STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Ketchum old-timers are fond of telling how traffic was once so slight during slack that dogs could sleep in the middle of Main Street without getting run over.
But there were so many dogs lying in the streets that a policeman once quipped to Liz Stallard that they should take care of the stray dog problem by putting a dog in heat at the police station and shooting the dogs that came along.
I told him, ‘I don’t believe you.’ But that was what spurred me to try to build a shelter for dogs here,” said Stallard.
Stallard had left a career designing billboards for Ted Turner in Atlanta to move to Sun Valley in the early 1970s after she and her husband had the time of their life on a whitewater rafting trip. She got a job as a dispatcher, flipping a switch to sound a siren on top of Pete’s Lane’s Mercantile whenever the police were needed.
But it was the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley that she and others created that was her crowning achievement.
This weekend that shelter—now known as Mountain Humane—is celebrating its Golden Anniversary with a country music concert and costume pet parades. The shelter will hold dog walks at Adam’s gulch, Greenhorn and Draper Preserve today at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 25.
There’ll be free treats for dogs and people, courtesy of Baldy Biscuit Company, Idahound, Jersey Girl and others. And free Mountain Humane T-shirts and bandanas will also be handed out.
The shelter now serves as a no-kill model for other shelters in Idaho. It’s rescued thousands of dogs and cats left homeless by Hurricane Katrina and other situations and found them forever homes in Sun Valley and across the country.
Many out-of-town visitors have found their best friend on weekly dog walks organized by Mountain Humane staffers at Adams Gulch, while others have traveled across the country expressly to adopt a pet at the campus out Hailey’s Croy Canyon.
Mountain Humane has worked with The Hunger Coalition to provide thousands of pounds of pet food each year to struggling families so they don’t have to give their pets up. And it’s provided pet education to pet owners and other shelters.
Saving dogs was heartfelt for Stallard, who lost her beloved cocker spaniel Bow Wow when a tornado destroyed her home when she was 9.
“I think I’ve been on a mission to save animals ever since,” she said. “I always thought I owed it to Bow Wow because I didn’t get her out of our house.”
Stallard and a handful of others, including dog catcher Mary Stevens, veterinarian Bob Beede, Rowena Mallon, Lou Limon and Nana Emerick, spent 10 years raising money to build a shelter in the Wood River Valley.
They took no government money. Instead, they held fashion shows and auctions, for which one of the local doctors would donate a vasectomy. And they raised enough money to build a shelter in 1983 on five acres that a benefactor donated three miles west of Hailey.
They called it the Animal Hospice until they decided people were getting it confused with the hospice for people.
“We hired Bobby Noyes, a hockey player, to run it. And Jerome, whom we called ‘the original hippie’ served as caretaker—I remember one of his friends came to visit him and had a baby in the shelter,” Stallard said.
“We held meetings around my dining room table and we kept raising money. Mrs. Friedman—yes, part of the family that donated land for Friedman airport—donated $5,000 to build a cat room. Sophie Engelhardt donated $100,000 and we made her president. And the Wood River Valley grew into a place where everybody takes care of dogs.”
But, while the new shelter provided a place for stray dogs, they couldn’t be kept indefinitely. Euthanization was very much a part of life in the shelter’s early days.
“Good dogs were getting lost in the shelter because they got to be one year, 16 months and they were unruly because we didn’t have volunteers to train them so no one would adopt them. The board said, ‘There’s got to be a better way because there’s nothing wrong with these dogs,” said Leslie Luray, a volunteer and board member for 15 years.
And, so, the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley became Idaho’s first no-kill shelter.
The board instituted a foster program encouraging people to take dogs home and work with them, And, rather than wait for people to come to shelter to walk a dog, they started the Hiking Buddies program in Adams Gulch.
As many as 30 people have shown up to walk dogs some Wednesdays.
Veterinarian JoAnne Dixon took the shelter to a new level as she assumed the leadership in 2007. She ensured every dog was spayed and neutered and that every dog and cat received a microchip. The shelter even began providing an outreach to Shoshone taking a mobile van into that community weekly.
To help fund the shelter ,Stallard and Terry Tischer concocted the Summer of Labs, in which they coaxed local artists into painting larger-than-life-sized fiberglass labs to auction off. Ketchum resident Helcia Graf wrote a book about Bella, a dog she adopted in Italy, giving proceeds to the shelter.
The Barkin’ thrift store adds to the pot. And the annual Dog Days of Summer fundraiser—now the Paws Up--has contributed still more.
In 2019 Mountain Humane moved across the road from its old shelter, which by then had endured a mudslide and wildfire, into a $16 million barn-like campus situated on 20 acres of sagebrush-covered land overlooking the new Simon-Bauer Preserve.
Volunteers in hard hats sporting the droopy ears of bloodhounds and the pointy ears of cats took visitors on tour highlighting what went into designing the new 30,000-square foot campus.
The flooring boasts sport just enough granular texture that the canine occupants won’t slip should they begin running around. But not enough texture that it can trap disease.
The center of the room features in-floor heating, which will lure dogs to sit there rather than in the back of the kennel where they can’t be seen by potential forever families. At the same time, overhead lighting is positioned to backlight them to show them off.
Drains in every kennel mitigate disease, and the facility is set up so it takes 85 percent less water to clean than the old one. There’s an intake room where animals are assessed, as well as a medical surgical wing for two surgery tables and a recovery room that outshines the closet that served as a veterinary lab in the old shelter.
Cat condos feature climbing apparatus and portholes, as well as tiny exhaust systems to keep diseases from being passed through the air. Central Park allows people an outdoor space to test walk dogs amidst a splash pad and a fire hydrant that sends out streams of water. An education barn sits 150 while the patio boasting pavers honoring pets serves as a lovely summer venue for parties.
“This venue is amazing,” said Carol Aldred as she gazed ts the setting sun kissing the Pioneer Mountain foothills behind the stage where country music star Jeff Crosby was performing in honor of Mountain Humane’s 50th anniversary. “And they’re doing amazing work here.”
Aldred had Ola, a black lab puppy she was training for Assistance Dogs Northwest, in tow to give Ola experience being around crowds of people. Assistance Dogs Northwest (https://www.assistancedogsnorthwest.org/) trains dogs to calm children who appear in courtrooms for sexual abuse and other types of trials.
“I teach the dogs basic commands and send them on for advanced training,” she said. “I’m always so proud to see what they can do.
Jane Rosen who was sharing a picnic of Mexican food with friends, said she looked forward to many more concerts outside Mountain Humane.
“This is a wonderful first concert,” she said, as she watched Ola and two boys dancng alongside several adults in the crowd.
That, in fact, is the hope of Mountain Humane’s director Annie McCauley and board president Sally Onetto.
“We’d love to offer an annual concert as a thank you to the community for the volunteer hours and donations they give to Mountain Humane,” said Onetto.
“It’ll have to be the perfect dog listening music, though,” said McCauley. “Some bands might be too loud for our dogs.”
WHEN MICE RAN RAMPANT
In Bellevue in 1880 cats were a scarcity and mice were plentiful. Seeing an opportunity to make money, one man sold his cat for $5 and immediately ordered 150 more to be brought in on the next stage. He made a fortune selling each for $5 a head.