Year in Review Pages 5 & 6
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PENINSULA HUMANE SOCIETY & SPCA | Spring 2018 2017 Year in Review pages 5 & 6 Busy Bees Snarls to Smiles page 8 | Divine Intervention? page 4 page 10 01 | Spring 2018 PawPrint DEAR FELLOW ANIMAL LOVER A MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT KEN WHITE here are some numbers I’d rather deny Tand I suspect you will know what I mean. I’d like to think of myself as 6 foot 2 (but I’m a good 4 inches shy of that one), just as I’d like to think my bathroom scale has a malicious sense of humor (that number simply can’t be right!), and that Medicare has somehow gotten me confused with another Ken White. Ok, so maybe not all numbers are as friendly as those portrayed on Sesame Street, but some are still wonderful – and important. Here’s one: in 2017, your Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA saved the lives of 6,266 animals. Here’s another: comparing last year to 1970, when PHS/SPCA started tracking such statistics, we’ve reduced euthanasia in San Mateo County by more than 98%. Those numbers are true, meaningful, and completely Ken with Eloise fabulous. But there are others as well. spayed but not microchipped, and no one Last year, a total of 1,400 volunteers gave their came forward to claim her. Eloise’s demeanor time and talents to help us help the animals, proved to be somewhat “challenging.” Alright, and 22,000 households and other supporters she was a downright pain in the butt. Finding contributed the dollars which paid for the care a home for a 10-year-old is hard enough, but needed to heal and find homes for so many Eloise seemed to think every person she ever homeless dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and met deserved a growl. other animals (plus the 1,551 native wild animals, like owls and brush rabbits, who we raised and Over time, the volunteers and medical team released back to where they belong). found a troubling mass hidden deep on her right side. As one of the largest employers of Big numbers tell us something very important veterinarians in this community, our doctors about your PHS/SPCA, but so too does every chose to remove the mass which happily individual “1” that goes into making up those proved to be benign. The post-op team was big totals. Helping every one animal is our soon excited to report not only how well she goal. Like the one we named Eloise. was healing, but also to see how much she seemed a changed animal. No longer hissy and Eloise is a ten-year old ginger tabby female who growling, she now seeks affection by climbing came to us as a stray. She was found already up on laps of just about everyone she meets. 01 | Spring 2018 PawPrint Spring 2018 PawPrint | 02 If Eloise could talk I suspect she’d confirm our The big numbers are great (and this Annual suspicion that the mass was painful and that Report issue of PawPrint has a few pages of pain was the root of her cranky disposition, them) but I’m sticking with the number one. I am but she is not willing to discuss it and we’ll heartened by every one animal we can help and just have to assume that to be the case. As I grateful for every one volunteer and for every write this, this completely changed animal is one contributor who help make that possible. still sporting a long surgical scar but is seeking a new family to claim as her own. Thank you. Eloise was treated through the Hope program, as are more than 150 animals every month. Her story is one example of why we do not give up on animals, and why we’re so grateful to you – our supporters – who allow us to keep trying. Ken White, President Make a difference today for the animals of tomorrow. s animal lovers, seeing an animal in need tugs at our A hearts in indescribable ways. It’s natural to want to help in any way possible. Did you know that you can help the animals in our community not only now, but after you are gone as well? Make a difference by including the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA in your estate plans. By doing so, you can provide our shelter animals with the love and care they deserve. You will also help ensure the long-term stability of our shelter, allowing all future animals that come into our care to receive the love and comfort they need while awaiting their forever homes. Have you already included PHS/SPCA in your estate plans? Let us know so that we may ensure your future gift will be used in the manner you intended. We would also like to thank you personally, and invite you