SEMO Humane Society nears 40% of goal for new shelter

With nearly 40% of its $3.7 million goal already met, the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri’s capital campaign for a new 12,000-square-foot humane education and adoption center facility is well underway as the new year begins.

The shelter’s need for a new building stems primarily from a lack of space to properly house the more than 3,000 animals that come and go at the shelter each year, improper ventilation throughout the building making it difficult to control disease or regulate temperature, and building maintenance issues such as cracked floors, leaking ceilings, rusted metal surfaces and a poor drainage system.

The campaign kicked off in mid-October. In December alone, executive director Tracy Poston said, the shelter had raised about $133,000, including $50,000 of matching funds. With donations, pledges and what has already been spent on preparations for the new facility, Poston said the shelter had raised a total of about $1,369,000 for the campaign.

This rendering shows the exterior of the proposed Humane Society of Southeast Missouri building in Cape Girardeau.Submitted

“We really want the community to be part of the solution,” Poston said.

“I would love for [the money] to be coming in faster, but it is coming in,” board of directors president Charlotte Craig said by phone Monday. “We have had some wonderful and very generous donations, very generous.”

A matching campaign completed Dec. 3, or Giving Tuesday, was sponsored by JSE Surplus and Purina, which raised at least $70,000 for the new pet center facility, as reported Dec. 7 by Southeast Missourian assistant publisher Lucas Presson. Giving Tuesday also brought a donation from Purina of more than $11,000 of cat food, Craig said. Thanks to five on-site, secure shipping containers, the shelter has been able to accept such donations.

This rendering shows the interior of the proposed Humane Society of Southeast Missouri building in Cape Girardeau.Submitted

“That was part of our plans for expansion, is to have a way to store offers of donation,” Poston said. “Because usually when they offer, it’s in bulk, and [we] have to have a place to put it all or we can’t accept it.”

In addition to the extra storage space, money has already been spent on preparations for the new facility, which will sit on two newly re-purchased lots next to the existing building at 2536 Boutin Drive in Cape Girardeau. The lots were once owned by the shelter, Craig said, but were sold in the 1980s so the facility could stay open, Craig said.

“I look at us and my smile is radiant with where we are compared to where we have been in the past,” she said.

The Humane Society of Southeast Missouri plans to break ground for the new building June 1, and by that time Poston said they hope to have raised about 75% of the necessary funds.

“We’ve got the most prudent board,” Craig said. “ ... None of us want to take out a loan to do this. We want to have that money in the bank.”

One of the challenges facing the shelter is, while the building campaign continues, the ongoing need to fund the shelter’s yearly operating budget of more than $700,000. Poston said that happens primarily through donations to the shelter and funds raised during the Humane Society’s four main fundraisers throughout the year.

And while the shelter contracts with several jurisdictions for animal services, she said only about 20% of the annual expenses are paid for by those contracts. The remaining needs are funded entirely by donations, “which is not an easy task,” Poston said.

“Monetary donations go a long way,” Poston said. “We always need towels and sheets, blankets, bleach, dog toys ... but we also need to keep the lights on and the heat on.”

Considering the shelter must raise money to support operations, Craig said she’s “overjoyed” about the capital campaign’s progress.

“People are being very warm and generous and responding to that as well,” Craig said of donations that support day-to-day operations. “So, considering that we’ve got both of those going on at the same time, I’m fairly thrilled.”

The shelter plans to have another matching campaign during February, and though plans have not been finalized, Poston said she expects it will wrap up around Valentine’s Day. The match will be for “at least $25,000,” she said, sponsored by a business that wishes to remain anonymous.

In addition to memorial pavers that can be purchased at the shelter’s website, www.semopets.org, Poston said there are several naming opportunities left for those who wish to donate. Such opportunities include donations to name the facility, the lobby, the community room, the cat room, the big dog alley and the little dog alley, the puppy room, the “catio,” as well as a few interaction rooms.

If that sounds like the whole building, Poston said several of the naming opportunities have already been claimed, such as the memorial garden and benches, several small dog interaction rooms, two large play yards and a small play yard and the laundry room.

“We’re really depending on the community to see the need and want to take action and have a facility for homeless pets that they can be proud of,” Poston said.

The shelter’s save rate is 94% for dogs and 73% for cats, Craig said, which is “only happening because people are supporting” the shelter.

“That is the bottom line,” Craig said. “We can’t do this without the community.”