TERRE HAUTE — A medium-sized yellow and white dog, curled in a ball and covered with sores, was lying in an outdoor kennel at the Terre Haute Humane Society shelter early one morning last fall.

Steve Brown, the shelter manager, found the sickly dog when he arrived at work.

“He was dead” for all practical purposes, Brown said later. The dog, a victim of neglect found on the city’s north side, was dehydrated and, at 28 pounds, about half his normal weight. Terre Haute animal control officers had brought him to the shelter sometime after closing the previous day.

“He was so bad, his bones were showing through” at his joints, Brown said.

Thirty minutes after finding him, Brown, a large, bearded man with a love for animals, carried the dog, an approximately two-year-old American Bull Terrier and Pit Bull Terrier mix, to his car and drove him to a local veterinarian’s office. A shelter donor agreed to pay the dog’s vet bills – which are often at special rates for shelter animals. Despite the veterinary care, Brown said he didn’t really expect the dog to live through the night.

Still, Brown named the dog “Chance,” because “I hoped he’d get a chance” to survive, he said.

Taking a Chance

But Chance did survive the night and the following day went to live with Jeri Grogan, a shelter volunteer who often takes care of dogs awaiting adoption.

“He was nothing but a bag of bones,” Grogan said of Chance when she first saw him. “I had to carry him to my car” to take him home.

Chance lived with Grogan for about a month. During that time, the dog put on 11 pounds and began to show his friendly and outgoing personality.

“He’s a real lap dog,” Grogan said. Anytime she would sit down, Chance would jump into her lap, she said. Wherever she walked, Chance would follow.

Grogan, however, was acting as a “foster” owner for Chance. “Fosters” are people who temporarily care for homeless dogs and cats while “rescue” organizations try and find them homes. Eventually, in January, Chance went back to the shelter to await possible adoption.

“I cried when I dropped him off,” Grogan said. “But I think I got him off to a good start.”

‘Fixing’ the Problem

Having dogs and cats that are healthy and “fixed” is a big part of the success the Terre Haute Humane Society enjoys in placing dogs and cats in adoption. Healthy animals are easier to find homes for and having them fixed prevents additional breeding in a community with an over-supply of dogs and cats.

“We want to fix the [over population] problem,” said Susan Marr, president of the Humane Society board of directors. “You’ve got to plug the leak.”

A dog or cat adopted from the Humane shelter has been heart worm tested, temperament tested, received vaccinations and is fixed, Marr said. The adoption also comes with 30 days of “pet insurance.” Each animal is also “micro chipped,” which allows lost animals to be more easily identified.

“It’s a real bargain,” Marr said.

Adopting a dog from the Humane Society costs $115. A puppy costs $125 and a cat adoption is $85. This covers some, but not all of the shelter’s expenses in most cases, Marr said.

While Vigo County has an over supply of dogs and cats, other parts of the country have far fewer. As a result, many of the animals “rescued” by the shelter and its “fostering” volunteers are eventually shipped north to the Chicago region, Wisconsin or Michigan – places where dogs, and especially puppies, are in big demand.

That’s where Chance would soon be headed.

Saying Good-bye

After living with another foster “parent” for about a month and in the Humane shelter for about a week, Chance’s final glimpse of Terre Haute came early on the morning of Jan. 29. He was among 26 dogs loaded into animal crates and then packed into a long, white Humane shelter van before dawn on that frigid day.

“I know he’s going somewhere where he’ll have a good home,” Grogan said, who was one of more than a dozen shelter volunteers working to help load the dogs into the van. The air was a cold 15 degrees and a bright full moon was still the only light in the sky as volunteers walked the dogs and then herded them, one after another, into their crates.

Before being loaded into the van, Chance jumped up happily on Grogan’s legs when he saw her. Then, he was packed in a crate bearing his name for his upcoming four-hour trip. At five minutes before 8 a.m., Jim Everett, another volunteer, drove the packed van away from the shelter headed north.

Next Stop: Northern Indiana

Chance and the other dogs were unloaded south of Chicago. Some went to area dog rescues. Chance went directly to what was supposed to be a temporary foster home.

