Bark in Your Park 2022!

Join Secondhand Hounds for Bark in YOUR park! This annual event returns in 2022 as a virtual outdoor challenge- making it easy to support SHH from home, the cabin, at the baseball field, or anywhere else you happen to be from June 11-12th! 

 You can participate in one of two ways:

1. You set a goal (this can be anything from running 5 miles, to biking around the block, to kayaking on your favorite lake, to doing an arm workout by sipping on an extra large mojito... we don't judge!) and ask your friends & family to pledge to support your goal- and the animals! If this is the option for you, click on "join this event" above. 
2. You can donate right here, right now by clicking on the "donate" button. Choose a fundraising team to support and make your donation! 

Our goal is to never say no to animals in need... help us get there by participating in Bark in Your Park 2022! 

We're Throwing a Bark in Your Park After Party! 

After you finish your outdoor challenge on behalf of SHH, come celebrate with us in person at our Minnetonka location on June 12th from 4-6pm! 

We will have fun activities and games for the whole family, tours of our building, food for purchase from local food trucks, and more! PLUS our neighbor, Boom Island Brewing, will be donating $1 to Secondhand Hounds for every beer sold during the party! We can't wait to see you there! 

A note from SHH Founder and Executive Director, Rachel Mairose...

If you had told me even 4 years ago that we could set a $100,000 goal for our annual walk/run/bike/stroll challenge... I would have told you that you were dreaming. For years, I have looked to the Humane Society and wondered how they could possibly raise over $1 million every single year, and yet we were struggling to make $30,000 to put towards our animals.

And then a pandemic happened. And instead of having to close down our doors, you allowed us to open new ones. We saw all the hard parts of the pandemic, but we saw the beautiful parts, too. People came together to save injured animals. Volunteers drove hours to save a couple of puppies. Our vet team stayed late to do an emergency surgery - saving a life. Our fosters stepped up like never before.

So we didn't shut down. In fact, we grew. We were asked to bring People & Pets Together, one of the first pet food shelves in Minnesota, into the Secondhand Hounds' family. With this addition to our programming, we questioned what more we could do... we started offering training classes to those struggling with financial insecurity. We increased veterinary access for those in need. We started piloting a respite foster program, caring for animals of those who don't want to permanently give their pets up, but have no other short term choice.

All these programs are expensive. We expect to spend over $3 million in 2022 on program related expenses alone. The truth is, without your help, we cannot continue them all. But the thing is, these programs are all needed - desperately.

I can promise you this: we will not stop working on behalf of animals and the people who love them for as long as our community can support that work. We will continue to look for the holes and fill them so that one day we won't have to spend our lives saving those without a voice.

These are big tasks. They take hard work and consistency and lots and lots of resources. But when we see a dog or cat in need - an intrinsically valuable being -  we cannot turn my back to them.

I hope you can't either. I hope you will consider making a team this year and helping us reach our HUGE goals. It is really simple to do, and you will be saving the lives of so many furry friends. I even lined it out for you. 

Thank you so much. Together we can do BIG things.

~Rachel