About WCHS

The animal shelter facility in Pullman was operated by the City of Pullman until the spring of 2000. Due to budget cutbacks resulting from the threat of I-695, the City was no longer able to adequately staff and maintain the facility. The shelter was effectively closed on March 31, 2000, and only open to the public briefly and for a limited amount of hours through the end of June 2000.

Research indicated that approximately five hundred animals from Whitman County were surrendered to the Humane Society of the Palouse in Moscow, ID each year in addition to over six hundred animals impounded, surrendered, euthanized or released though the Pullman Animal Shelter. The solution to overcrowding in the past, under City management, was to maintain a high euthanasia rate with very short time limitations on the lives of the animals in its care. According to the last existing City animal control directives, animals that were not adopted within ten days were routinely destroyed.

The community did not feel that this was an acceptable or humane management of the pet over-population problem in Whitman County. These statistics indicated that the need was great for a privatized animal shelter in Whitman County. A group of concerned citizens created a task force and approached the City to offer a solution to the animal care and shelter situation.

The task force formally organized into the Whitman County Humane Society, Inc. Following negotiations with the City of Pullman, the Society contracted with the City to provide management services for the existing pet shelter. The Society has been operating the facility since July 1, 2000.

Since that time, the WCHS has successfully cared for and placed in excess of 600 animals per year that would have otherwise been destroyed!

Actually, we don't like fundraising, which is what our membership drives are all about. We only do fundraising because it is how the animals survive.

Because we are a membership-driven 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, we practice public responsibility and public disclosure. We are required by law to do so.

We carefully assembled a board of directors to represent a credible cross-section of our community. Our board meetings are the third Monday of each month at 5:30 at the Cougar Depot next to Washington Mutual Bank on North Grand Ave, Pullman. The meetings are open to the public. We are required by law to tell you that, too.

We are not required by law to make you a hero; you do that yourself. Please join us with a contribution today.

WCHS, Inc. is a nonprofit organization incorporated in the state of Washington. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. WCHS is an equal opportunity employer.