(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to "Prairie Pulse."

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we'll hear music from Dillon Spurlin, singer, songwriter originally from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

But first, our guest joining us today is the Communications and Development Director of the Central Dakota Humane Society, Cameo Skager.

Cameo, thanks for joining us today.

- Thanks for having me.

- Well, as we get started, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and maybe your background, maybe where you're originally from.

- Sure.

Well, I'm originally from Mandan.

Born and raised there, and got my education in Bismarck at the University of Mary.

I've always been an animal lover, and I was a longtime volunteer and board member at Central Dakota Humane Society for about 20 years.

And after 20... I don't even know anymore.

The time goes so fast.

But 20, 23, four years, I became an employee and now I've worked there.

- Okay.

Well, so tell us, I guess, what is the Central Dakota Humane Society?

Yeah.

- So we're a animal shelter, a rescue and animal shelter.

We're located about three miles north of Mandan on Highway 1806.

And yeah, we rescue animals, we rehab them, give them medical care, and then we re-home them with loving families.

- Well, most people think humane societies are dogs and cats.

What animals do you take in?

- Right.

So we deal with dogs and cats.

We do have a resident, MacCa, who lives in our lobby that hangs out with us, but other than that, we just do dogs and cats.

- Okay.

Tell us about the history of the society.

- Sure.

Well, it was originally formed in 1960.

There was a group of people in Bismarck who were animal lovers, and they just wanted to do something to help the stray or unwanted animals.

So they got together and originally what it was was sort of like a matchmaking system where people who wanted to relinquish their animal would call the office number, and then that office person would keep a list.

And then when people wanted an animal, they would also call her and she would match them up.

So she was a matchmaker.

So that's how it started and ran that way for many years.

- So a matchmaker, that's interesting that you say that.

What's the mission?

Do you have a mission statement?

So what is the real mission?

- So really to boil it down, I like to say we rescue, rehab, and re-home pets.

We help animals and serve people.

- Okay.

Well, the Central Dakota Humane Society's been serving North Dakota, well, for 65 years now, sounds like.

During that time, and you've been there for a while, has the shelter changed, policies, practices?

What can you tell us about that?

- Right.

Well, I've been around there for about 30 years in one capacity or another.

So things haven't changed a whole lot since I've been there.

We've had a shelter building since 1994, and that's when we first started taking animals into a physical building.

So the policies and procedures pretty much have stayed the same.

The cleanliness, the medical care, the way that we match animals together with humans pretty much has always been the same.

- So it says Central Dakota, so what's your service area?

Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

- Right.

So we serve generally an area of about a hundred mile radius around Bismarck Mandan.

We do drift down into South Dakota every once in a while.

It just depends on the case.

When there's animals in need that are injured, or puppies that are left alone, sometimes when no one else can help, we can help and we are able to take those pets in.

- Now, how is your organization funded?

- So mainly it's through the community.

We have donors, we have supporters that have memberships.

We also have many major fundraisers, some minor ones and many major ones that we work very hard at every year.

- So are y'all able to get any grants or any state funding just out of curiosity?

- We have no local, state, or federal funding.

So everything we do is raised by our community in one way or another.

- So what about your staffing?

How many paid staff do you have?

- We have right now about 20 paid staff members.

We used to run, I wanna say in the old days, because I've been around for a while, so I can say that.

We used to run on volunteers mainly, and it just became real difficult.

The many animals need medical care.

We need consistency of care.

The animals need food, and water, and care every day of the year, 365 days of the year.

So we do run with the paid staff, but with that being said, we could not survive and could not do what we do without our volunteers.

- I may ask you more about that in a little while, but what does the term no kill shelter mean and is that the type of organization you are?

- We are a no kill shelter.

And what that basically means is if an animal is healthy and is sound temperament that they would not be euthanized.

And believe me, we have taken in some very badly damaged and injured and sickly animals, and we work very hard to fix them because we think they all deserve a chance.

Very rarely there may be... And it's generally a dog that would be temperamentally unsound, maybe bite a staff member or have bitten a member of the public and then we just cannot rehabilitate them.

And we do try.

We try very hard to make them come back around.

And very, very rarely have we euthanized a dog like that.

