the start of two thousand twenty one was a new beginning for two local organizations that came together in service of animal welfare in northeast Indiana.

The merging of the Allen County SPCA and Hope for Animals created humane Fort Wayne and from adoption and retention programs to wellness services community outreach and education campaign for Wayne works for the benefit of pets and the people who love them as the agency's activities include finding new homes for dogs and cats Humane Fort Wayne itself has been working on a new home of its own and we'll learn more as we even dare to go off leash on this edition of Prime Time.

And good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines and with us from Humane Fort Wayne is executive director Jessica Henry Johnson and we invite you to join our conversation with your questions and comments.

Just call the number that you see on the screen as we widen out and prove to you that Jessica is here.

>> Nice to see you.

Thanks for having me back.

>> Our pleasure.

A real pleasure.

And it has been a very fast two year interim from that time of twenty twenty one when the great coming together took place and maybe for those who came in after the fact how did we get to now with that with that merger let's go there first.

>> Well the flagship building at forty nine 14 Saldaña Street is seventy four hundred square feet and we've been doing a lot of life saving out of that particular facility and when we merged with Hope for Animals then we really exploded our services and the need for a new facility was greater than ever .

So our 70 400 square foot animal shelter is going to grow to be twenty five thousand square feet at our new building at nine one Leesburg Road that it is a phenomenal thing and the the ability to do so much in so little and then to have things truly, you know, expanded.

>> I say that Ahana Street facility is not state of the art, it's state of the art and there is still hope for buildings and we'll get to the but what's wonderful is we have an opportunity for you to see what the new building is like and what it's like to go inside through the miracle of computer technology.

So let's let's share that that that video as we fly through, if you will, the the new facility as it's coming together.

>> Tell us what we're seeing.

Sure.

So what you're seeing there is the new home of Humaine Fort Wayne special thanks to our friends at Design Collaborative.

There are architects and they've put this together for us.

And if you know where the University of St. Francis is, well, we're just about a half a block away and so we're very excited to be able to be that close to St. Francis and that close to Lindenwood Cemetery.

There's such great partners of ours and we're very excited to to be able to maybe offer some opportunities to partner with them on additional programs in the future.

So what you're seeing there on the front are visuals.

People will be able to have photos of their own animals on the front of our facility and that's very exciting for them.

We're coming into the front lobby there.

If you've been to our lobby on Hanah Street it's about as big as a postage stamp.

So we are excited to be able to have a facility that will be more comfortable for our visitors as well as for the animals we're moving through again a reception space and now it looks like a specialty.

>> That's right heading down to the cat colonies and in this facility we will have six adoptable cat colonies and by comparison our current facility only has two and I don't know if you know this but there are estimates of sixteen thousand stray or free roaming cats in our community.

So we need to be able to help as many cats as possible and our new facility is going to be able to help us help three times as many cats and that's very exciting indoor dog training facility right now we can't help animals if it's 10 degrees below zero.

>> We can't work with the dogs outside if it's really hot like it has been.

So this new facility will have indoor dog training space and these outdoor walking paths are going to make all the difference.

>> Look at these.

They're going to be two walking paths the inner ring for small dogs and the outer ring for larger dogs.

>> Isn't that great?

It really is.

It's phenomenal and it's one where we also have a chance to to note that you're undertaking and several others are are overflowing the building permit inbox.

>> You know, it didn't show you had groundbreaking.

Yes, absolutely.

We had groundbreaking and that's been great.

In fact, that day was really emotional for me because this has been a long time in the making.

That was the first thing with which I was tasked when I was hired in 2012 was to build a new shelter.

And so that day is here.

It's emotional, it's overwhelming and I am as excited to have this space for the animals as I am for the staff.

They deserve to have a state of the art facility they deserve to have more room in which they can move.

They deserve to have a break room and so this is going to be exciting for them too that you can see how the space is so wide open and the next couple of shots have a chance to have everyone immortalize.

>> Those are the staff and they're tossing shovel shovels full of dirt and so it was wonderful to be with them and so many of our supporters this for me was really sharing with this community that this is happening.

