Roice-Hurst Humane Society, located off of 28 Road, is a non-profit animal shelter (tending to both cats and dogs) that promotes bonds between pets and people. They either help create a bond between a shelter pet and a new adopter or help strengthen an existing bond between a pet and its current owner.

According to their website, their primary mission is “to provide safety, shelter and care for homeless dogs and cats and place them in loving and ‘forever’ homes. [They] work to educate our community about the importance of responsible pet ownership.”

If the animals that arrive at their shelter are healthy, treatable (not in need of immediate attention from the Mesa County Animal Services), and capable of being adopted, the shelter guarantees them care and works to find them a permanent home. The shelter is open every Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and is closed on Mondays.

Roice-Hurst has been in business for a little over 50 years now. In 1963, Ival Hurst, Joe Roice and their families showed a concern for the welfare of stray and unwanted animals in agricultural areas like Grand Junction. The shelter started out in a chicken coop located on Roice’s land but eventually grew to the society it is today. Since then, employees have worked with thousands of animals in Mesa County and Western Colorado, finding human companions to give each and every pet a loving home. In 2016, they rescued 1,060 animals, helped 963 animals get adopted, and transferred the rest to another shelter. Roice-Hurst Humane Society has teamed up with many Colorado shelters, including WeCare (Western Colorado Animal Resources), to track statistics on live release rates, both individually and for our region as a whole.

In 2016, the average length of stay for an animal in the shelter was 12.7 days. However, there were some behavioral cases that prohibited the animals from leaving for months. The shelter creates a specific behavioral treatment plan for each animal, which ranges from confidence building to regain trust, or a training process to decrease aggression levels.

Regardless, every animal must pass a medical test before permanently leaving. Roice-Hurst director Anna Stout said, “We consider our adoption specialists matchmakers. They see what a person’s lifestyle looks like and match them with an animal that’s going to fit that description closely. That way the adoption is most likely to be successful.”

In addition, Stout said, “One thing that is unique about us is that we provide resources to the community and adopters in order to ensure that the adoption is successful or for community members that already have pets, that they can live harmoniously.”

Roice-Hurst has a pet care specialist and behavioral counselor whose full-time jobs are to work on shelter pets’ behaviors in order to make them more adoptable. These employees also help the animals make smooth transitions from the shelter to the public. The shelter also offers low-cost spay/neuter procedures, and low-cost vaccine clinics to the community once a month.

There are several ways in which we as community members of Grand Junction can help be involved and support the cause.

One) Donate: You can donate your choice amount of money one time, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually. You can also donate pet cleaning and office supplies found in the society’s wish list. The shelter thrives and depends on donations from the community. Fifty percent of their funding comes from direct public support, which includes community drives.

Two) Volunteer: Help out with dog care, cat care, events, fundraising or in the office. You can sign up to be a dog walker, a cat groomer, help with vaccine clinics, or enter computer data and greet visitors.

Stout said, “A lot of people that come and work with the animals help us run as a business because at the end of the day we are nonprofit. The generosity of time given is a really critical part of being able to run this facility and keep our adoption rates high and surrender rates low with a great level of care.”

Three) Become a Member: Commit to Roice-Hurst’s mission statement and support them financially.

In 2017, Roice-Hurst hopes to see the return rate of adoptions and the number of animals surrendered drop significantly. They are working on addressing the issue of housing, in terms of those who have pets in apartments, condominiums, etc. and senior citizens who wish to bring their pets with them to their new care facilities. These are just a few broad societal issues with which they are working to find solutions. Still, we as community members can make all the difference and help them achieve these goals.