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Humane Societies to Merge Operations

Posted on: Monday, 30 August 2004, 06:00 CDT

Humane societies to merge operations

Milwaukee, Ozaukee groups will share their resources, expertise

By DAN BENSON dbenson@journalsentinel.com, Journal Sentinel

Monday, August 30, 2004

Officials with the Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Humane Society and the Ozaukee Humane Society will merge operations, an action that likely will accelerate the process toward building a new facility for the Grafton organization.

Wisconsin Humane Society Executive Director Victoria Wellens said the merger creates a powerful regional group that could grow larger.

"Obviously there is a lot of overlap with other groups that we work with," Wellens said.

The Wisconsin Humane Society handles about 17,000 animals a year with a staff of 85 and about 750 volunteers.

Ozaukee's has an annual operating budget of less than $500,000 -- one-tenth of the Milwaukee group's -- with more than 450 volunteers and a staff of six handling about 1,600 animals a year.

"One of the reasons this made a lot of sense is that we have a lot of the infrastructure. They have wonderful volunteers and programs for adoption," Wellens said.

Angela Rester, president of the Ozaukee Humane Society's board of directors, said Wellens' organization has the staff and expertise to help her group find a new home.

"We will be better able to go out and communicate our need and find support in the community to at least acquire the location and start the financial development so we can have a new facility," she said.

Rester said her organization already has begun to search for a new site to replace the society's current cramped quarters, "but nothing is even close to being solid."

Under the merger, all the office functions of the Ozaukee group will be transferred to the Wisconsin Humane Society's Milwaukee facility at 4500 W. Wisconsin Ave., which was completed in 1999 for $8.5 million.

Ozaukee office personnel have worked for the past six years from "temporary quarters" in a trailer next to the animal shelter at 2073 Highway W in the Town of Grafton.

The Town Board, hoping to see something nicer and more permanent than a trailer, has said the trailer must be removed next year.

That issue is now moot, Rester said.

Rester said her board began to look at merging with another organization earlier this year.

"As we got into the process, we started hearing more about regionalization," she said. "We contacted a number of humane societies that had merged and it sounded very good."

After conversations with other area groups, Rester said the board felt the Milwaukee group to be the "most compatible."

The two groups already had an extensive working relationship, Rester and Wellens said. Animal sterilizations for the Ozaukee Humane Society already are done by the Milwaukee society, for instance.

One factor leading the Ozaukee group to investigate a merger was its difficulty in attracting executive staff, Rester said.

"Smaller humane societies always struggle with attracting staff who are committed and capable of giving them opportunities to grow and develop," Rester said. "It became clear to us that to attract an executive director to an organization the size of our shelter was going to be very difficult."

The Ozaukee executive director resigned in February. Since May, the society has had an interim leader with the understanding that a merger was in the works, Rester said.

Despite the merger and the transfer of office functions to Milwaukee, Rester and Wellens said local supporters will see no change in services for the local Ozaukee County community.

"What is very clear is that we all are on the same page about fulfilling our mission and not disrupting service, but enhancing our service," Rester said.

Wellens, of the Wisconsin Humane Society, said the Ozaukee organization will retains its name, contracts, programs and staff.

"What's really going to be happening is that they will have a more powerful platform from which to deliver their services," she said.

"Short term, the plan is to make some modest updates to the current facility while we're selecting a site and developing a building plan," Wellens said. "Many people have already given to a building program and their donations will be used for that purpose."

Wellens said her group's 13-member board of directors will add four members from the Ozaukee Humane Society board, which will continue to exist as an advisory board to the Wisconsin Humane Society.

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