But Chance had his own ideas.

“We should have known he was going to stay when he rode home in the front seat” of the truck, said Lisa, the mother of the large family that agreed to care for Chance. Because Chance came to the shelter as a “neglect case,” shelter officials asked that his present location not be revealed.

After Chance arrived at Lisa’s family home, he “slid in the front door like Kraemer on Seinfeld,” Lisa said laughing. Later that night he curled up on one of the family beds and went to sleep.

“There’s no way this dog is leaving,” Lisa’s husband Ron told his wife looking at the newest addition to the family.

So, now Chance has found a new home. There are five other dogs in the house as well as eight children, Lisa said. But Chance shows no signs of aggression and loves people.

At some point in Chance’s past, “somebody must have loved him,” Lisa believes.

Dramatic Change

In 2009, the Terre Haute Humane Society helped more than 1,100 dogs and cats find new homes through adoptions.

On top of that, it sent 1,710 dogs and cats to rescue shelters or foster homes, according to shelter figures. In that same time period, the shelter euthanized 129 dogs and cats.

These figures are almost the mirror opposite of the figures from just seven years ago.

In 2003, the shelter sent just 157 dogs and cats to rescue facilities and euthanized 1,977.

The emphasis today is clearly on finding “rescue” homes for the animals, not “putting them to sleep,” although that still sometimes happens.

“As long as I’m here, this is not going to be a killing field,” shelter manager Brown said. A 14-year veteran of the shelter, Brown said he recalls the days when the shelter was closed on Mondays to euthanize animals.

“This was a horror place to come into on Mondays,” board president Marr recalled. On Sundays, shelter officials would put an “X” on the kennels of dogs and cats to be euthanized the next day. A trash bag would also hang on the kennel door. “You’d literally walk over the dying animals,” she said.

Rescue Networks

A large part of the shelter’s new ability to find homes for animals stems from one thing: the Internet.

“This is something that wouldn’t have worked before computers,” said Sharon Mattison, rescue coordinator for the Terre Haute Humane Society.

Rescue groups communicate through e-mails and use Web sites. Mattison uses e-mail to seek volunteer drivers and to coordinate with rescue volunteers in other parts of the country. “The Internet is crucial,” she said.

But even with high-tech communications, actually carrying for and transporting all these animals is costly and takes lots of volunteers. The shelter has about 50 volunteers and a paid staff of about 10, Marr said. The shelter had a budget last year of $465,000, she said.

The shelter gets most of its income from adoption fees, donations and fundraising activities, such as the Humane Society’s annual haunted house, Marr noted. It also receives about one-fifth of its revenue from payments from the city and county, whose animal control officers bring stray dogs and cats.

According to the city’s contract with the Humane Society, the city pays the shelter $70 per animal delivered. It also pays $100 to drop off a litter at the shelter. According to the contract, the shelter can “refuse to accept delivery of any animals, if in its sole discretion, its facilities are full.”

When the public drops off animals at the shelter, there is no charge, Marr said. However, donations are gladly accepted.

Hanging in There

The Terre Haute Humane Society has occupied its building on South Fruitridge Avenue for about 50 years. The facility is poorly ventilated and dated in many respects. A drain in the center of the dog kennel area has collapsed.

“We could use a new building,” Marr said.

For now, however, the shelter, which has about 120 kennels, will continue to serve its purpose seven days each week. It will also continue to get as many animals fixed as possible to try and help solve the over population problem. With the help of local vets, some of whom come to the shelter each week, the Humane Society has helped get more than 3,000 animals fixed in the last couple of years, Marr said.

“We’re not perfect,” Marr said of the Humane shelter operation. Some times those working at the shelter don’t always agree on the best way to handle a certain animal.

“We’ve made mistakes.” But one thing is clear, the Humane Society is working hard to change the culture of the animal shelter from a place where unadopted animals are routinely “put to sleep” to a place where they are given extraordinary care and eventually sent to new homes.

For more information on the Terre Haute Humane Society, visit the organization’s Web site at www.thhs.org.



Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.