“Why aren’t you open more?” is a great question. I want the Michigan Humane Society to be there when you need it, because homeless animals need you.

One of my key responsibilities is to ensure that we are good stewards of our financial resources. These gifts come from the heart and we are tasked with making sure they have the greatest impact; that they save lives. We put a lot of thought and science into the business decisions we have to make in order to balance maximizing our impact and being good stewards of our funds. This approach allows us to change and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of pets and families every year. In the end, I want pet adoption to be enjoyable, inexpensive, and easy. In line with your question, that’s why we expanded our hours.

MHS adoption centers will remain open later than usual every Wednesday, similar to Michigan’s Secretary of State offices (i.e., the DMV). These hours currently include:

  • Dresner Foundation Animal Care Campus in Detroit
    • Mackey Center for Animal Care: Wednesdays until 7 p.m.
    • Grosfeld Veterinary Clinic: Monday through Saturday until 5 p.m.
  • Rochester Hills Center for Animal Care
    • Adoption center: Wednesdays until 6 p.m.
    • Veterinary clinic: Weekdays until 8 p.m. and Saturday until 5 p.m.
  • Berman Center for Animal Care in Westland
    • Adoption center: Wednesdays until 7 p.m.
    • Veterinary clinic: Weekdays until 8 p.m. and Saturday until 5 p.m.

We realize that expanded hours would benefit both working families and our animals. That’s why we are studying additional ways to remain open later in the future. In fact, we hope to announce these changes this summer. In the meantime, our staff has gotten creative to give adopters more options through various off-site events like the Bissell Pet Foundation’s Empty the Shelters event, Meet Your Best at the Zoo event sponsored by Purina, and the PetSmart Charities National Adoption Weekend.

One of our creative solutions is collaborative partnerships. You may not know this, but MHS partners with three retailers at five locations. These stores offer adoptable animals, stay open as late as 9 p.m. and expand our presence throughout metro Detroit. They include:

  • Premier Pet Supply of Novi
  • Premier Pet Supply of Rochester Hills
  • Premier Pet Supply of Beverly Hills
  • PetSmart of Roseville
  • Petco of Sterling Heights

Lastly, viewers can enjoy virtual tours of each adoption center on Facebook. These broadcasts occur on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, though actual dates may vary. To take advantage, simply:

  1. Visit the Michigan Humane Society’s Facebook page
  2. Click “Like”
  3. Move your mouse’s pointer over “Following” and, under “Notifications”, select “On (Highlight Posts)”

Following these steps will ensure you are notified every time MHS introduces its adoptable pets via Facebook Live. It will also help you discover our adoption events, as described above.

Thank you so much, both for your interest in visiting MHS and for your patience. Rest assured, we are working hard to study what hours best suit the many communities we serve. We welcome your input and your creative ideas in the meantime.

If you have a question for me, please email it to my colleague Shaun Bailey at: sbailey@MichiganHumane.org.