- Well, Cameo on average, I guess, how many animals do you house?

- So we house about 40 dogs, and between 60 and 80 cats and kittens at any given time.

We also probably have a dozen foster kittens with mamas in foster homes.

- There's a lot of animals to feed every day.

Can you tell us a little bit more in depth about the services the Humane Society provides?

- Right.

So our main service is to be a home for rescued animals and to rehabilitate and re-home them.

But we also have some community services that we offer.

We have a program we call Buddies Bowl, and it is providing food to animals in need.

We say we're filling the dishes of animals in need.

So we work with several community organizations who are human aid organizations, and we deliver donated and discounted, the food that we get discounted, to those organizations and they distribute to people who need it.

- Now we already talked about your funding and, of course, this question would, how would your organization fund services like spayed and neutering or do you work that out with the person adopting or taking the animal?

What do you do?

- Right.

So every animal that leaves our facility, and this has been a policy since the beginning, must be spayed or neutered.

So they won't leave our facility without being spayed or neutered.

So that is actually a part of the adoption fee.

When someone adopts from us that's just part of the fee and we fundraise for that.

We work to raise the money to make sure that that can be covered.

- Well, now your humane society is Central Dakota, but obviously this humane society is in a lot of regions.

Are they all pretty much similar, or can you talk about that at all?

- In our area, there is Central Dakota Humane Society, and there's also several rescues, and those rescues mainly have foster-based care, so they house their animals in foster homes.

We don't generally do that.

We have a physical facility that people are welcome to come and visit and visit with our staff to help make that match.

We think that's one great part of having a physical facility.

All the rescues and shelters that I know in our area are wonderful.

They all do a great job, and it seems like their services are needed more and more every day, and that it just never stops.

- Hmm.

So why donate to an animal organization versus maybe a human organization?

- Right.

Well, we get that question fairly often, and we like to say we're helping animals, but we're also serving people.

Every animal that comes into our shelter had a person attached to it at some time, and every animal that leaves our shelter has a person that's adopting it, and it's making their family whole.

There's so many things that animals do for humans.

They lower your blood pressure, they make you feel better, they make you get up off the couch and go for a walk.

So we do feel great that we're helping animals, and by proxy, we're also helping people.

And to be honest, I think many of our supporters are generous and also support other human organizations also.

- Yeah.

Well, you talked about volunteers, so let's turn to that now.

How much does the Humane Society rely on volunteers to help, especially with the day-to-day operations?

- Right.

So actually sometimes people think when you work at an animal shelter, it's just fun all day long, you get to pet dogs and play with the kitties, and that as far as the employees go, is not the case.

Employees are cleaning, feeding, watering, giving medications, helping the public.

And it's up to our volunteers then to play with the dogs, and walk the dogs, and train the dogs, and to socialize with cats.

So the volunteers are super important to our operation and we couldn't do what we do without them.

- Yeah.

So how many volunteers do you have on any given week, month, or year, I guess?

I don't know how to... - Right.

So we have, I think, about 250 active volunteers.

And of course they're not there weekly, but we do have a really great core group of animal, or I should say dog walkers.

They socialize the dogs, they walk them, exercise them, they help with some training activities.

And then we have a pretty good core group of cat volunteers also who come in and socialize.

And some of the cats come in and they're shy, and they need extra time to decompress, and those volunteers are great at what they do.

- Yeah.

Are there any requirements you look for in the volunteer?

- We just want you to make a commitment.

We don't have a specific time commitment.

We do want you to try and at least offer us 10 hours of your time a year.

For dog volunteers, there is a training that you have to go through.

There's some online coursework.

We do want our number one priority with our volunteers is that they're safe, that they're safe and that the animals are safe.

So we do kind of go through some training and some hints and tips about how to handle the animals.

We want all the dogs to be walked in a specific way so that they don't get confused and that they're always doing the same thing no matter what volunteer is walking them.

- Yeah.

I think you said 10 hours a year.

Is that all you ask for?

- That's all we ask for, but I mean, the people that are really committed are doing 100, 200, 1,000, I think our top volunteer had 1,600 hours this last year.

- Well, my point was, it's not a huge commitment.

