Humane Society Seeks Photos of Adopted Dogs and Cats for New Holiday Video
The Humane Society of Ocean City is putting together a video to the Christmas song “I’ll be Home for Christmas.”
The video will include a slideshow of photos of adopted dogs and cats with their owners at their new homes. The Humane Society invites the parents of our alumni rescue dogs and cats to send their pictures to phil.bellucci@hsocnj.org with homeforchristmas in the subject line. These pictures will be incorporated into the video. If anyone has any questions, call the Humane Society at 609-398-9500.
In 1964, two teenagers started to care for stray and unwanted animals in a heated garage located in Ocean City after the City Pound suffered a water main break. The two teenagers, along with other residents, worked to form the Humane Society. During 1967-1968, the city built our first animal shelter. On December 31, 1968, the Humane Society obtained its non-profit status and become a 501(c) (3).
On April 1, 1972, this same year, the spaying and neutering program was implemented. The program was designed so that the Humane Society would pay half toward the spaying or neutering of any animal adopted through the Humane Society.
In April 1973, the community, along with the City of Ocean City, helped make renovations to our shelter to meet new state standards. A group of local businessmen offered to donate their services and completed the carpentry work for the building. With the additional space, the humane society was able to house more animals and aid in more adoption services for cats and dogs.
In 1986, the current animal structure was built and today it can house over 125 animals. . In most recent years, we updated the kennel system, built a feral cat sky rail system and a dog play area.
In September 2002, the spay and neuter/ education building was built. In 2010 it was updated to a full scale medical center that does over 1,000 affordable spay/neuter surgeries each year, 300 of them are for feral cats who are from all over South Jersey. The Veterinary Center most recently reached an impressive milestone when our 8,500th patient was treated.
In 2011, the HSOC took over Animal Control services from the City of Ocean City and has responded to over 600 calls for service in the last 24 months including 30 actual animal rescues. Currently, the Humane Society has four state-certified animal control officers, two of whom are animal cruelty investigators
We are the only shelter in New Jersey and one of 30 in the entire United States who offer the following services: Animal Control and Rescue, Adoption facility, Veterinary Center that is open to the public and offers discounts to all alumni for life, Humane education programs that have reached over 5000 people in the last four years, Dog therapy/companion program, a volunteer and fostering program, indoor feral cat colony, affordable Spay and Neuter services and behavioral programs.
The HSOC employs one full-time veterinarian and four part-time veterinarians as well as an Executive Director, a Director of Operations, and several staff members. The agency is governed by a Board of Directors who works along with staff and volunteers to help fulfill our mission “Providing the highest level of compassion and service to our animal friends!” All of this is made possible every day by the caring staff, the dedicated volunteers, the generosity of the City of Ocean City, and the compassionate community which has enabled us to be here to serve the animals for 50 years.
