The Cochrane and Area Humane Society saw ups-and-downs throughout 2020, including canceled events, a rise in adoption rates, and successfully pivoting to virtual fundraising efforts.

Lisa Kedian, Communications Coordinator for the Cochrane and Area Humane Society explains how the shelter responded to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “March was tough, I think because this is the first time that really anybody has had to deal with anything like this. We closed our doors on March 17 and basically, we remained open by appointment only, we limited the amount of volunteers that we had in the shelter because we don't want a lot of people around in the shelter at one time. A lot of those shifts had to be cut. That left a lot of staff having to cover, you know, more than one job, and it was tough for everybody for quite a while.”

“Now, here we are again. So yeah, we've had to kind of do the same thing that we did back in March, where we've cut down the amount of volunteers in the building, our staff is mostly working from home, of course, we have people that have to be in the building.”

The Cochrane And Area Humane Society is a non-profit organization, relying on community support through fundraising and events.  Kedian says that while they lost the opportunity to run their biggest events of the year, they have also learned about new avenues for community support. “Our gala had to be canceled and that's one of our biggest fundraisers. We raised, I think it's somewhere around the $60,000 mark and I mean that is just such a big number for the shelter so to cancel that really, really hurt.”

“We realized, well, maybe we can try doing some other things virtually as well and so we ran back in November, our first-ever virtual online Facebook auction. We were just thrilled with the amount of support that we received from the community and not just the community but all the business owners that donated to our auction. We ended up raising a total of $12,000. Then, of course, Kendra was another local Cochrane supporter of the shelter, she came through and said that she would match the funds raised from that fundraiser to give a total of $24,000. So that was, you know, a big deal for us.”

Throughout 2020, many people were spending more time at home and lots of Cochranites used this as an opportunity to adopt an animal. “Our adoption rate has definitely gone up from last year! Last year, we adopted out a total of 1455 animals, and this year we've adopted out 1504.”

“There's always a huge demand for puppies and kittens. Every time we get a litter of puppies or litter of kittens and we advertise that they're ready for adoption. Let me tell you, our email is completely flooded. But also there's been a higher demand for adult animals which has been really, really great for us to see because normally, you know, those senior pets get left behind and people always want to start with a kitten or puppy. We've seen a lot of our older adult animals get adopted, we've been really, really happy to see that.”

Now that we are officially in 2021, Kedian is hopeful that this year the shelter will be able to fully reopen to not only the public but their staff and volunteers as well. “We'd love to see our volunteers back at the shelter. I mean they are the heart of the shelter and they help us with daily operations, laundry, animal care, I mean the list goes on and on.” 

“We're hoping to be able to get back to some sort of normalcy but we're also excited, you know, finding new avenues of hosting fundraisers online and just seeing the amount of support we received for the first two that we've offered online. We're excited to explore that a little bit further, but of course,  we do want to be able to open our doors to people again.  We really missed that and I think people do love coming into the shelter and being able to look at the animals.”