We've been raising money for the last four years and so this was evidence that this building is going to be built and this is the overhead shot I believe.

>> Yes.

Of thanks to drones everywhere.

Yes.

And where are we now?

>> So this is Weigand Construction and each month they do a drone shot so we can see the progress and you're seeing those kennels there.

Can you see them, Bruce on the screen you can see them all the way the long rows there and these kennels will be both indoor and outdoor allowing the dogs to be able to decide if they want to go outside or if they want to stay inside.

That will also help with housebreaking so you can see the whole building taking shape there.

They started with the dog kennels and for us we wanted them to start with those animal spaces because that is what we do and this broad wide shot is is all about where the context of the facility relative to the rest of the city.

>> Yes.

And serving the region I mean we all have to be somewhere and so you know, here is an improved space also let's share the the the graphic that pretty much breaks the whole campaign line by line where we get a chance now to see the the the total cost of the campaign and the groundbreaking also where where we are right now as far as when you get a key to the new yes.

>> So we we started at about like I said about four years ago you can see the address there and the additional square footage that we're going to be able to inhabit.

It's a 14 million dollar campaign that's that's a lot.

But we are looking to open in less than a year from now and that's all very exciting and anybody wants to learn more about this campaign.

They can just go to our website at Humaine F.W.

again and learn everything that we're going to be doing and how they might be able to help us.

>> Yeah, that is an amazing site and something else about the facility that's worth noting you have it on your website toward the top.

It's very prominent is the importance of knowing how humane humane Fort Wayne is and it might dispel some myths that folks have about shelters that all dogs and cats going in are just temporary.

>> That's right.

So we want people to know that we are a no kill facility and that means that fewer than ten the industry standard is fewer than 10 percent of animals are euthanized.

And I'm here to tell you that we have a greater than ninety eight percent live release rate at Humane Fort Wayne .

But I will tell you it's becoming much more challenging because you talked a little bit about the supply and demand before we went on the air and the reality is not just our shelter but every shelter in this country has a greater supply right now of adoptable animals than they have demand and we don't really know where that comes from.

It might be post pandemic animals.

It might be that people just don't have the same patience that they once had and therefore they're giving their animals away much sooner or more frequently.

We're not really sure what's happening but we do know that right now the the state of animal welfare is worse than it's been in my twelve years.

Yes.

So I'm glad we're going to have more square footage.

I'm glad we're going to have more kennels and more space for cats because there's no time better than right now to try to help many animals and in the spirit of recycling or repurposing your Hanah Street facility currently we'll get a new lease on.

>> Yes, that's right.

I'm as excited about what's happening at Hanah Street as I am about Leesburg Road.

We are not leaving Hanah Street.

We've been there for forty years and everybody knows that's the southeast side animal shelter.

We will be repurposing that facility.

You know what our Pet Promises program is all of those pet retention programs we offer we'll be able to do there and we are repurposing the facility to become the state of Indiana's first and only freestanding social service agency aimed at helping pets and the people who love them so this will be elderly pet owners, disabled pet owners, folks that just need extra help with feeding their animals things of that nature will be able to do and all of those kennels that are hard fixed in that building will be able to take in more compassion.

Foster that means helping people who are in personal crisis as we care for their animals free of charge.

It also means we can help with more national cases like the Beagle Rescue that we did, for example, just a year ago right now.

So lots of great things will be able to be happening because we can repurpose a street that's terrific.

>> We are talking with Jessica Henry Johnson, the executive director of Humane Fort Wayne on adoption and services and programs in a moment Paula has joined us though because in the care and concern for animals she has a concern.

And Paula, we'll let you take it.

Welcome to the program.

>> Go ahead, please.

Thank you.

And just to let you know I've been by that kind of facility.

I've never stopped but it's always packed on set.

>> It sure is.

Yeah.

Well, my question is I have two pit bulls that Richard Murphy and I have a large backyard in the backyard but my neighbors they have so many kids and they can't get over my yard.

I can't I can't let my dogs out without going out there with them.

