The new Humane Society

In just three years, the Humane Society of Sonoma County has opened an $8.3 million facility, doubled its annual spending, hiked its chief executive's salary nearly 50 percent and launched commercial pet services.

Along the way, it has shed programs that the public traditionally associates with a Humane Society. It no longer investigates complaints of animal cruelty and has ceased providing animal-control duties with all but the city of Sebastopol.

And it doesn't take in just any old stray dog or cat.

The transformation is fueled in part by the need to generate revenue to operate its center on Highway 12 just west of Santa Rosa, a building that looks like a modern hotel with a high, atrium-style ceiling and private rooms for dogs offered for adoption.

"It was a lofty goal" to quickly change from the old Humane Society and fill the new building with new services, said Scott Anderson, who became executive director just after the new facility opened. "We had to shift from the traditional mold of rescue, shelter and adoption. We needed to move into prevention and education."

In the emotional world of animal care, that shift in philosophy placed a premium on taking animals that could become future family pets, leading to the society's decision to end a 46-year contract with Santa Rosa in 2000, a major source of revenue, but also of unwanted animals that had to be euthanized.

Instead, the nonprofit agency is considering a major expansion and aggressively pursuing fund raising. It is appealing to a public that has a love affair with dogs and cats, sometimes in competition with other shelters, and also offering services that turn a profit, though they may compete with veterinarians and local pet businesses.

Along the way, it has lost support from some longtime

animal welfare advocates, such as former major donor R.J.

Kamprath of Santa Rosa, who said she has grown disenchanted with the agency on several fronts.

"My experience has been that what is heavily promoted and advertised to the public is diametrically opposed to the reality, and that the Humane Society seems to have lost sight of its mission of animal welfare, while money raising has become primary."

However Curt Wheeling, president of the society's board of directors, says the changes are just a start on what he sees as the agency's future, including a possible $20 million fund-raising campaign for further expansion.

"As we can expand our programs, the focus will be not just on animals but animal-people relationships, training and education," Wheeling said.

"It's the evolution of the society. We're going from purely shelter and adoptions to many more programs. The society right now is a start-up company and we're trying to run it like that," he said.

This much is certain:

The annual budget has more than doubled to nearly $3.2 million in three years.

Salaries of agency administrators have jumped as fund raising has generated more money in donations and as fee-for-service ventures have become more lucrative.

Utility costs at the new building are a major drain on the organization.

New services such as a veterinary clinic, grooming, boarding and a retail shop for pet items are intended to turn a profit.

The society has adopted a dog-training program that runs counter to most current practices. It relies, in large part, on the use of "corrective" measures such as prong collars and vinegar sprays

There is uncertainty about how many animals have been adopted. According to the society's annual reports, the number decreased from 1,537 in 2003 to 1,420 in 2006. However, Anderson said Friday the published figure is wrong and that a review of computer records shows that in 2003, 1,015 were adopted, indicating a substantial increase to a revised figure of 1,445 since the opening of the new building.

Humane Society officials point to several efforts to become a countywide animal- care resource. They include an expanded education program with elementary school-aged children, a proposed high school vet tech program and joint efforts with Santa Rosa Junior College and UC Davis to expand veterinary training services.

Growing pains continue

at the facility, including an out-dated phone system that officials acknowledge leads to poor communication with the public and a high volume of complaints.

"That is high on the list of things to deal with," Anderson said.

Selective admissions

As part of its transformation, the Humane Society shelter has become a limited-intake facility, meaning it focuses almost entirely on animals that appear adoptable.

In contrast, the Sonoma County Animal Shelter takes in all surplus dogs and cats from Santa Rosa and other county areas. The four other shelters all have city contracts, serving Petaluma, Sonoma, Rohnert Park and Healdsburg.

Being more selective also means fewer animals are returned from disappointed pet owners. In three years, the return rate has dropped from about 16 percent to 3 percent.

And by becoming more selective in accepting animals, the Humane Society is resorting to destroying animals less often, which was one of its goals.

Higher pay

During the transition, the salary of the director has soared more than 47 percent, while pay for other top Humane Society staff members has jumped 10 percent to 25 percent since 2004.

Anderson makes $132,000 a year. Former director Darris Hercs, who now heads the Healdsburg Animal Shelter, was paid $90,000 annually when he left in late 2003.

