The puppy wandering lost in your neighborhood.

The cat hit by a car and laying injured along the roadside. 

A litter of kittens abandoned on your doorstep. 

The dog left in a car on a hot summer day. 

The starving dog that your neighbors leave tied in the yard without food or water.   

These are all familiar situations for the Humane Society of Parkersburg.  And while for most of us, our pets are important, cherished members of the family, for some that's not the case.  So what happens to these animals?  Where do they go?  Who takes care of them when their owners do not?

Since 1958, the Humane Society of Parkersburg has been dedicated to the care and protection of animals in our community.  We rescue and care for animals in distress, re-unite lost pets with their owners, find loving permanent homes for homeless animals, educate people on how to properly care for and respect animals and enforce licensing and other animal ordinances.

On average, more than 4,500 animals pass through the Humane Society of the Parkersburg's doors annually: lost, injured, rescued, neglected, abandoned and surrendered pets alike.  Thanks to the support and efforts of many individuals the Humane Society is able to make a huge difference in the lives of those who cannot speak for themselves, the unwanted and homeless pets of our community.

While our State laws regarding pet treatment and care are outdated and lacking in guidance and regulation, they still are designed to maintain harmony and promote responsible pet ownership in the community.  In enforcing the ordinances, our Humane Officers maintain an attitude of educating pet owners when possible to help them comply with the law.  Our Humane Officers conduct hundreds of welfare investigations each year, and when we find animals suffering from neglect or cruelty, we are not hesitant to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.  In addition to responding to the public's animal related complaints and animal ordinance violations, Officers pick up dogs running at large in our county that are unlicensed as well as vicious and injured stray animals on a 24 X 7 basis.

The Humane Society serves the community by providing a place for the public to surrender an animal that they no longer want or can keep.  We also provide a safe place for lost animals to go who have strayed away from home.  The reasons for surrendering a pet vary, but without a shelter, many animals would be abandoned to fend for themselves. And sadly each year we received hundreds of puppies and kittens who have been abandoned or dumped to fend for themselves already. They make up a large percentage of the animals we receive annually.

Finding loving homes for unwanted animals is a huge focus of our mission and we strive to do so through local adoptions as well as working with Rescue organizations to place animals in areas outside of our region where animal overpopulation is under control.  However, our goal is not to simply find the homeless homes.  We must find responsible and loving forever homes for these animals.  Our adoption process, considered rigorous by some, is intended to assist us in finding the right pet for the adopter's lifestyle so that adoptions last forever and animals are not returned to our Shelter or dumped again because they "just didn't work out".

To encourage adoption, regular adoption programs and specials such as our Seniors for Seniors program that provide discounted adoption fees for senior animals adopted by Senior Citizens are part of our efforts to rehome unwanted but very adoptable animals. 

Last and certainly not least, we also promote the benefits of spay and neuter by providing a spay/neuter assistance program.  The benefits are two-fold – to the animal and to the community at large.  We are actively pursuing funds through fundraising and grants, so that one day soon we can offer low cost spay/neuter services to our community through a spay/neuter clinic.  We already have the property and a clinic design and are hoping to break ground in the near future.