to become a member of our Forever Friends Legacy Society, which honors those who are helping our animals in a generous and extraordinary way. To learn more about including PHS/SPCA in your estate plans, contact Lisa Van Buskirk at 650-340-7022 x327 or [email protected] 03 | Spring 2018 PawPrint CHEERS TO THE ANIMALS BARK N’ BREWFEST! A CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL BENEFITING OUR SHELTER ANIMALS JUNE 23, 2018 2:00 - 5:00pm West Washington Park Burlingame, CA Join us for our first ever Bark n’ Brewfest fundraiser event! Bring your 4-legged friends for a fun-filled afternoon where local craft breweries, cider makers, and a few artisan wineries will be pouring samples of their brews. There will also be music, PHS/SPCA adoptable pets, a prize wheel, and a few exciting pet-themed vendors. Tickets start at $50 and all funds raised from the event benefit our Hope Program! Get Your Tickets Today at: www.PHS-SPCA.org/beer Questions? Please contact Nova Maldonado 650-340-7022 ext. 375 or [email protected]. CURRENT LIST OF PARTICIPATING BREWERIES Event Food Truck THANK YOU TO OUR 2018 SPONSORS Virginia & Alvin Crowe Laura & Tom Faust Victoria and Pooch Kona Cotchett KC & FRANK SIMMONS Mark & Stacey Jamison PENIN TH SU R L Asuka O A N V C E I T N E Orchids I R L I C Susan N A Y R C Y N EM GE Hoffman ER www.primetime.company 03 | Spring 2018 PawPrint Spring 2018 PawPrint | 04 CHEERS TO THE ANIMALS BARK N’ BREWFEST! DIVINE INTERVENTION? A CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL BENEFITING OUR SHELTER ANIMALS BATS TAKE SHELTER WITH ST. FRANCIS hen it comes to establishing roosts, W bats are opportunists and will make their homes in many different nooks and crannies such as hallowed out trees, the eaves of buildings, and attics, just to name a few. But we were surprised when we received a call from a group of construction workers in Menlo Park who had accidentally disturbed a colony of bats who had been roosting in a most unusual place: behind a mural of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals. Workers were hired by a home owner to power wash the side of her house and in order to begin the power washing, the workers had to remove a large mural of St. Francis attached to the outside of the house. As they were taking The St. Francis mural the mural down that morning, they noticed a large colony of bats that had been roosting Now in the capable hands of our Wildlife Care behind the mural. Since bats are nocturnal Center staff and volunteers, the bats were and not accustomed to being awake in the placed into warmed incubators and provided morning, instead of flying away, the sleepy bats oxygen. Each of the bats was evaluated to started to slide down the side of the house. ensure none of them had suffered any broken The workers immediately stopped and called wings or bones when they fell to the ground. us for help. The bats responded well to the oxygen and Our rescue staff quickly arrived at the home heat treatment and all eighty-three bats were and safely captured eighty-three bats. The medically cleared. Later that evening our staff bats were then transported back to our Wildlife brought the bats back to the home in Menlo Care Center for evaluation. PHS/SPCA typically Park and released them. Most of the bats flew receives about one to two bats a month, so right back to the St. Francis mural that had eighty-three at one time was indeed record been re-affixed to the side of the house by the breaking for us! workers earlier in the day. The drowsy bats were identified as Mexican Some may believe it was divine intervention free-tailed bats, native to California. Mexican that the bats made their home behind a mural THANK YOU TO OUR 2018 SPONSORS free-tailed bats are on average 3.5 inches in of the patron saint of animals. Whatever you length and have earned their name from the choose to believe, we just know that without size of their tails, which is nearly half their total your support of PHS/SPCA, we would have body length. not been able to save these bats, or the other thousands of animals we save every year. These 83 Mexican free-tailed bats are just some of the more than 1,500 animals our Wildlife Care Center successfully rehabilitates each year. The Wildlife Care Center is funded entirely by your donations and we thank you for your continued support. The rescued bats 05 | Spring 2018 PawPrint As an open door shelter we do not turn away an animal based on breed, NEW age or even species and LOVING we work to find these animals new homes.