And there's a raccoon that sits upon the fence.

I don't know where he comes from but sometime at night I can hear the cats crying.

I'm thinking maybe he's attacking what can I do up call the people that dogs but they won't miss the cat.

>> Well, there's a reason for that.

Let me ask you this do you happen to know if those cats have been spayed or neutered yet?

>> Paula, none of them have said he have a baby.

Oh, OK. Well, that's where we need to start because they're just going to keep having more and more cats and more and more cats are going to continue to antagonize your dogs.

So first of all, thanks for having your pets registered .

That's wonderful.

We need to get over to that address and talk to them about how to spay and neuter their animals or their cats.

We have programs for that walk in basis so if you wouldn't mind just emailing us or reaching out to us through our social media Paula.

And we can talk to you about how we can best reach out directly to your neighbors and at least help stem the tide of kittens that are being born.

>> And when we do that then hopefully there will be fewer of them to bother your dogs.

>> OK, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling.

We appreciate that that is at least a three year old or so partnership with Green Animal Care and Control.

>> That's exactly right.

It's much older than actually first introduced legal tender in this committee in twenty fourteen.

So almost ten years ago.

But Paul is right and there are some humane deterrence ways that we can help Paula to keep those cats out of her yard.

But it's very dangerous for those cats and her dogs have every right to respond to them in the ways dogs often do.

So we want to help keep everybody safe.

>> Back to the adoption thing because it sounds so simple on its surface.

>> You know, you walk into that that room where everyone meets for the first time and that's the image.

>> But it's a process and not only do I assume that two legged need to get ready for this four legged do as well and humane Fort Wayne certainly helps on both sides negotiation.

>> So when animals come to us and they come to us one of three ways, Bruce , they are either from Fort Wayne Animal Control or they might come from another shelter either in our region or sometimes from across the country.

And then the third way is from folks who are for some reason no longer able to care for their animals.

We call that owner surrender but regardless of how they come to us, they receive a myriad of services on entry so they're all spayed and they're all fully vaccinated microchips and ready to go home.

Now if you're interested in adopting from us and we pray that you are you can go to our website and you can see images and learn stories of all the adoptable dogs and cats we have in our care or you can just come down to Hanah Street, you can take a walk through the kennels or you can meet the cats face to porta hand face to face and it's a wonderful way to to really discern for you what's best.

But we do ask you to do your research to know what animals need.

They need annual veterinary care.

Right.

And some animals need grooming very frequently.

So we want to prepare our adopters for what lay ahead for them and know help them to know that we are their partners in adoption for the life of their adopted pet.

>> If they have questions they can call anytime I love it.

There are two programs that came to mind for me cat positive dogs playing for life that you're a fear free facility and right that the dogs and cats involved every one's going to want to hug immediately.

>> Yes and some dogs might need a minute.

That's right.

Just like some people need a minute.

Right.

So every dog has his or her own personality as do every cat as does every cat.

And so we encourage you when you come in to understand what a fear free environment is like.

We practice what we call the five freedoms in animal welfare and those are things like food and water and basic care.

But it's also understanding how cats and want to be cared for and how dogs want to be treated.

So you're absolutely right.

We we have wonderful behavior modification programs.

This is a vaccine clinic that you're seeing right here and that's part of our Pet Promises program and we offer these quarterly free vaccine clinics for our neighbors who live right in the area surrounding Hanah Street and they come to us and they can get free vaccines for their animals both rabies and distemper and it's helping to keep our pet population in four six eight oh six zip code and surrounding zip codes healthy and happy and that is a walk.

>> Yes is is wonderful.

Yes, because that fits pretty much almost everybody schedule I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow but I have now.

>> That's right.

So the walking is actually every day of every Monday through Friday at our Macross location those images were from our quarterly free vaccine clinics we're offering them on both sides of town.

So if your animal needs vaccines you have no excuse reach out to us.

You can either get them free quarterly or you can get them low cost every day at our Baycrest facility.

>> Well, you mentioned the Beagle Rescue and we have a couple of images to share regarding that.

