Lewis & Clark Humane Society Services

Shelter

Protection

Adoptions

Population Control

Euthenasia & Cremation

Animal Shelter

The Lewis & Clark Humane Society (LCHS) provides shelter for stray, abandoned and owner surrendered animals. LCHS contracts with the city of Helena, and Lewis and Clark County, city of East Helena, city of Townsend, and Broadwater County to house animals brought in by the animal control officers and citizens of each entity. Each animal is assigned an impound number administered vaccinations and given a health check upon entrance into the shelter. They are then assigned a kennel where they are kept while waiting to find a new home.

Animal Protection

Citizens who may be concerned about an animal and its’ care can call and ask LCHS to do an animal welfare check. Through our investigations, we are able to educate and make every effort to alleviate animal suffering. Occasionally, we are called upon by the Helena Police Department and the Lewis and Clark Sheriff’s Office to assist in the removal and housing of animals in crisis. LCHS will maintain the animals at the shelter while legal proceedings are underway and may be responsible for placement of the animals at the conclusion of the court case.

Pet Adoptions

LCHS has many adoptable animals awaiting their forever home. Each potential adopter completes an application and begins the adoption process. Adoption Counselors work with the potential adopter in choosing the right pet for their home and lifestyle. A paws-ability program is available for adopters to try out an animal in their house to see if it is a good fit for both the family and pet, before formally adopting. All adopted animals leave the shelter spayed or neutered, fully vaccinated, micro chipped, provided with a free vet visit with a local veterinarian, and a pet ID tag.

Population Control

All animals that are adopted from LCHS are spayed and neutered prior to leaving the shelter. LCHS works with local veterinarians to spay and neuter the animals from the shelter. Pediatric spaying and neutering is available to animals that are as young as 8 weeks of age thus allowing them to be placed into loving homes as soon as possible.

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Pet Euthanasia and Cremation Services

LCHS provides euthanasia services of pets at the request of their owners due to behavior issues, age, or illness. All fees go to the ongoing care of the shelter animals.

LCHS provides pet cremation services to the Helena community. Cremations are done on a daily basis. After cremation is complete the pet ashes are put into individual urns and returned to their owners. All fees go to the ongoing care of the shelter animals.

Outreach and Education

LCHS provides tours of the shelter for local organizations such as 4-H clubs, boy scouts and girl scouts etc. LCHS will go to schools and provide information on how to be a responsible pet owner, people and animal safety, and prevention of animal abuse and the importance of spaying and neutering.

Outreach opportunities are conducted at locations such as Petco and Murdochs. Animals from the shelter are taken offsite by outreach volunteers and showcased. This provides an opportunity for people to see the shelter animals out of the shelter environment.

Volunteers

LCHS provides the opportunity for people to volunteer at the shelter. There are a variety of volunteer jobs such as Cleaning Assistants, Office Aides, Activity volunteers for cats, Play Activity volunteers for dogs, Dog Walkers/Trainers, Event planning, and animal outreach. Volunteers help socialize and assist with training the many animals in the shelter helping to make them more adoptable as well as assisting the staff in daily cleaning and care of the animals.

Foster Care

Foster families provide the shelter with temporary homes for animals that may not be old enough to be in the shelter environment or need a place to recover from surgery or illness. All families are screened before animals are sent out. The most common animals to go into foster care are cats with kittens or kittens without their mothers. Once the kittens are old enough (8 weeks) they are returned to the shelter to be spayed/neutered and put up for adoption.

Mentally it is very hard on dogs to go into foster care and then return to the shelter environment; as a result dogs that are in need of foster care will be placed into homes that would be able to house them until they are adopted. All animals available for adoption are showcased on the LCHS website.

Quarantine kennels

LCHS has four kennels available to citizens and animal control for isolation of dogs that have bitten people and are not current on rabies vaccinations. Quarantine is usually a minimum of 10 days and monitoring of heath and behavior changes is conducted by specific staff members. Once through quarantine dogs are required to have a rabies vaccination prior to returning to their owners.