A REFRESH

PASADENA HUMANE USES THE PANDEMIC BREAK TO REBRAND BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI

Pasadena Humane Society was founded more than 120 years ago, and since then, the organization had various official and unofficial monikers. In July, the nonprofit made it official: It’s now known simply as Pasadena Humane. “In the 1980s, they added SPCA to the name. That was just a lot of words to say, particularly in modern times when it’s human nature for people to shorten names,” says Jack Hagerman, Pasadena Humane’s vice president, commu- nity relations. “People were abbreviating us as the Humane So- ciety or the SPCA, but we’re not associated with the national organizations for either.” The nonprofit’s new name is representative of its mission: serving people and animals of the San Gabriel Valley. Plus, Hagerman says, it rolls off the tongue a lot easier. As part of the name change, Pasadena Hu- mane refreshed its brand, redesigning its logo with new typography and graphic standards to give the organization’s presence a bolder and more colorful look. In mid-July, Pasadena Humane launched its new website, which offers enhanced capability. “With the name change, it was time to give our community a whole new version of us,” Hagerman says. “It makes it easier to relate to us and connect with us.” The most commonly visited area of Pasadena Humane’s website is its pet finder. Previously, the section’s capabilities were limited. With the new site, the options are expansive.

continued on page 20

continued from page 18

“Before, we could only use one photo and a limited description,” Hagerman says. “We can now showcase multiple photos and a video of an animal within their profile.

“It’s big and colorful with all the statistics—age, weight, gender, if they’re spayed, and a narrative description. Having to social distance, the first impression people get of our animals is on our website. Instead of coming into the shelter and perusing the kennels and seeing what friend might jump out at you, they’re shopping online.”

Pasadena Humane isn’t affiliated with The Humane Society of the United States or the SPCA, which stands for Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“The Humane Society of the United States is based in Washington, D.C., and they do advocacy work,” he says. “They help with lobbying to create more humane laws that humane societies like us can enforce. We do animal control for 11 cities.

“They help in creating better laws we can enforce at the local level— same with SPCA. The SPCA is like the Red Cross for animal welfare. They help with disaster relief and crisis situations and provide grants. Both organizations are wonderful, but they’re not animal shelters like we are.” Like most nonprofits, Pasadena Humane has been struggling through the pandemic. Hagerman, however, sees a bright side to the quarantine. “It challenged us to rewrite our entire operations playbook,” he says. “We did it within a matter of a couple of weeks. We changed our operations to take most of our services online. We’ve redesigned our adoption and foster programs so we can provide foster homes for most of the pets we have in our care. We immediately place them in foster homes.” The pandemic also encouraged folks to step up and volun- teer as fosters. Because of social distancing, Pasadena Humane needs to have few people on its property. “We can’t have a houseful of animals and not enough people to take care of them,” he says. “Through research, animals do better in homes than a shelter setting. In a shelter, there are a lot of unfamiliar scents and sounds. It can be a jarring experience for animals. “It’s better for them to be in a home while they await a permanent home. It’s like children going to foster homes until they can find permanent placement. Just like children in orphanages was a bad idea, animals in shelters is a bad idea. You want them to be in loving homes with warm beds and people to care for them.” Hagerman adds Pasadena Humane is going to continue to build on its foster program going forward. For Hagerman, working as Pasadena Humane—as he has for two years—is a dream. He has 20 years of health care experience behind him, and he says that was good preparation for this type of work. “Health care operations are very similar to the way animal shelters function,” Hagerman explains. “It’s just a different spe- cies. I used to own and operate a livestock conservation on my farm for critically and endangered animals. Pasadena Humane is a magical place.”

PASADENA HUMANE