The Beaver County Humane Society was incorporated in 1950 and had several locations, including behind the Beaver County Mall before building its large, modern and current location in 2013 at 3394 Brodhead Road in Aliquippa. “We can care for about 250 animals at one time,” explains Executive Director Susan Salyards. Each year about 4,000 animals pass through their doors, including visits for services such as rabies clinics or TNR (trap, neuter, return). They also offer many supportive services and programs such as a pet food bank to help those with food insecurities keep pets in their homes. 

“One of the greatest things about us is our staff,” says Salyards, “who take advantage of our four large play yards to work with our dogs. We held a training program at our shelter thanks to a grant from the Animal Farm Foundation to work with Aimee Sadler and her program Dogs Playing for Life.” The program teaches both staff and volunteers how to introduce and manage dogs for socialization purposes. Play groups have become a popular way to enhance a shelter dog’s quality of life while kenneled. Noting that shelters have limited resources and a need for efficiency, DPFL teaches shelter staff that incorporating daily canine play sessions proves to be a “best bang for the buck” in canine enrichment, assessment, training and adoption promotion program for animal welfare organizations. “Using play groups allows us to keep the dogs healthy mentally as well as physically. “Obviously, a very cold or rainy day limits what we can do, but we try to get the dogs out on an everyday basis. As long as the staff can determine that the dog likes other dogs, or is safe to handle, we allow them to be placed in play groups. Safety is a main component, as we don’t want staff or any of the dogs to get hurt, but that’s what Aimee’s training provided,” Susan explains. “The staff now have the tools and resources they need to understand dog playstyles, dog behavior so that we can use play groups to not only enrich the lives of shelter dogs but even learn about them behaviorially.” Volunteers also can help with play groups if would like to help; the shelter has about 500 volunteers that walk dogs, cuddle cats, work at our thrift store and help with everything from events to paperwork. You can contact Volunteer@beavercountyHumaneSociety.org for more information.

If you are interested in helping by making a donation, the shelter has a wish list on their web site with everything from office supplies to cleaning supplies and welcomes monetary donations at https://beavercountyhumanesociety.org/donate. “The shelter operates on a 2 million dollar budget, and it takes lots of resources to make things run.” Salyards says. Visitors are welcome to stop by and check out the play groups, visit the animals and inquire about the programs Tuesday through Saturday 11am-4pm, (additional evening hours until 7pm on Tuesdays & Thursdays.) You can find the wish list here: https://beavercountyhumanesociety.org/our-wish-list