Humane Society Executive Director delivers midyear status update to Wenatchee City Council

WENATCHEE — BJ Andersen, the new Executive Director at the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society (WHVS), has been hard at work this year. Not only has she had to take over leadership at an organization that serves one of the largest animal control areas in the state, but she was immediately thrust into crafting new budgets, researching the past activity of the WVHS for consistency and performance, and making herself known to all of the governing authorities of each jurisdiction the WVHS serves.

Through it, she’s been performing admirably, and on July 24, the Wenatchee City Council told her so. She appeared before the council in order to deliver a progress report of sorts. Andersen had been conferring with Wenatchee Mayor Mike Poirier, and they agreed that she should come and give an update on what WVHS has been doing for Wenatchee. 

Andersen arrived with handouts for everyone — “I hate doing PowerPoints,” she says — and immediately directed the council’s attention to a picture of her cat, Daniel Thunderpaws, who is now an officially licensed resident of the City of Wenatchee now that she’s found a place to live, in accordance with city code.

Cute cat pictures weren’t all she had in tow: Andersen was accompanied by Duchess, a 5-year-old white Siberian husky mix who is adoptable from the WVHS. For the record, Duchess loves children, “but not so much cats and chickens,’ Andersen said. Duchess comes with WVHS representatives to a lot of outreach events as an “Ambassadog,” not just to sniff people but to remind citizens that the WVHS are more than just dogcatchers.

Andersen informed the council that all officers are now wearing bodycams in the field, recording everything, so they can review cases and corroborate information, especially in very emotional situations. The bodycam footage is also used for training purposes, and she informs the council that one such training exercise — deescalation and defense training — has taken place earlier that day.

Andersen points out how active they’ve been in the community so far this year, participating in the Apple Blossom parade, and some upcoming events. On page two of the handout she’s brought, she highlights a flyer for the WVHS’s partnership with the City for the Doggie Paddle Swim at the city pool on August 8. She details what’s in store: Food carts, vendors, and even a “doggie obstacle course,” for folks with dogs who want to play but don’t like to swim. Andersen said WVHS will also have a presence at the Salmon Festival on September 20 at Rocky Reach Dam, although there were no details on that yet.

In more serious business, she announced that WVHS will be hosting a “license amnesty event” in each of their jurisdictions. “It’s an opportunity to go out in the community and have a day where it doesn’t matter if your [pet] license is expired, or you let your rabies tag expire, or you’ve never licensed your dog, you can come and not get any penalties,” she said. Owners rectifying the situation with their own pet can likely expect licensing fees to be waived that day, and for there to be a vet staff available for rabies vaccines and microchipping.

“Why are we giving away licenses?” she asks. “We get a lot more people into the system. One of the things that many jurisdictions comment on is how many people are actually licensing their pet.” She notes that Wenatchee and the City of Chelan are the only two jurisdictions that require cat licensing, and that they only see about 8–10 cats a month that are licensed.

More numbers from the first half of the year, according to response type:

• 373 total cases, majority “dogs at large”
• 26 cruelty and neglect cases, mostly neglect
• 5 dog-on-dog altercations
• 13 dogs left in vehicles — with a note that new state law allows citizens to rescue dogs from hot cars, so WVHS is trying to do public education on that
• 7 “public service” cases: A skunk with its head stuck in a peanut butter jar is the humorous example, but she also notes pick-ups of pets that have been left behind by owners going into assisted living or passing away

After telling Andersen how much her own husband would like a cat, councilmember Linda Herald, who was acting as Mayor pro tem while Mike Poirier was unavailable, told her, “Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate all that you’re doing. You’re providing a very important service to the community and to an often neglected population of our community that we all dearly love.”

Andersen, who comes to the community via Oregon, told the council, “I’m quite proud to be a Wenatchee resident now.”

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media