Letter from the CEO

Nicholas, our cover story, is a very lucky dog. There are so many animal lovers here in Tampa Bay who are willing to stop their car to rescue an abandoned animal in the streets and bring them to our shelter. One of the many reasons I feel so lucky to work at HSTB is because of our amazing medical staff who are so knowledgeable and love to help heal these animals. Through your support, they were able to provide the best possible medical care for the 14,396 animals that entered our doors last year. Not only was Nicolas rescued, he found the perfect home like 13,298 other animals last year.

Tampa Bay also cares deeply about the plight of outside stray cats. It was truly an honor to give the $3,500 reward to the two people who were brave enough to come forward to the sheriff’s office to have the abuser arrested for cruelty to animals (see page 6). I hope he is still sitting in jail for the cats that he maimed and killed. It is estimated there are more than 200,000 outdoor stray cats in Hillsborough County. We are so thankful that there are so many volunteers willing to trap and sterilize those cats and feed them daily. To date, HSTB has performed TNVR (trap/neuter/vaccinate/ return) for more than 77,000 cats since 2008. That is a huge number of cats who have been saved.

Stay tuned for other heartfelt stories about what we do for animals in this community every single day. We appreciate your support and couldn’t do it without you.

For the Animals, Chief Executive Officer SherryS@HumaneSocietyTampa.org