Shifting Focus to Better Fulfill Our Mission

Each year, St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center analyzes our impact, assesses community needs, and sets priorities so we can best deploy our resources. We have completed our strategic planning and resource allocation for 2023 and want to tell the community what to expect going forward.

We have decided to stop providing animal control and stray animal housing services, and instead invest our resources in adoptions, lifesaving, pet support, lost pet reunification, and providing safety net resources to keep more pets in homes where their families might be struggling. 

While this decision may be difficult in many ways, it is ultimately the right decision. We came to a point where we would have been faced with either compromising the quality of our work or using philanthropic dollars to subsidize a taxpayer-funded service. It would have been a significant amount – with the new contracts and contract years we would have been spending $2 for every $1 paid to us by the municipalities. Neither of these pathways was acceptable or sustainable. 

Our donors are deeply committed to pet support, spay and neuter, wellness clinics, lifesaving transport, and adoption. We didn’t want to cut back on any of those core services – in fact, we want to grow them.

There are many services we will be expanding. For example, we are investing in programs like pet food and supply distribution, sterilization, and low cost/no cost medical care to help keep more animals in their homes. And we will be launching innovative programs to ensure that lost or stray animals are more quickly and effectively reunited with their families. 

Ultimately, we will be able to help thousands more people and animals by shifting away from the taxpayer-funded contract work toward the privately funded programs and services that are at the core of St. Hubert’s effectiveness. And, we will be much better stewards of the funds so generously donated by our community to keep our other important work going. 

You can expect to see more of us at wellness clinics and food bank events. And we will work collaboratively with other shelters and rescues in the state to transport animals in from other NJ organizations who need an outlet.

We care deeply about the people and animals in the communities we have long served. Over the years, we have constantly added community support programs to augment city contracts with privately funded vaccines and microchip clinics, free food and supplies, and spay/neuter surgeries at no cost to the residents or the municipalities. This work will continue and expand.

Furthermore, St. Hubert’s will continue to take in animals who are being surrendered by community members who can no longer care for them. And for the many people who want to keep their pets, we will offer resources to help keep those animals in their homes with the families who already love them.

We know this is the right thing to do to ensure we can continue to provide high quality animal welfare and long-term, sustainable impact. We look forward to helping thousands more animals and people through this shift.