Super Heroes Humane Society’s mission is to better the lives of our community’s companion animals and their caretakers through compassion, expertise and engagement.
Super Heroes Humane Society was founded in 2018 as a 501©(3) nonprofit organization in Oneonta and has grown tremendously in just five years because of the demand for the services we offer. In addition to caring for and finding homes for adoptable animals, our shelter provides any area resident access to low-cost spay or neuter services for cats. Community members from 78 cities and towns have taken advantage of this service to fix nearly 700 cats. Through our pet food pantry, we’ve supplied our neighbors with more than 1,000 pounds of free pet food annually. We’ve also distributed hundreds of feral cat shelters and provided free emergency temporary boarding of pets for owners facing a crisis such as a prolonged hospital stay.
Our board of directors, Southside Mall thrift shop and boutique staff, fosters, and many of the shelter staff are volunteers dedicated to helping their community and the animals within it. Since the COVID pandemic, volunteerism has declined significantly. We rely heavily on volunteers to help us carry out our mission. With volunteer opportunities ranging from giving a couple hours of your time weekly as a thrift store cashier to staffing fundraising events, cleaning cages, socializing our animals, opening your home as a foster and much more, we have something that fits your schedule and preferences and could use your help!
Thanks to our supporters and a New York state grant, we have almost completed Phase 1 of the renovations at our new shelter at 160 Pony Farm Road. A big change in shelter and rescue regulations will go into effect in 2025 in New York. Our renovated shelter location allows us to be compliant with the new regulations and provide both the animals in our care and our visitors a much better shelter experience. The priority of our Phase 1 renovations was completing the animal housing and care spaces in our new location so we can be operational. In Phase II of the renovation, we will complete the “people” spaces, such as our reception, office and community room. We officially opened the doors of our new shelter location on May 11 and have begun fundraising for Phase 2.
With our new facility, Super Heroes hopes to expand how we serve the residents of our area by expanding trap-neuter-vaccinate-release efforts of feral and stray cats, offering children’s programming, facilitating dog training programs and more. We continue to focus our efforts on developing programming and services that meet the most pressing needs of our community and the animals in it.
To finish our renovations, we still need to raise $650,000. We have no large individual donors and do not receive funds from any municipality. Our success has come from the literal thousands of small donations from the good people in our community who love animals and believe in the work we do. No donation is too small!
Super Heroes Humane Society truly is a grassroots organization. Our success depends on the everyday individuals in our community who step up to make a difference for the people and animals in our area. We are currently looking to grow our board with active, resourceful, creative individuals. We are seeking board members with expertise in donor engagement, large-scale fundraising, event planning, business development and marketing. If you are interested in literally saving lives, please visit our website at www.superheroeshs.org for more information.