The Eagle Valley Humane Society is celebrating 50 years of service to four-legged friends
The group started with a chance meeting in a Vail parking lot
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
Like so many good ideas, the Eagle Valley Humane Society started with a chance meeting.
Blondie Vucich, the group’s director in the 1980s, recalled that the group began with a chance 1971 meeting between Joanne Swift and Inga Prime in the parking lot of Vail’s old Crossroads shopping center. Both women loved animals, and that first conversation focused on the fact that Vail didn’t have an animal shelter. Vucich recalled that Vail had only an outdoor holding area for lost and stray animals at the time.
Prime and Swift both lived in the Ptarmigan townhomes, and they soon became known as the town’s “animal ladies,” fostering all kinds of stray and lost dogs and cats.
Carolyn Moore, an Eagle Valley Humane Society board member and volunteer, bottle-feeds a pup being fostered before it can be adopted.
Vucich recalled that while working from the goodness of their hearts, Prime, Swift and others started lobbying the town of Vail and Eagle County governments for shelter space. Eventually, space was found in EagleVail.
At the time, the upper valley didn’t have a veterinarian. That need eventually was filled when Dr. John Park moved to the valley. He provided some shelter space, with Swift, Prime and the county as partners.
Support Local Journalism
Vucich recalled that Swift and Prime were “tenacious” in pursuing animal cruelty cases, including a case in which a rancher up Lake Creek was charged and convicted for mistreatment of several horses.
With Swift and Prime’s lives changing, they placed an ad in The Vail Trail newspaper for a new director. Vucich and Phyllis Baldwin replied and took over the work. Baldwin soon moved from the valley, leaving the job for the next 10 years to Vucich and a group of volunteers.
During that time the shelter, bursting at the seams, moved to Dr. Steve Warren’s new clinic in Minturn. That facility was soon home to a dog-walking program.
Expanding its reach
Programs expanded into the schools, too, socializing both dogs and kids.
During that time, local Humane Society volunteers got involved in wildlife issues.
The group worked to ban leghold traps within 50 feet of trails in Vail, which eventually led to a state ballot issue that banned trapping throughout Colorado.
The Humane Society also convinced Vail officials to learn to live with beavers without trapping them.
For half of the Humane Society’s history, Char Gonsenica has been the group’s paid director. She signed on shortly after arriving in the valley from Omaha, where she’d been involved in animal rescues.
What matters in your community, delivered daily.
Sign up for our morning newsletter at VailDaily.com/newsletter
Over the years, local animal cruelty cases have dropped, perhaps due to education efforts, Gonsenica said. But there’s still plenty of need. People still surrender animals they can no longer keep.
It used to be that people would surrender pets as they were leaving after ski season. Now, Gonsenica said, many people surrender their pets as they arrive, since finding housing is so difficult.
Lots of help and training
The group helps about 1,000 animals annually with spay/neuter clinics, training and adoptions. It also runs training sessions at the Eagle County Fairgrounds. The six-week sessions run every Tuesday every evening.
One of the biggest problems these days, Gonsenica said, is so many pets have behavioral problems.
“Sometimes I can’t even touch them,” she said. That’s when having other dogs in a home can be helpful.
While volunteers foster many animals, Gonsenica is no stranger to fostering pups. She has a brace of pups at the moment, a litter found in Arizona by a local couple driving back home.
“I had them genetic tested and they have 29 breeds, from Chihuahua and toy poodle to Great Pyrenees,” she said.
In addition to her other work, Gonsenica is an animal protection agent. She’ll accompany law enforcement on cases ranging from domestic violence to animal abuse.
While the Humane Society isn’t planning any anniversary celebrations, the group starting July 5 will be at the Riverwalk Center in Edwards raising funds by selling drinks every other month at the center’s Friday evening celebrations. There will also be pets available for adoption.
And, through the end of July, matching donations can be made at EagleValleyHumaneSociety.org.
That’s a long way from a quick meeting in a parking lot.