capabilities are strong because of these factors listed.

One of the most important aspects of building strong community support is trust. GCHS has become one of the most reputable non-profit organizations in Southwest Florida. Nothing like that comes overnight and it takes effort and work to sustain it, but GCHS has the dedicated people and support to keep its strong reputation strong in the community. GCHS has a long reach in helping save rescue animals. The shelter services a five-county area, taking in medical cases from other rural and low-income shelters, pulling animals from high-kill shelters and providing a low-cost Veterinary Clinic to provide medical care for everyone's pet, no matter their income level.

Last year alone during the Covid crisis year of 2020, GCHS proved it is capable to survive challenging times by posting record-breaking adoptions with 3,122 for the year. That would have never been able to happen with dedication and passion from staff, volunteers and community.

GCHS' positive progress can be measured by numbers. The first being an all-time yearly high in adoptions with 3,122 in 2020. The second being the GCHS Spay and Neuter Surgery Center surpassing 25,000 surgeries since 2015.

GCHS' newest community outreach program - Pet Food 4 Furever Families - was vital in getting much-needed pet food to the families who needed it. Through April of 2020 to April of 2021, GCHS attended 65 mobile food pantries and handed out over 25 tons of pet food. The goal of the Pet Food 4 Furever Families Program was to help curb the number of owner-surrenders to the shelter due to families not being able to feed their pets. That goal was met, as owner surrenders never spiked up through the pandemic.

GCHS Veterinary Clinic also reached new heights by posting all-time high in appointments and pets medically serviced.

Progress was made in virtually every aspect, including more volunteer sign-ups, more animal intakes and more fosters.

This progress is proof of GCHS' commitment to meeting its goals - and setting higher ones - of animal welfare awareness and its ultimate message of "Adopt - Don't Shop."