Our Vision
The Rogue Valley Humane Society envisions a community where every healthy adoptable companion animal has a lifetime, loving home and all homeless animals receive the care and compassion they deserve until they are adopted by their forever family.
Our Story
Fifty years ago homeless animals in the Rogue Valley faced a death sentence if no one adopted them within a few days. In 1965 a small group of animal lovers decided to try to change that, and they started a rescue to give homeless, abused, and abandoned pets in Josephine County a safe haven without a time limit. The Rogue Valley Humane Society grew out of this grassroots effort. RVHS was incorporated in 1965 as a non-profit public benefit corporation dedicated to providing love, food, shelter, and medical attention to these animals until they can find new lifetime homes.
Thirty-five years later the current facility opened with the capacity to house 14 dogs and 80 cats plus litters of puppies and kittens. Our main building houses all of the cats plus the office, laundry and medical room. The separate kennel building has indoor/outdoor runs. The Robert E. and Jennifer Murphy Canine Care Building was built in 2013 to house newborn puppies and any dog needing a quiet place to heal.
Throughout the years we’ve had one singular goal: to improve the lives of animals. We are proud to show RVHS to visitors so they can see first-hand the standard of care we give to every homeless companion animal, from an elderly, blind dog to a day old kitten.
The Rogue Valley Humane Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. We provide shelter, food, medical care and personal attention for hundreds of homeless dogs and cats every year. We are here for the young and cuddly, the old, sick and neglected, and everything in between.
We receive no county, state or federal funds and rely solely on individual and foundation grants to carry out our mission.
Our Mission
The Rogue Valley Humane Society provides compassionate care for stray, unwanted, displaced, and abandoned animals and works toward ending pet overpopulation so that there will be no more homeless pets. We are committed to placing every healthy, adoptable animal in a loving lifetime home, teaching responsible pet guardianship, and maintaining community spay-neuter programs.
Our Core Values
- We believe that every animal’s life has value and is worthy of respect and protection.
- We believe that euthanizing healthy, adoptable animals is not acceptable.
- We believe that animals contribute to the health, happiness and quality of human life.
- We believe that we must manage our resources to assure the long-term future of our organization.
- We believe in providing quality medical and shelter care by following evidence-based animal welfare practices.
- We believe that through humane education we can help foster compassion, protection and guardianship for companion animals.
- We believe that we should treat everyone with dignity and respect. Community members, staff, and volunteers are partners in improving the welfare of animals and helping us fulfill our Mission.
- We believe that we can end pet overpopulation by adhering to our commitment to spay/neuter all of our animals before adoption and by providing community-assistance spay-neuter programs.
- We believe that we best serve our community by placing healthy companion animals in responsible, loving homes.