- [Cameo] No.

- That's an hour a month- - [Cameo] Great.

- That you're ... Yeah, so how can someone volunteer so they just have to contact you and make application to be one or what?

- Sure.

Yeah, we have an application on our website, actually.

And we have a volunteer coordinator, and she's responsible for talking with the volunteer, finding out what their interests are, what their skillset is.

And to be clear, we don't only have animal volunteers.

We also have people that help at our fundraising events.

Sometimes we have people that have a favorite event like our rummage sale, and they only help at that event, but they do it every year, and they're very involved, and they love what they're doing.

- Now, across the country, many shelters talk about overcrowding.

Do you have an issue with that?

- We don't really have an issue with that.

We get phone calls every day that we have to say no to, which is sad and unfortunate, but because we are no kill, we don't euthanize for space.

We have to maintain a consistency of care, so we can only have a certain number of animals for the number of staff and cleaning abilities and feeding abilities that we have.

So we really can't have kennels stacked around in places that they weren't meant to be for the safety of the people and the safety and health of the pets.

- Well, I think you told me 40 dogs and 60 to 80 cats, is that your capacity?

So you're pretty much full all the time?

- We're full all the time.

It's basically one in, or one out and one in.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

All right.

So talk about, what are some of the reasons and causes for overcrowding in shelters?

- So there's really one main cause, and that is the lack of spaying and neutering.

If people would all spay and neuter their pets, there would not be the accidental litters of kittens and accidental litters of dogs happening, and that would... We like to think that that would take care of the bulk of the problem.

- Yeah.

What about backyard breeders and puppy mills that probably we've all heard about, how do they, or do they contribute to some of this overcrowding?

- There absolutely is too much breeding of certain breeds.

In North Dakota in the last maybe decade, I would say we see a lot of pit bulls, we see a lot of German Shepherds, and there's just too many of them.

So there are absolutely reputable breeders that breed these same dogs and breed other breed dogs, so I don't wanna denigrate them at all.

I wanna make sure that if people are looking for a specific breed, there are ways to find them from a reputable breeder and there's things to look for.

But yeah, as we would call them backyard breeders, absolutely contribute to this overpopulation and frankly, the sickness and death of animals.

- Yeah.

Well, you said spay and neutering's probably the biggest thing, but can the public do anything else to help reduce the overcrowding in shelters?

- I mean, just take responsibility for your pets.

We want to educate and that's part of what we do, is we educate about responsible pet care.

If you're gonna adopt a cat or a dog, it is a lifetime commitment.

If it's a puppy or a kitten, you're looking at 15 to 20 years that you need to spend taking care of that animal, providing its medical needs, and knowing that you have the time, that you have the money and the resources to care for that pet.

- Well, let's circle back to your anniversary.

You recently reached your 65th anniversary and you were fundraising for a new, larger building.

Talk about that effort and where you are in that.

- Right.

So I would say at this time we're probably 80, 85% done with our new dog building.

We're very excited about it.

It's gonna be a clean, safe, healthy environment for the dogs and for the people visiting.

One of the very cool things we're gonna have is that there'll be like two way or two way glass and people walking through the hallway, the dogs won't be able to see them.

So we are sure that that's gonna cut down on the stress for the animals, all the noise and the barking that animals when they see a stranger get excited.

But hopefully we'll cut down on that.

- So, well, there you go.

Yeah, why is the society building that new facility?

I think you just answered that.

So you hope that's up and running by June of- - I would say by May or June, yes, of 2026.

That's our hope.

- Okay.

What are some of the highlights of this project people can look forward to?

You mentioned the two-way glass, I guess.

Are there other improvements that you can talk about?

- Right.

So state-of-the-art air handling systems, great visiting rooms that can convert into play areas for our dogs to be used in the wintertime.

Some outdoor covered play yards, so the snow hopefully won't be as big of an issue.

There's gonna be a lot of great and beautiful things in there and we're very excited to get in there.

- Well, what are some of the other challenges that, we talked about overcrowding, but like an organization like yours faces throughout the year?

- Well, one of our number one challenges is just fundraising.

