Months before the storm, the Asheville Humane Society (AHS) was seeking a strategic plan that would be a simple, clear guide for how the organization could be excellent stewards of the organization’s limited time and resources.  

AHS operates the Buncombe County Animal Shelter which is the only open intake shelter in the county. It works with the community, government, and other nonprofits to care for animals throughout Buncombe County. In the last few years there have been significant shifts in knowledge around best practices for caring for animals in the community and in the shelter.  

AHS was seeking a strategic plan that would help it to better respond to community needs, advance good animal welfare practices, and sustain the organization to be there for the community long-term. No one could have predicted the community needs that would come as a result of the Hurricane.  

The strategic planning project began by gathering information from a wide range of people that are a part of the Asheville Humane Society community combined with research in best practice in animal welfare. Armstrong McGuire assessed the strengths, challenges, opportunities, and threats from an operational and community relations perspective, conducted research and facilitated one-to-one interviews, focus groups, and surveys. AHS leaders used the aggregate information as the foundation for updating its mission, vision, and values and refreshing their guiding principles. From the data, they also identified key focus areas for its work going forward.  

Mission: Asheville Humane Society is building a supportive community that positively impacts pets and people.

Vision: An empowered community where all animals are cared for.

Core Values:    

• Compassion
• Professional Integrity
• Solution-Oriented Community
• Connection Inclusivity

Guiding Principles were adapted from Four Paws, a worldwide animal welfare organization. They are:

Key focus areas:

• Proactive Animal Care
• People and Culture
• Community Care
• Expanding Resources and Controlling Expenses

These key focus areas (goals) represented a shift in the Asheville Humane Society’s approach to community connection and access. It also included a focused effort to become part of a stronger and more resilient network of people caring for both animals and people in the community. They had no idea how that would be tested through the Hurricane.

One of the many important parts of this process is that staff were heavily involved in it from beginning to end. This meant that they had direct input into how they would carry out these focus areas with the Board and the rest of the team. While the board and staff worked in partnership to create the framework of the strategic plan, it was the staff that created the action plan. When disaster struck, it meant that the board and staff knew who they were at their core. Through that knowledge and the relationships they had built, they responded and showed up for the community in one of its darkest hours in extraordinary ways.

When Disaster Strikes, Knowing Who You are is Key

As AHS staff prepared for the Hurricane, they used the framework of the strategic plan in alignment with their organizational values and beliefs to guide them, having no idea the devastation that would ultimately come. The night before the hurricane hit, three members of AHS’s animal care staff volunteered to stay in the shelter overnight to ensure that the animals would be cared for if access to the shelter was lost. They ended up staying for days, sleeping in offices, working around the clock to ensure every animal received the care they needed as if they were fully staffed. When asked about their extraordinary efforts to care for the animals, the staff talked about it as if it was the obvious thing to do. The animals needed care, and they cared for them. Simple as that.

Three staff lost their homes, cars, and most of their belongings to the Hurricane. Others sustained painful personal losses. And they still showed up.  

The Monday after the storm, AHS sent over 100 of its animals on a plane with the BISSELL Pet Foundation to safe, resourced shelters in the greater area. Within days of the storm they organized a county-wide system to ensure everyone had what they needed for the animals they love, partnering with MANNA FoodBank and other organizations to distribute pet food with groceries, despite the fact that the food bank had lost its own facility. Later, Madison County Animal Services - NC and the Forsyth Humane Society met at AHS to take another group of animals to safety.  

Recently, AHS welcomed animals from the community for an affordable pet care clinic providing vaccines, heartworm tests, feline leukemia tests, microchips, urgent care exams, and free flea/tick and heartworm prevention. They also continue to listen and show up for the community as they have for years and will for years to come.