MILWAUKEE — For 143 years, the Wisconsin Humane Society has provided everything from adoption to dog training.
"We have six locations including spay/neuter clinic in West Allis and aside from our adoption program, we have wildlife rehabilitation here at the Milwaukee campus, we have low-cost vaccines that are offered to the community, a pet food bank, awesome dog training classes and a lot of behavioral support," said Angela Speed, V.P. of Communications.
They even have special programs just for kids, like Camp Critter. Domonique Barley is the Director of Youth Programs at the Wisconsin Humane Society.
"They are going to be involved in a ton of different program pieces, learning animal body language, learning about how the operation of a shelter works, they'll also be really engaged in a ton of opportunities to engage with the animals," said Barley.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports that a child who learns to care for an animal and treat it kindly and patiently may get invaluable training in learning to treat people the same way. This group of kids had plenty of patience and kindness for Max the kitten and Cletus the dog.
Both of these cuties are available for adoption and it's very obvious that they appreciated the extra love and attention. Seven-year-old Zakai has his favorite.
"Probably the dogs because some can get trained and I'm very good at training dogs," said Zakai.
Olivia has learned information that she'll always keep in mind whenever she's interacting with animals.
"They don't like to have people surrounding like all the time. They like to have breaks and you have to be kind to them, and if one person is nice to them then they know that humans are nice to animals," said Olivia.
Camp is not the only programming for kids at the Wisconsin Humane Society.
"We serve over 5,000 kids every year through not just summer camps, but scout nights, boy scout nights, (and) birthday parties. We have a really cool night on Friday nights and that allows parents to go out to dinner too," said Speed.
You can even become a youth volunteer like Joslyn Coffee.
"I come here, like every few days and I just help out with the kids when they go on, they call it Adoption Avenue. They walk around animals and if they have any questions, sometimes I answer them," said Coffee.
The Wisconsin Humane Society is obviously the purr-fect place for kids of all ages!
For more information on the Wisconsin Humane Society, you can visit their website by clicking here.
