The Denver Dumb Friends League kicked off its year of 100th anniversary celebrations Tuesday with a party for pets and people that honored the legacy of one of the oldest animal shelters in the U.S. and one of the largest animal-welfare organizations in the Rocky Mountain region.
Started in 1910 by playwright and journalist Jean Milne Gower, the Dumb Friends League has evolved from a group concerned mostly about the welfare of work animals, used to deliver coal and other supplies in the city, into one of the most influential companion-animal welfare organizations in the nation.
“They’re a very innovative organization that has done some great things, and they’ve truly had a national impact on policies,” said John Snyder, the Humane Society of the United States’ vice president of companion animals.
“We’ve used a lot of their ideas, bringing them back here and distributing them to hundreds, if not thousands, of shelters throughout the world,” he said.
The group’s animal behavior department is particularly influential. It is a model for the Pets for Life program of the Humane Society of the United States, which trains shelter professionals from across the country. And people have come to Denver from all over the world to learn the shelter’s best practices.
“We’ve come a long way, not just in the number of pets we’re able to save each year, but also in the way the community views pets,” said Dumb Friends League president Robert Rohde, who began work at the shelter in 1973 as an animal-care technician.
Back then, few people spayed or neutered their pets.
“That’s completely changed,” Rohde said. “We used to get 100 puppies a day; now we get maybe five puppies a week.”
In 1973, the shelter accepted about 45,000 lost or surrendered pets. By 2009, that number had dropped to about 26,000, and the organization hopes to decrease that number by 2 percent each year.
Further, the Denver area is particularly good at adopting these animals.
“Over 70 percent of the animals that come to the shelter are returned to their owner or adopted,” Rohde said. “In many parts of the country, that statistic is reversed.”
The group is also focused on animal behavior, especially for dogs.
“The lack of socialization of dogs ends up with dogs not playing well with others, not just other dogs but also with people,” Rohde said.
He thinks that metro Denver is so pet-friendly because it has “a highly educated population, a very outdoorsy population where people like to be outside with their dogs and doing things with their pets.”
The shelter-sponsored Furry Scurry is prime evidence of the city’s affinity for pets. The annual event, held in Washington Park each May, “is the largest single dog walk in the United States,” Rohde said.
Even with the progress logged over the past century by the Dumb Friends League, Rohde said there is still more work to be done.
“Animal welfare is not a sprint; it’s a marathon,” he said. “We keep chipping away at it.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
A year of fun
The Denver Dumb Friends League marks its official 100th birthday on Sept. 8, 2010. The shelter will celebrate with parties every weekend that month. Find more information online at .