>> But talk to us a little bit about how that came to be.

>> Yes.

While you may remember that a little over a year ago we were really hoping that the state of Indiana would pass some legislation that would end the euthenasia mandatory euthanasia of Beagle's that are living in testing facilities.

Right.

So we were very vocal about that wanting to save those animals lives.

We were not successful at that.

However, at the same time that was happening, the humane Society of the United States was taking action with a facility that breeds the dogs that then subsequently land at those facilities.

When they did that they found 4000 beagles who needed immediate placement at shelters around the country.

We were very proud to be one of a few shelters who took more than one transport and we subsequently took in 50 beagles.

Twenty five males and twenty five females and all of them are living in their best lives in their forever homes in is as is attested to in in said photo before us it's the numbers are just overwhelming.

>> It is.

And I can't I can't think about the big picture all the time.

>> I have to stay eyes on the prize.

I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other because it's it's a tremendous responsibility for those of us working in animal welfare because the supply is greater than a demand because we know that there are animals living in testing facilities because we know that there are people who are struggling financially and need our assistance more than ever and it's a constant battle for us to be able to provide for them.

>> It can get pretty overwhelming.

So we're a nonprofit organization and we need people to remember that one additional asset to a nonprofit organizations that ability to collaborate.

And as we went with the ASPCA or the SPCA on County and hope for animals initially a couple of years back now we're adding another leg to this stool with the food pantry.

Yes, we had then so the first Murgia right was the Allen County SPCA and hope for animals and then we looked at the Fort Wayne Pet Food Pantry and all the wonderful things that they were doing and we knew we wanted that to be a part of our pet promises program, our pet retention program and we didn't think that the pet food pantry had the notoriety that they deserve but we knew that we have a greater reach on social media so we asked them if they wanted to partner.

Thankfully the answer was yes.

And so now humaine Fort Wayne is actually three pronged with the SPCA Hope for Animals and the Fort Wayne Pet Food Pantry and it's obviously a pickup opportunity for those who need something to bridge a feeding issue but certainly donations I assume what how does one donate safely to something like this?

>> So you can either donate online but you can drop pet food off at any of those three locations so we have a facility in Wayne Taylor restoring most of the pet food but of course Hanna Street as well as Baycrest we are always in need of pet food always and particularly cat food.

So cat lovers who are watching tonight and even dog lovers who are willing to cross the aisle if you wouldn't mind donating specifically cat food, that's a real need for all the time.

>> Well and congratulations then on another way to connect the connective tissue, if you will, to pet ownership.

Yes.

Yes.

And we wanted to partner with other nonprofit agencies to whether it's victims of domestic violence who need a place to safe harbor or animals while they're receiving care at another location, whether it's people who are experiencing temporary housing issues, whether it's people who are in the hospital and they're refusing admission to the hospital because they don't have anyone at home to take care of their animals.

These are things that we are constantly thinking about because we recognize that animals are not pets without people and the people who have these animals sometimes need us to help them.

>> And so that's what we're doing and here is someone who needs some help too or is willing to contribute it seems Christian checking in with the question offline is interested in volunteering.

>> He would love more information on how to get involved.

He lives nearby.

That is wonderful.

So I'm going to encourage to go right to our website at humaine f w dot org.

One of the tabs says get involved and when you click on that you can see the volunteer link right there.

It is so easy to volunteer a humane Fort Wayne .

We have a number of ways to get involved.

Some of them don't even require training.

You can just show up and help like the pet food packaging for example.

That's one thing that you don't really need a whole lot of training for .

We even let kids do that.

So thank you for wanting to volunteer.

We have over two hundred active volunteers at Humane Fort Wayne and our volunteer development manager Danny whose birthday it is tomorrow does a wonderful job of of corralling all of those volunteers and putting them to work in the ways that are meaningful for them and meaningful for our programs.

>> Christine, thank you very much for that question.

We have time to sneak in maybe one more if you have an opportunity to see the phone number.

And yet meanwhile I want to return to that that concert we said earlier a fear free facility.

>> Yes, we would all love that all facilities.