Board officials say they are paying for Anderson's expertise in operating for-profit veterinary hospitals, thus strengthening their goal of establishing such a facility.

"We were looking for a different skill set for the new director," Wheeling said.

The salaries are part of a budget that has ballooned 118 percent, from $1,460,000 in 2004 to $3,194,000 last year.

The increase reflects new ventures and more staff. The Humane Society has opened a veterinary hospital, a retail pet supply shop, a boarding service, a grooming salon and a dog-training center.

Society officials say these services help support the money-losing end of the business, such as caring for the 1,700 animals it takes in annually.

Some veterinarians, however, express concern privately that these commercial ventures conflict with services provided by private clinics and pet-related businesses.

"We support their mission to adopt out animals, but a non-profit pays different tax rates than we do," said one Santa Rosa veterinarian who declined to be identified. "It could erode our business, so the vets are suspicious and are concerned about it."

Hercs, the former Humane Society shelter director, said that when he was developing plans for the new building, veterinarians were not at all happy about competition from a nonprofit agency.

"At that time, the board of directors did not design the new building to be a full service veterinary clinic and they were not looking to be in competition with veterinary services," Hercs said. "Those were different times, though. Things have changed with new objectives."

The Humane Society's veterinarian, Dr. Richard Bachman, said the clinic and the mobile van for spay and neuter operations attract pet owners who don't have a regular vet. Bachman said 80 percent of clients don't have one.

"We are providing a lot of services that are not going to any particular vet right now," Bachman said. "We do fill a void."

Soaring utility bills

Among the costs that the society is seeking to offset are those for electricity and gas in the spacious shelter. Utility bills have reached $130,000 a year, nearly double the $67,000 at the old place.

This prompted a consultant hired by the Humane Society to warn: "The budget cannot accommodate this extraordinary expense."

"It's very costly to run this building," Anderson conceded.

Humane Society officials are looking into installation of solar energy panels. The building's high, atrium-style ceiling was a trademark of the architectural firm that designed animal shelters at the time, but it is also an inefficient design that wastes heat.

The consultant's study, issued last fall, also concluded that the gap between the shelter expenses and the agency's income from bequests and donations looms so large that the Humane Society doesn't have the resources to continue supporting operations while it builds its fee-for-service programs.

Ambitious expansion plans

Donations are going to be crucial if the Humane Society's governing board launches a multi-year, $20 million fund-raising campaign identified in its consultant's study. It envisions construction of a dog-training pavilion, expansion of dog habitats, purchase of vehicles for moving animals and creation of endowments for educational programs and charity medical care.

It also calls for remodeling parts of the new building.

Before embarking on the fund-raising campaign, the Humane Society's board has hired consultants to conduct a marketing survey to assess community perception and to determine how deep the Humane Society can go into the pockets of donors.

Anderson said his primary function will be to coax more donors to give more money on a regular basis if programs they advocate are to continue. He said he would aim for three-year funding commitments in order to avoid the annual appeals.

"My job is keeping on top of the donors and communicating with them," Anderson said.

Programs that don't get specifically supported by donors will get reduced, Anderson said.

Private donations form the biggest piece of the Humane Society's pie, about 36 percent of its $3.2 million in income last year. Estate bequests account for an additional 34 percent of revenue.

Those donations are key to continuing programs such as the spay and neuter campaign, the shelter support fund, the foster care of about 300 orphaned animals annually, education programs aimed at children and the Forget Me Not Farm that allows at-risk children to connect with farm animals.

Competing for cash

The Humane Society spends more than $250,000 annually on fund-raising efforts. Some solicitations have riled other animal shelters, which also are seeking donors and owners for their homeless animals.

Nancy Tavares, director of the Petaluma Animal Shelter, said Humane Society officials crossed the line when they sent direct mailers into Petaluma this year soliciting donations to save kittens at the Highway 12 shelter. She noted that the Petaluma shelter has to take all animals while the Humane Society can pick and choose.

"People should raise funds in their own areas where their services are provided. It's very confusing to the public," she said.

Anderson said the Humane Society does serve Petaluma, noting that about seven percent of the center's clients are from Petaluma.

"It's perfectly justified," to seek donors in the south county, he said, although he acknowledged he gets perturbed when the Humane Society of the United States solicits in Sonoma County because the two Humane Societies aren't affiliated.

You can reach Staff Writer Bleys Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com. and Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@

pressdemocrat.com.