is an official Safe&Happy
partner
of DocuPet
Founded in 1949, Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region (HSPPR) is Southern Colorado's largest animal welfare group for homeless and abused animals. HSPPR is a local, independent nonprofit not affiliated with national organizations such as ASPCA or Humane Society of the United States and relies on donations to fund its work.
As an open-admission shelter, no animal is ever turned away. Passionate and dedicated staff care for animals in distress, provide medical care for abused and injured animals, reunite lost pets with their owners, find loving homes for homeless animals, investigate animal cruelty and enforce animal ordinances.
When you license your pet with HSPPR, you are keeping your pet safe and making a difference in the community by helping free up shelter space by getting lost pets home faster. License fees help support day-to-day operations, specifically animal cruelty and welfare investigations, animal sheltering and medical care of stray pets, behavior programs, and humane education.
But why stop at license fees to support our local animals? We are proud to call HSPPR an official Safe&Happy Partner. There are quite a few ways to support their important work, and we hope you’ll join us in our mission to provide them with all the help and resources they need.
“Licensing helps us reunite lost pets, and the fees collected from licenses help fund programs above and beyond basic sheltering, such as our behavior and education programs.” -Jamie Norris, Director of Animal Law Enforcement .
HSPPR needs our help
One of the significant hurdles HSPPR faces is funding. The shelter serves more animals than any other in Colorado, and the cost of caring for these animals averages $42 a day and continues to increase as their expenses rise.
How to help:
License your pet
License your pet
The fees for licensing are a crucial component of HSPPR’s operating budget, and they go a long way in supporting their initiatives to reunite lost pets. Moreover, license fees go beyond supporting basic sheltering; they also aid in funding various programs, such as behavior and education. Plus, lost pets with licenses spend little to no time at the shelter, opening up resources for the pets that truly need them.
License your pet here.
Make a donation
Make a donation
Donations play a vital role in supporting the day-to-day operations at HSPPR and contribute to the organization's programs, including its behavior program.
Give today to help HSPPR provide lifesaving care, nutritious food, and safe shelter for the animals in the community. Donate here.
Volunteer
Volunteer
HSPPR is always in need of volunteers. Volunteers can help by socializing the animals, walking them, assisting with cleaning, and other tasks that the shelter’s staff often don’t have time to complete.
Apply to volunteer here.
Shop DocuPet
Shop DocuPet
20% of every designer tag purchase is given to HSPPR. Shop to support here.
What is the Safe&Happy Fund?
In an effort to provide animal organizations with as much funding as possible, we created our Safe&Happy Fund. We will always donate 20% of every designer tag sale to our Safe&Happy partners to provide additional funding for vulnerable animals and the staff that serves them. Pet owners are also given the option to donate to HSPPR during checkout.
HSPPR by the numbers
We hope that by providing residents with as much information as possible, pet licenses' positive impact on the community is not just understood but also valued.
250
Staff
Members
2,290
Pets
Fostered
13,904
Pets
Adopted
27,547
Pets
Served
3,467
Lost Pets
Reunited
667
Volunteers
*Per year
More than just a shelter
Trap-Neuter-Return
Trap-Neuter-Return
HSPPR’s Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) service is sanctioned in the City of Colorado Springs and the City and County of Pueblo. The goal is to decrease cat overpopulation and improve their quality of life humanely– a task that wouldn’t be possible without their colony managers.
Colony managers serve as the shelter’s on-the-ground contact, providing food and water for the cats and monitoring their health and population size. In return, HSPPR provides spay/neuter services to control overpopulation and free vaccinations against rabies and other illnesses to ensure a healthy and happy colony. Spaying/neutering may also prevent cats from yowling, fighting, and spraying. Sterilizing colony cats and returning them to their home territory stops the breeding cycle and prevents new cats from entering the area.
While under anesthesia for spay/neuter, shelter veterinarians ear-tip colony cats for easy identification in the future. The procedure is humane and safe and lets them know, down the road, that they have already seen that cat at HSPPR.
Between three staff members, the program completed 1,463 TNR surgeries in 2022 with 622 active cat colonies.
Youth Programs
Youth Programs
The youth programs at HSPPR consist of various activities, such as camp and scout programs, the story tails reading program, school and teacher curriculum, community programming, and more.
These initiatives provide children with numerous opportunities to learn and develop as animal lovers and responsible citizens. These programs empower children to set a positive example for others by teaching them compassion and responsibility towards animals.
The program employs a full-time staff member and three seasonal employees. In 2022, the program was able to reach 2,716 kids.
Your license fees at work
Millions of pets enter shelters each year. The critical care, compassion and love that shelter workers and volunteers show these animals is unlimited, but the same unfortunately can’t be said for their budgets. When you license your pet, it isn’t just a fee – but a lifeline – for animals like Fenrir, Belle, Sebastian and Husky.
Fenrir had a run-in with a snake. His muzzle was swollen when he first stepped into HSPPR, and it only worsened. Within a few hours, Fenrir's snoot doubled in size. HSPPR’s veterinary team started his treatment plan, but he needed continuous monitoring. So, they opted to transfer Fenrir to an emergency veterinary clinic for overnight care.
This was just the beginning of his medical battle.
The snake bite was on his neck, making his situation even scarier. Fenrir spent the next three weeks healing from this rattlesnake bite. He was given antivenom and other medications, had a drain in place, endured multiple sedated wound repairs, was placed on an IV, and much more. It was an uphill battle, but Fenrir made nearly a full recovery.
By the end of his stay with HSPPR, Fenrir had enough of the shelter life. Because of his complex medical history and rambunctious personality, the shelter decided a breed-specific rescue was the best option for him.
HSPPR was a huge stepping stone in Fenrir's Happy Tail. He can now put everything he has endured behind him as he leaps forward into the hands of an incredible rescue partner. From a snake bite to his new beginning, this is what HSPPR’s Happy Tails are all about!
A bonded trio is unusual, but it's not impossible. In September 2023, Belle, Sebastian, and Husky were owner-surrendered, and boy, these kiddos were attached at the hip. The shelter couldn't separate them even if they tried.
It's not easy to adopt two cats, let alone three. To add to the madness, these guys together weighed a total of 56 pounds. The shelter needed to find someone willing to take on three cats with special dietary and exercise needs. They thought it would be more challenging, but they had an interested adopter within a week who loved that the three cats were inseparable and wanted to give them happy, healthy, and long lives together as a package deal.
Belle, Sebastian, and Husky got a second chance, and the family got 56 pounds of fluff running around their house, causing chaotic cuteness!
