Nevada Humane Society CEO Jerlene Bryant updated the advisory board on the shelter's third‑quarter statistics and programs, saying demand for help remains high and the organization continues to rely on donors and volunteers.

Bryant told the board NHS operates without local government funding for its Reno campus and that in Q3 the organization received more than 3,100 requests for help from the community — nearly 2,500 of those were requests to surrender animals. “We received a staggering 3,100 requests for help from the community,” she said, and noted the average response time was 41 hours with a median wait time for a surrender appointment of 10 days.

Of the surrender requests in Q3, 734 animals were surrendered to NHS; year‑to‑date intake totals reached nearly 7,000 animals across all intake sources. Bryant said NHS spay/neuter capacity also increased: the shelter performed almost 1,300 spay/neuter surgeries for owned animals in the quarter and currently operates surgical clinics six days a week. She said NHS provided 500 vouchers to Washoe County rescue partners as part of county agreements and received a new grant from the Jason Heigl Foundation to run a two‑day waived‑fee spay/neuter event.

Bryant reported 2,500 adoptions in Q3 and a year‑to‑date total near 6,000; volunteers provided more than 21,000 hours year‑to‑date and the nonprofit distributed over 45,000 pounds of pet food in the quarter (145,000 pounds year‑to‑date). She emphasized the importance of cross‑organization collaboration to meet demand and said the shelter continues to field a high volume of neonatal kittens during kitten season.

Why it matters: NHS is a major regional animal welfare provider; its capacity and program availability influence county shelter flows, rescue partner workload and community access to services. Bryant asked the board to note that NHS operates primarily on private donations and urged continued collaboration on shared initiatives such as voucher programs and high‑volume clinics.