Who We Are

The Winnipeg Humane Society is a registered charity and non-profit, volunteer-based organization funded primarily by donations, events and bequests.

Mission: To protect animals from suffering and to promote their welfare and dignity

Vision: Animals are treated humanely

The Winnipeg Humane Society is one of the oldest community service organizations in Winnipeg and the oldest and largest animal shelter and welfare organization in Manitoba. Founded over 115 years ago, the organization has come a long way from the days of housing animals on the main floor of a house while the shelter secretary lived upstairs.

Originally formed as the “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Women, Children and Animals” the shelter’s board and founding members consisted of a broad cross section of Winnipeg citizens from businessmen, to lawyers, to progressively minded women.  Over the years, as other agencies were formed to support women and children, The WHS reorganized with the goal of focusing on animals.

After over 30 years of running the shelter out of a house on Logan Ave, The WHS relocated to a new building on Kent Street in the late 1960’s.  Almost 40 years later in 2007, a new, state-of-the-art facility was built to accommodate the almost 10,000 animals that cross through the shelter doors annually.