Michigan Humane

Michigan Humane have seven municipal contracts to act as shelter for animal control. They have recently implemented a plan to address the value of community cats and colonies to a couple of the cities to reduce overall shelter admissions. This will take both a consultative and legislative (ordinance) approach.

Michigan Humane (Director, Matt Pepper) implemented a new Safety Net Foster program.They will be focusing on the housing crisis in Detroit and establishing practices to assist in keeping families together. MH had more than 90 foster families sign up to be a part of this program. With the support of Maddie’s Fund, MH also kicked off their Navigator training, where 20 of their customer facing staff (clinic, shelter and community outreach) will receive a 5 week (90 minutes/week) training on assisting families on a wide variety of human and animal health and basic needs services.

We have developed a relationship with the City of Detroit Parks and Rec Dept to provide them with pet food. They are currently providing home delivered human food to adults who are quarantining for two weeks due to COVID symptoms or positives. We’re really excited about this new partnership to expand our Pet Pantry reach. They are currently serving about 150 residents in the home delivery program.

Michigan Humane has begun a voluntary donation (cash) process for the hundreds of families who come to our pet pantry each week. Many have asked about supporting the pantry so we have just begun this approach to help build a more sustainable model to allow us to purchase food when needed. We should distribute our 1 millionth pound of food since Jan 1 within the next week.

We have moved from appointment only to open adoption lobbies to allow for easier access to available animals. Our Pets For Life team is actively providing 2-1-1 resources to families who have pets under our care. We are close to establishing a compassion foster program for patients going into the University of Michigan Hospital. Their research dept. is working with us on this project.