I was trying to keep ahead of what's going on and finding new events, really fine-tuning our current events that we have, like we have a dinner at an auction, we have a dog walk, we have a big rummage sale.

Those are some of our main events.

I was trying to find some little event that we can do to raise funds and keep people aware of what's going on with animals and encouraging people to adopt when they're ready, and take care of their own animals.

- For somebody looking for an animal to take home whether it's adopt or whatever you refer to it as, I mean, what's the process for coming to you and approaching you?

I mean, you got 40 dogs and 60, 80 cats.

Anybody that wants an animal should be able to find one.

- Right.

So one of the great things that we have going for us is we have a facility.

Folks can come in and visit.

We have professional staff members who really know those animals.

They know their temperament, their personality, whether they're a couch potato or whether they're active, and we kinda interview, like informally interview the people looking and we find out what would be a good match for them or what they're looking for.

And then we work to make that match.

So in essence, we still are matchmakers all these years later.

- That was what I was gonna say.

You started out as a matchmaker, you're still matchmaking.

Because for somebody wanting an animal, you always think you pick up a dog or a puppy especially or a kitten, they're just cute, they're fun as you talk, but the commitment is much more for a person to take on.

- It is.

And some of our animals or stray animals, we don't know their past, we don't know their history, we don't know their medical history.

We do have them vet checked and vaccinated, microchipped, and spayed and neutered, so they are ready to go out the door.

But there might be some further training issues that, especially with dogs, people need to make commitment to working with their dog, making them to be the best friend that they can be, and training comes into that.

- So is there anything else the public can look forward to with your new facility and going into the next 65 years?

- Well, something else that we do that we didn't touch on was our SNAP program, which is our Spay Neuter Assistance Program.

We offer $50 coupons to the public.

So if they already have an animal of their own and they wanna get it spayed and neutered, we'll help by providing a $50 coupon to some participating vets, and there's probably 25 to 30 participating vets.

- Well, good for y'all.

We're out of time.

I'm sorry for that.

But if people want more information, where can they go?

- Absolutely.

They can go to our website, cdhs.net.

You can see all our animals available for adoption, and if you need to call us, you can give us a phone call, too.

- Well, thank you for joining us today.

- Thank you.

- Stay tuned for more.

(upbeat music) Dillon Spurlin, originally from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, is a classically trained, solo acoustic musician who writes and performs his own unique style of easy listening music.

His gentle voice and dynamic range combine to create the complexity of its compositions.

(guitar music) ♪ Innocence departed ♪ ♪ It started a long time ago ♪ ♪ But in a sense I let it ♪ ♪ I regret it ♪ ♪ I wish I hadn't let it go ♪ ♪ What did I know then ♪ ♪ What do I know now ♪ ♪ I think I knew more when I did not know how ♪ ♪ I did not know how ♪ ♪ Desperate times call for desperate measures ♪ ♪ All my life I've been chasing pleasures ♪ ♪ I want more than these earthly treasures ♪ ♪ Desperate times call for desperate pleasures ♪ ♪ Ooh-hoo ♪ ♪ Ooh-hoo ♪ ♪ Decadence descending ♪ ♪ And I'm pretending the ending's distant ♪ ♪ While I'm desperately extending ♪ ♪ Back to memories nonexistent ♪ ♪ What did I know then ♪ ♪ What do I know now ♪ ♪ I think I knew more when I did not know how ♪ ♪ I did not know how ♪ ♪ Desperate times call for desperate measures ♪ ♪ All my life I've been chasing pleasures ♪ ♪ I want more than these earthly treasures ♪ ♪ Desperate times call for desperate pleasures ♪ ♪ When I grow up I will be young ♪ ♪ When I grow up I will be young ♪ ♪ When I grow up I will be young ♪ ♪ When I grow up I will be young ♪ ♪ When I grow up I will be young ♪ ♪ When I grow up I will be young ♪ ♪ Desperate times call for desperate measures ♪ ♪ All my life I've been chasing pleasures ♪ ♪ I want more than these earthly measures ♪ ♪ Desperate times call for desperate pleasures ♪ ♪ Ooh-hoo ♪ ♪ Ooh-hoo ♪ - Well, that's all we have on "Prairie Post" this week, and as always, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.