MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — On September 12, The Humane Society of Central Texas held a press conference to reveal the plan moving forward after its separation from the City of Waco. This is a story 25News has followed since April.
- Friday, September 6 was the last day the Humane Society was on the city’s campus. This is a story 25News has followed since April.
- The Humane Society of Central Texas will work out of a downtown office space, which will serve as its headquarters.
- The number one goal of the Humane Society is to maintain the no-kill status at the City of Waco's Animal Shelter.
- The non-profit will now offer community resources, like fostering, spaying and neutering, chips and emergency vet care.
- The Humane Society will still be in the community for their events and at the Downtown Waco Farmers Market each Saturday.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“We would’ve never left over just money, the real primary issue was the poor care of the animals,” said Ann Shaffer with the Humane Society of Central Texas.
“Right now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out it’s a tense relationship, This was essentially a divorce,” said the executive director of the Humane Society of Central Texas, Tom Lupfer.
A partnership terminated.
“As hard as we tried with the city of Waco, just in the long run wasn’t going to work, and so here we are today,” said Patricia Meadows.
Although the Humane Society of Central Texas can no longer be found at the city’s animal shelter, they’re not leaving our neighbors behind.
“We intend to move forward, We will not be gone,” said Lupfer.
Their mission stays the same, maintaining a no-kill status.
“We do not want that no-kill status that the humane society was able to maintain 93% or higher all these years, we do not want it to go lower than that. There’s no reason for it to,” said Patrica Meadows, President of the Humane Society of CTX.
And to do that, they will now be offering resources to the community, like fostering, spay and neuter, chips and emergency vet care.
“We want to work with our community and help animals stay out of the shelter. We want to get to them before they enter those doors,” said Patrica Meadows.
It was an emotional meeting for several humane society supporters with the nonprofit finally able to tell their side of the story.
But as the Humane Society’s board of directors moves forward, their number one priority is the care and safety of the animals in the City of Waco.
“It doesn’t matter how many people they hire, or how many buildings they build, they have got to improve the standard of care,” said Ann Shaffer.
“We want to help the animals, and any personal animosities we have, time will heal,” said Tom Lupfer.
The Humane Society will have its headquarters at 510 Austin Ave in Waco. The board tells 25 News with the financial help from their donors, they are focusing on putting their funds towards helping our community's pets rather than spending money on a new facility.
To contact the non-profit you can call their temporary contact number at (254) 214-1523 or email them at info@hsctx.org You can find their website here