>> Right.

But specific to animal care, what does that mean?

So all of our staff has been trained in a fear free model which means they've watched several videos and they understand things like dog body language.

You were talking a little bit ago about how not every dog wants to be hugged.

Most dogs don't want to be hugged right out of the gate.

So we are trained in ways to respect the animals and how they want to be approached.

For example, we want to make sure that the animals that come in not just to our shelter but also to our clinic because the vet clinic can be a scary and overwhelming place for animals.

So we respect these animals and we try to communicate with them and read their body language in ways that we can have a fruitful experience for them.

But if there are animals who are fractious and they don't want to be handled by strangers ,we have special ways to work with those animals as well because every animal needs to be vaccinated and we want to be successful that it is amazing to see how indeed the interconnections are and where things go.

And I know there was a question on your website that I thought was a good one to share in the context of this program.

>> How does a person know if he or she is ready to adopt?

>> Well, that's a great question and like I said earlier, I hope everyone is considering adopting if you're going to acquire an animal, please consider adopting from your local animal shelter first .

How do you know if you're ready?

Well, be prepared for the budget, right.

The animals are not cheap .

That's why I always say adopting an animal is affordable but it's life saving and that's priceless animals have already gotten their vaccines but if you get an animal that hasn't been vaccinated you have to factor those things in.

You have to factor in the cost of spay neuter, factor in feeding factor in regular veterinary care.

So be prepared for the expense but also be prepared for what kind of animal you're looking for .

>> And when you come to Humane Fort Wayne we ask you are you looking for a couch potato dog or are you a couch potato?

No judgment because I am so I want to make sure that we're getting an animal connection that's going to be the best fit for your family.

And speaking of family, do you have young small children because sometimes if you adopt a big bulldozer of a dog and you have the young small children at home that can be really overwhelming for your toddlers.

So we have those conversations and for us when people come in it's not about the breed, it's about the fit and that's what we're looking for .

So if you're prepared we're prepared to pair you with an animal.

>> Yeah, I always think of people who have a Great Dane in an apartment.

Yes.

And so we don't discourage that because if you're going to walk your Great Dane three times a day and get that dog the exercise it needs more power to you.

There are a lot of apartment dwellers in New York City who have big breed dogs and we're down with that.

>> But we want to make sure you're prepared to exercise your animal.

Yeah, and this was not to cause any angst among those who currently have a Great Dane as you would know if you had a Great Dane in your bowling in the China shop.

>> Right.

And your remote control is always missing.

So you have to worry about that when you were last here and I thought this was an important question to share because I think it's still relevant.

You say that Fort Wayne is indeed humaine Fort Wayne is the future of animal welfare.

>> It is.

What does that future look like to you now?

>> Well, it's more exciting than ever because we're going to be able to care for more animals than ever and I think that our social service programs are cutting edge and the future of animal welfare is going to be as much about providing adoptable animals in our community as it is about helping people who already have those animals.

Really I want to be put out of a job when it comes to homeless animals.

Nobody wants to have more homeless animals in the community.

Humane for them will always exist to help those pets Jews who find themselves homeless through no fault of their own.

But what I really want is a future where people who have animals and may need a little assistance can find that inhumane.

>> Fort Wayne , you you can find humane Fort Wayne coming soon to a county near you and your watching within Alan or anywhere nearby as their work continues you can follow the construction progress you can also find them on the Internet humaine F W or G and you can still find them on handsfree.

Yes and there are lots in fact lots of different opportunities again across town.

>> So let your Google machine be the way to that's right.

>> If you need our clinic that's on MapQuest, if you need an adaptable that's on Hanah and if you need petfood those are pop up all over our community and you heard it here first and you heard here tonight and you heard it from the executive director if you mean for away and Jessica Henry Johnson, thank you so much for being with us.

>> Thank you, Bruce and thanks for being an animal lover.

My pleasure.

On behalf of all of them, I hope they won't let me in tonight and for all of us with prime time, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your night.

I hope you watching the show with your pet and you take care.

We'll see again next week.

>> Good night