About Us
Statistics
Just 14 years ago over 10,000 cats, dogs, kittens and puppies were surrendered to the Bangor Humane Society each year. There were simply not enough homes for these pets and over 50% of them were put to sleep every year. Over the last 10 years education efforts, particularly by veterinarians and state animal welfare officals has been helpful. Their advocating of spay/neuter to their communities has significantly reduced the number of unplanned litters.
By January of 2004, just under 4,300 pets needed our help each year. Unfortunately, since that time we have seen our intake totals increase by 15% and in 2005 we saw 5021 animals come to our doors. Although progress has been made, there is no question that Maine continues to have a chronic pet overpopulation problem, which over the last two years has been getting worse, not better.
Our shelter has run overcapacity by up to 35% for seven out of the past 12 months. This has put great stress on our already limited resources. To combat this persistent problem, we opened an in-house veterinary clinic in May of 2004. This ensures that every animal leaving the shelter is spayed/neutered. To date, our veterinary staff has spayed/neutered over 3,000 dogs, cats, kittens, and puppies in an effort to stem the tide of animal overpopulation. This August we also opened a low cost spay/neuter program for low-income pet owners (see low cost spay/neuter program under general information). Participating veterinarians in three counties have lowered their fees by 33% for this program, and BHS is providing vouchers to cover 50% of the already reduced fees. We plan to distribute 750 of these vouchers next year! We are hoping these efforts will result in a decrease in the serious animal overpopulation problem in central, northern and eastern Maine.