Forest Lake Times Thursday, April 24, 2025 | 11
Northwoods Humane Society celebrates 50 years, 25 in facility
COLE BURSCH Community Editor
What started as a fully volunteer-supported Chisago County Humane Society in 1975 has grown into the Northwoods Humane Society 50 years later. Built on volunteer contributions from local community members, Northwoods has evolved into an animal shelter located in Wyoming.
Northwoods Humane Society reconnects lost animals with their owners, performs surgeries with its full-time veterinary services, rescues animals from kill-shelters in the southern United States, and assists community members through the process of surrendering a pet or providing adoptions for prospective adopters.
Dana Passenheim, a Northwoods volunteer, explained that even after the facility was opened in 2000, there were still many years where nearly
The ribbon cutting at Northwoods in 2000
all of the people working at Northwoods were volunteers. Now, volunteers like Passenheim help maintain other parts of the facility and operations while the staff focuses on helping the animals get adopted.
Jim Meiners performs the first surgery at Northwoods in 2020.
While some volunteers like Passenheim help Northwoods by freeing up time for the staff to continue focusing on animals, other volunteers like Barbara Keen help the staff care for animals that are not always able to stay at the shelter.
Keen has been volunteering at Northwoods since before the shelter opened in 2000 and remembers the days before Northwoods opened its facility. One of the things she has often done to help the staff over the years is foster cats and dogs who are struggling to be at the shelter. Some of those have become her own pets, once taking home a cat that wasn’ t doing well at the shelter.
“ She just stayed in her bed for a month and she wouldn’ t come out or anything,” Keen said.“ And I decided I would keep her because I didn’ t want her to have the trauma.”
Volunteers like Keen and Passenheim are vital contributors to keeping Northwoods Humane Society in operation, according to executive director Renee Rude. In particular, Rude mentioned all the volunteers who help the shelter with foster animals. One of the main constraints that the shelter faces is physical space, due to the immense amount of animals that are sent their way.
Focused mainly on cats and dogs, Northwoods uses its facility to shelter animals, but it also allows for animals to leave healthier than when they arrived thanks to its veterinary services. Up until 2020, Northwoods had operated solely as a shelter and did not have more than basic veterinary services. According to Rude, they were so backlogged with kittens and dogs who needed basic surgeries like spaying and neutering.
“ The clinics had to stop doing any spay or surgery at all for a while, and we just got so backlogged,” Rude said. They happened to stumble upon their current veterinarian Jim Meiners, who Rude had known from her previous
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work at other humane societies.
“ I called him up and said, do you think you could just do surgery right in our exam room a couple days with me? And now we have a surgery program,” Rude said.
With all different kinds of services, volunteers and staff, Northwoods Humane Society continues to work to improve the lives of the animals in Wyoming and the surrounding areas. Throughout the last 50 years, however, they have also improved the lives of many people thanks to the efforts of the volunteers and staff.
“ What’ s always struck me about Northwoods: I love the animals and I love the work, but it’ s really been about the staff and the volunteers here and how different it is,” Rude said.
To learn more about Northwoods Humane Society you can visit their website at northwoodshs. org.