The COVID-era trend of pet owners voluntarily surrendering their pets due to financial issues has not reversed itself since the pandemic has receded, according to Jen Dupree, executive director of the Humane Society of Jefferson County, Washington (HSJCWA).

“What hit us even harder was that a lot of spay-and-neuter services simply weren’t happening during the height of the pandemic,” Dupree said. “So now, we have an increased population of animals out there to take care of.”

As of Oct. 26, HSJCWA was sheltering 54 cats and 16 dogs.

Dupree estimated the annual operating budget of the Jefferson County Humane Society adds up to roughly $500,000, but she expects they’ll exceed it again this year, since the shelter’s space continues to exceed capacity.

Aside from donations of money and equipment, Dupree advised animal-lovers that the best things they can do to help the Humane Society are to educate themselves about animal care, and make sure all their pets are spayed or neutered, to get the animal population under control.

“An issue with Jefferson County is that we serve a wide coverage area,” Dupree said. “So, much of the west end of the county is admittedly under-served, especially given our lack of staffing and funds. The agencies we work with, such as the Animal Control Services of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, are facing similar problems.”

Among the shelter’s current tenants, its most long-term residents are Kumar, a mixed-breed dog who’s 2-and-a-half years old, and has been there since Oct. 20, 2023, and KC and Pia, a pair of 5-year-old bonded cats who have been there since May 15 of this year.

“Kumar was adopted briefly, but returned through no fault of his own,” Dupree said. “He just wasn’t a good fit for his prospective owner. And KC and Pia’s owner surrendered them due to developing a pet allergy.”

Bank donation

The organization relies on donations to operate, and was recently selected by 1st Security Bank of Port Townsend for a $6,000 donation.

Branch manager Candice Cotterill explained that this new donation program stems from changes to the parking lot for the Port Townsend branch.

The parking lot, which stretches along Washington Street between Adams and Quincy streets downtown, had been in need of repair.

1st Security Bank spokesperson Camberly Gilmartin explained that the past few years have seen increases in “vehicle camping, crime and general community safety issues” in the Port Townsend branch’s parking lot.

“These issues have affected both our customers’ and our employees’ ability to park while doing bank business,” to the point that coming to the branch “made them feel unsafe,” Gilmartin said.

As such, 1st Security Bank recently repaved, re-surfaced and re-striped its Port Townsend branch’s parking lot, and installed pay-to-park meters to discourage overnight camping and crime.

Gilmartin acknowledged the parking lot was free before these improvements were made, but pointed out that the improvements were done at an out-of-pocket cost of $80,000 to the bank. (The Leader, which shares the parking lot, paid $9,360 of that total.)Nonetheless, Gilmartin and Cotterill agreed that the community needs to know “we have their best interests in mind,” so the 1st Security Bank is donating 50% of the proceeds of its Port Townsend branch parking lot to a local nonprofit organization on a quarterly basis.

“Being a local myself, and growing up in this great town, I know how change affects our community, but this is a positive change,” Cotterill said. “The safety of our customers and employees is a priority, and when that was put at risk, we needed to take action.”

Cotterill noted that there were times when no parking was available for either bank employees or customers, which she found especially concerning for disabled customers “who have limited mobility, and need access to those close spaces to come into the bank.”

Cotterill added, “As owners of this large lot, we felt it was our responsibility to take action, and why not give back to the community, by providing more than just parking?”

The bank already donates to several nonprofits each year, such as the Jefferson Land Trust, Olympic Angels, Habitat For Humanity of East Jefferson County, the East Jefferson Little League, the Benji Project “and so many more,” Cotterill said.

“Thanks to our new pay-to-park program, our funds will be able to reach even more nonprofits than before,” she added.

Dupree pledged the money from the bank would go directly to the care of the Jefferson County Humane Society’s animals.

“That includes food, vaccines, other medicines and anything else that’s needed to get the animals ready for adoption,” she said.

Representatives of 1st Security Bank have pledged another donation to HSJCWA before the end of the calendar year.